The Survivors: Book One by Angela White, Kim Fillmore, Lanae Morris Read Free Book Online Page B

sticking to the set plan.
    Men grunted, fired back in the wet, cold darkness, and the Marine slid back down.
    Charlie hit the gas. The truck's tires spun, fishtailing on a patch of ice as it lunged forward, spraying mud and clumps of locoweed.
    “Get the bikes! We need his blood!”
    “Shoot him!"
    All of the men’s eyes were vivid in the dark, not right when the lightning and gun flash illuminated them, and their movements were jerky. Desperation made them reckless and they openly charged the truck.
    “Now, boy!”
    Charlie slammed both hands onto the brake. As they slid to a wet, muddy stop, Kenn used the enemy’s noises to pinpoint their locations - the ploy drawing them out.
    The Marine fired. Five more deadly shots in the darkness, and then there was only the quiet engine and the damp, cold wind howling by them and the adobe buildings in the distance.
    “Boo-yah, baby!”
    “Are they dead?”
    The boy's tone wasn’t exactly calm, but Kenn was impressed with the control he had shown during the assault - his first. The Marine put it in park as the teenager moved to the passenger seat.
    “Give us some light and we’ll find out," Kenn said, knowing they were. Each of them was a kill shot, but he was eager for even the boy’s approval, since there was no one else around. He was alone with the often-sullen teenager, protecting them both without doing without the attention and respect he craved. He would take what he could get.
    The cadet used one of the umbrella torches they’d made before leaving the base, the glass tops giving each of the three small candles on the thin wooden board a small shelter from the elements. He held it high, taking it all in.
    Kenn’s sharp eyes went over what there was to see around them. Shrubs, junipers, patches of mud, huge tire busters he would be careful to avoid, and darkness - more of that than anything else.
    Stomach uneasy, but eyes wide with respect, the boy looked at the battlefield with equal amounts of comfort and guilt. The seven bodies lay in two half circles, each one a clean shot through dirty camouflage uniforms and black ski masks. Considering the darkness Kenn had been shooting through, it was amazing to Charlie. Not one miss.
    After a moment, Kenn sat down on the wet, hard seat, motioning for the boy to put out the light.
    “We takin' their stuff?”
    “No. See the sores? They’re sick. We’ll hit the redline, make another click or two, then doze for a bit.”
    “They wanted me? That’s why they’ve been following us?”
    Kenn saw no reason to lie as he pulled up his hood, indicated that the child do the same. Both males heard a distant dog barking miserably, but ignored it as just another starving pet still chained in someone’s backyard.
    “Yes. Probably thought your blood would heal them. Crazy shit now, and women and kids are big targets. Stay close. It’ll just get worse."
    The drab truck ran out of gas an hour later, and while Kenn was sad to see it go, he knew they’d been lucky to find it at all. He still wasn’t sure why the EMPs hadn’t knocked it out too, but assumed it had something to do with where it had been parked. The electro-magnetic pulses didn’t seem to have traveled well through lead.
    Kenn steered the coasting vehicle deep into a thicket of piñon s, glad to see the sky was beginning to lighten. The rain fell steadily, the woods dark, twisted shapes alongside the faint gray path of concrete as the two Marines loaded their things.
    “All right, just like we talked about - never more than three feet away in any direction. Got it?”
    Charlie nodded, still thinking about the battle that Kenn’s military mind had already forgotten - it had been justified, nothing to worry over. The boy’s heart wasn’t so clear, but he kept his mouth shut. Kenn was not his mother and he would not understand.
     
     
    2
    As they entered the city limits of Williamsburg, New Mexico, the sky lightened enough to really see, and the two males had too