Pilliars in the Fall by Ian Daniels Read Free Book Online Page A

can’t happen, we’ve advanced too far past that,” Danielle announced optimistically.
    “I personally think we’ve seen how the more advanced a society gets, the more fragile it is,” I said looking down into my empty coffee mug.
    “So if it gets that bad, can’t we just hide? You know, stay low and ride it out?” Kathy asked. “Hasn’t that always been the plan with you guys?”
    “If we’re lucky,” I tried to smile confidently, feeling it fall short. “Laying low doesn’t always work when you have needs like running low on food, or God forbid somebody gets pregnant...”
    I gestured towards Danielle hoping they’d play off the joke and we could lighten up a little, but she managed to take my meaning wrong.
    “What's that supposed to mean? Now having girls around is a problem?”
    “Clint you’ve been married the longest, you want to answer that?” I laughed, trying to relieve some of the pressure off of me again.
    “You’re on your own on this one buddy,” he got up to stoke the fire, grinning evilly as he went.
    “No,” I frowned at Clint’s timely departure, “I was just throwing out scenarios.”
    Thankfully that seemed to be answer enough for her, but Blake on the other hand, like any good friend, wanted to capitalize on my discomfort.
    "Hey! Let's talk about women in combat next, you start!" he nudged me with a big tight-lipped grin.
    "What! You don’t think a woman belongs in a war?" Danielle took the bait that Blake had hung out for me. I rolled my eyes at him as he doubled over laughing.
    “No really I want to hear this!” she ignored him.
    "It makes no difference to me," I relented.
    "What does that mean?" she was hot on the subject now, and thankfully I had a quick answer ready. I was actually just happy to be away from the doom and gloom subjects that were making Kathy upset.
    "It means that big guys like me are screwed regardless. You're not going to drag someone my size out of danger, but neither is some five foot six, hundred and fifty pound, eighteen year old private. So I'm pretty much out of luck anyway."
    "I know some strong girls, and there are requirements for this stuff..."
    "The physical requirements are fine, as long as the mental stuff is in check, what's the difference?"
    "Mental stuff?" she zoned in, ready for the kill. I should have stopped talking a long time ago.
    "What I mean is, and this applies to a few different women badasses I've met or been involved with, I'd be afraid that if you get a chick pissed off enough, she won’t stop pulling the trigger. You people get worked up and it’s a goddamn whirlwind, an unstoppable hurricane."
    Her face flushed, but I caught the kink in her gaze just enough to know that she was actually considering the legitimacy of what it was that I was saying.
    Blake meanwhile was slapping the ground, laughing too hard to even make sounds anymore, tears pouring out of his eyes as he tried to force words out that sounded like "Stop... just stop..."
    With that, the lights flickered and went dark. Our luxurious line power was gone again.
    “Great, now he’s found a way to piss off the power company too, way to go,” Clint’s voice pronounced through the darkness.
     

Chapter 6
     
    The next day Blake and I spent chopping and stacking firewood and doing the few things around their house that two guys could do easier and faster on their own than a whole group of well meaning people together could accomplish. We were a team again and when there was no one to get in the way, we could just push through a project and beat our way to the end.
    We laughed and joked, and got reacquainted.  In the conversation lulls I realized I hadn't completely shaken off last night’s conversation. It was different for me; everyone else wondered what was happening in the outside world. The newscasters when they could be heard by radio, talked about events in countries like Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Japan, even Russia, China, India and the Middle