Forsaken World (Book 1): Innocence Lost by Thomas A. Watson Read Free Book Online Page A

Lance asked as Ian paused before turning off the porch lights.
    “Then they get shot, and it sucks to be them,” Ian said, turning off the light.
    “Sounds good to me,” Lance said, running upstairs to turn off lights. They met back in the kitchen as Lance grabbed the syrup. “You open up the safe yet?”
    “That’s where we are going now,” Ian said, heading to his dad’s office on the other side of the house. Punching in the numbers, Ian opened the massive safe and pulled out an AR-15. “I’m taking this.”
    Lance grabbed a Remington 870 tactical shotgun. “Seven shots of buckshot and five more to throw in will stop a tank.” Lance grinned at the five shells on the side of the shotgun in a tactical holder. “Where’s the pistols?”
    “Mom had Dad lock them up in the safe in their room, and I don’t know that one.”
    “Your mom needs a talking to,” Lance huffed, walking out of the office. They walked in the den and put the weapons over in the corner. They had little fear Allie would play with them since she hunted and understood guns. She even had her own twenty-two. They just didn’t want her to blab about them opening the safe because they were scared.
    They sat with Allie as she ate her ice cream, and her eyes started getting heavy. When she neared the bottom of the bowl, her head slumped over on Lance’s shoulder. “Ice cream is little Allie’s kryptonite,” Ian said, taking the platter off her lap. “I’ve never seen her eat a whole bowl.”
    Off in the distance, they heard a siren and several gunshots. “Why would anyone in Lebanon riot?” Lance asked, grabbing his unplugged headset and putting it over Allie’s ears so they acted as earmuffs.
    “Think I should call Jason?”
    “No, not yet anyway. We don’t want to lose another fifty bucks,” Lance said as he got up and walked to the front of the house. Ian followed as Lance stopped a few steps from the windows, looking outside. “There’s just some drunk guy walking down the street.”
    Ian moved to his side and saw the man stumbling down the street. “Hey, that’s old man Potter. I thought he quit drinking.”
    “Doesn’t look like it,” Lance said. “Let’s play another game and see if we can still hear sirens. If we do, we’ll call Jason.”
    “Fine. I’m going to wipe any newb we find off the screen,” Ian said, spinning around.
    They returned to the game but turned down the volume until they could barely hear it and started playing. The game was just underway when they heard Jason’s car pull up. They didn’t even leave the game; they just ran to the front of the house, looking out the side windows to see Jason get out of his car. They ran to the front door, and Ian turned off the alarm and opened it.
    The smell of something burning washed over them as they waited on Jason. “That’s a house fire,” Lance said in a low voice.
    “Yeah, I remember it when we rode with the fire department to help with our merit badge,” Ian whispered.
    “What are you squirts doing outside?” Jason asked, coming up the steps.
    “Jason, what’s going on?” Ian asked as Jason pushed them back in the house.
    “The riots are here,” he said, turning to close the door and turning on the alarm to lock it.
    “Should we call Mom and Dad?” Ian asked as Jason headed to the kitchen.
    “No, they are on the other side of the world, and it would only worry them,” he said, turning on the kitchen light, making both boys gasp not from the light but from Jason.
    “What the hell happened to your arm?” Lance asked, pointing at a bandage on Jason’s left upper arm.
    “Got bit,” Jason said, pulling out a jug of orange juice.
    “Melody bit you?” Ian cried out, looking at the huge hickey on Jason’s neck.
    Wiping his mouth off, Jason said, “No, some guy that wouldn’t quit beating on my car.” Both boys stared at him. “We were parked down by the river, getting the nasty freak on, and some guy just comes up beating on my