Winds of Change by Jason Brannon Read Free Book Online Page B

chemical warfare, and end-of-the-world scenarios. They
left out that chapter in my training.”
    “You usually think logically when there’s
trouble. You haven’t thought of any other explanations this
time?”
    I sighed. The truth was I had been
thinking. “What if this is, in fact, some sort of judgment on
mankind?” I said. “Is this really any different than the Great
Flood or the rain of fire and brimstone that killed everyone in
Sodom and Gomorrah? Maybe this is God’s way of cleansing the world.
The fact that Vera Weaver spoke in tongues suggests that God may
have something to do with this.”
    Steven, Chuck, and Pete looked at each other
but didn’t say anything.
    Chuck finally broke the ensuing silence.
“Well, if God’s responsible, then there is no escaping. We’ll just
survive until we die. Game over. End of paragraph. Lights out.
There’s not a person here who can outlast the Almighty.”
    “Maybe we’re in the group God intended to
live,” Steven suggested. “He saved certain people in the other two
cases you mentioned. Maybe we’re like Noah and his family.”
    “You sure are a pretty Biblical guy all of a
sudden, Steven,” Chuck said sarcastically. “Maybe we should just
pray to you for our lives. You seem to have a direct pipeline to
God.”
    “You think I was faking that?” Steven said
defensively.
    “I didn’t say that,” Chuck replied. “It’s
just a little weird that I’ve gotten drunk with you more times than
I can count, I’ve watched skin flicks at your house, I’ve shot rats
at the dump with you, and now all of a sudden, you’re quoting Bible
verses, and God’s using you for a mouthpiece. You just don’t seem
like the most likely candidate for divine intervention.”
    “You’re just jealous,” Steven said.
    “Enough of this,” Chuck murmured as he left
the table. “I’m going to go and have another look at what’s going
on outside.”
    “I’m coming with you,” Steven said, stuffing
the last of his sandwich into his mouth. “Maybe a little of my
holiness will rub off on you.”
    With the two of them gone, that left just me
and Pete. Pete waited until Steven and Chuck were out of earshot
before speaking.
    “I don’t know how this works but Jerry, my
partner, deserved to die,” Pete said solemnly. “He beat his little
girl, abused her. He didn’t think I knew but his wife told me. I
was trying to help them find a way out. If this is God’s way of
judging sins, then I think he hit the mark where Jerry was
concerned. He got exactly what was coming to him. Maybe your
friends have some secrets they’ve been hiding too. It’s something
to consider.”
    Pete didn’t give me a chance to respond
before he got up and followed Chuck and Steven. Leland and the
Richards’ were close behind. Sighing, I got up too. The six of us
went to the front of the store, leaving the Weavers to themselves.
Jesse Weaver and his sons were still tending to Vera. From what I
could tell, she wasn’t doing well at all. One of the boys was
fanning her with one of our catalogs. The other was holding her
hand. Jesse Weaver kept kissing her on the forehead. Vera didn’t
move much in response to any of that.
    I wasn’t sure how long she could last without
medical attention. For that matter, I wasn’t sure if there was
anyone left who could give her medical attention.
    I tried to put it out of my mind as I stared
out the window. Aside from the two flaming cars that had met head
on and the one that had crashed into a tree, there wasn’t much of
note going on in the parking lot. The highway that passed in front
of the store was deserted. All of the businesses around us were
dark. We didn’t see anyone huddling at those windows, however, that
didn’t mean there weren’t people alive inside. But that didn’t mean
that they hadn’t been reduced to dust either.
    Where the dust was concerned, the wind had
done a pretty efficient job of cleaning the mess up. In that
regard, Mother