Revolution by Shawn Davis, Robert Moore Read Free Book Online

anti-grav police cruisers became their last refuge. Cops tried not to get out of their cars unless an innocent person was being attacked in front of them. The cops’ first move was to focus their cruisers’ remote-controlled, roof mounted M-60 machine guns on the criminal or criminals.
        The main avenues were usually safe because of consistent police patrols, but people avoided the lonely back streets, alleyways, and abandoned buildings as if they were infected with a lethal plague. Cops were usually only seen on foot when making high-profile drug or weapons busts or investigating high-profile murders. There were so many killings in this area that most of them went uninvestigated unless they were particularly brutal, involved children, illegal explosive ammunition, or massacres.
        Sometimes the killings involved a person of the middle class or higher who had wandered into Inner City to obtain drugs, sex, or weapons on the black market. These killings were usually investigated promptly unless the individual didn’t have any family to lobby the police.
        Peter noticed pedestrian traffic becoming sparse as they traveled deeper into Inner City.
        Most people don’t want to walk the streets and I don’t blame them , Peter thought.   
        In this area, people tried to stay behind locked doors as much as possible. Usually, the area residents only ventured outside to walk, or if they were lucky, drive their ground car to or from work. No one owned air-cars in this area. Shopping was often done in Central City during the journey home from work in order to cut down on the amount of time spent traveling the streets.
        Peter remembered when there were stores in Inner City. There were no stores now. They ceased to be profitable as their security costs escalated year after year. Most Inner City shoppers sprung for an anti-grav cab, which would take them from the front door of a grocery store in Central City to the door of their apartment building in Inner City. People were often willing to pay fifty dollars for a cab ride to ensure they didn’t lose a hundred dollars worth of groceries.
        “Hey, do you guys hear something?” Billy asked, as they walked through a quiet neighborhood where the only other pedestrians were small groups walking home from work.
        “I hear people walking around and talking,” Peter replied, glancing around at the pedestrians walking a safe distance from each other as they headed home.
        “No, not around here. In the distance. Listen,” Billy said, stopping in his tracks and cocking his ear like a hunting dog on the trail of a fox. “You hear it?”
        “Actually, I do. It’s coming from the next neighborhood. It sounds like a mob moving down the street toward us,” Peter said, stopping beside Billy on the sidewalk.
        “What would the gangs be doing on a main road like this?” Henry asked, standing beside them and moving his right hand closer to his shoulder-holster. “There’s always the risk of running into a police patrol.”
        “Look up ahead,” Billy said, gesturing to a row of faint glowing orange lights hovering on the distant street horizon like a swarm of fireflies.
         “I don’t like the look of this at all,” Henry said.     
        He checked to make sure his automatic pistol was tucked firmly into the shoulder-holster beneath his jacket. Peter clutched the handle of the old thirty-eight pistol hidden in his right pants pocket. The other people walking the street also stopped when they saw the flickering orange lights on the street horizon moving toward them. The murmuring of a distant crowd of voices could be heard growing steadily louder.
        “Should we turn back?” Billy asked, pulling out a cigarette and lighting up.
        “It’s definitely a mob of people. Carrying torches,” Henry observed. “You guys didn’t offend anyone in the neighborhood who would carry a grudge this