Zomblog 05: Snoe's War by T. W. Brown Read Free Book Online

one of them.”
    And there it was. As I looked around, I began to think that they had rehearsed this scene…or perhaps played it out a few times already. This was looking bad. Maybe now would be a good time to break my silence.
    “I’m not one of the soldiers…I was supposed to be in training and I escaped,” I said.
    “Little slip of a thing like you? I imagine it probably wasn’t all that hard. Looks to me like you’d pure disappear if you turned sideways,” the first man who’d spoke said while rubbing his hand over his stubbled face.
    “Hard to believe that’s a girl,” another man’s voice spoke from behind me. “Ain’t got much meat on her bones, that’s for sure.”
    I spun to face this person with my hands on my hips. “Bob Hall, if I tell Felicia that you spoke to me that way…I bet she’d give you a swift kick.”
    I ran to the outstretched arms of the big man. I’d met Bob and his wife Felicia when I had foolishly set off east thinking that I was going to march into Irony, USA and rescue all the people from my community who had been taken by the NAA when they’d first struck. I’d been with them for several days before revealing my identity, only to discover that they had already figured it out. Bob and Felicia Hall were also the people I had handed my journal over to when I had turned myself in to Dominique and her invaders at Warehouse City.
    “Never thought I would see you again, little girl,” Bob said with a smile.
    “Yeah, well…my reasons for staying…”
    I felt something squeeze my throat and heart at the same time and realized that I was crying. I had worked so hard to keep myself together that I had not allowed myself to think about the fate that Dominique had relegated to my mother.
    Once the tears began, it was like there would never be an end to them. I folded into the arms of Bob Hall and I bawled myself silly. My home was gone, all the people that I knew were either captured, dead, or just gone. Everything that kept my life together was destroyed…by one crazy bitch who could not let the past just fade away.
    I wiped at my eyes once I felt like the worst was over. At some point, I guess all the other people who had been part of the group with Bob slipped away. Bob took my hand and we walked in silence back to the little village that he and Felicia had apparently decided to settle down in—for the time being at least.
     
    ***
     
    “Wait, so you are saying that this girl, Dominique DuBois is not only alive, but that she has assassinated the President of New America and decided that she wants to basically conquer every independent community and tribal society and become some sort of—” Rick Brunson was sputtering.
    “For the however many-eth time…” I was getting tired of this conversation running in the same stupid circle. “Yes, she wants to be some sort of warlord. I think she has something big in mind, this cannot just be some weird revenge kick.”
    “I think we have heard enough for tonight,” Felicia said, patting my hand. “Tomorrow we can discuss what to do and who to tell, but this child needs some food and a good night’s sleep.”
    People began wishing each other well and saying good night, but Felicia and Bob were already leading me out of the tent. I was tired, but not too tired to notice all the people hanging around outside. Curiosity was clear on more than one face and nobody seemed to be trying to hide it.
    I don’t remember anything after that, including whatever it was that I ate before falling asleep. Apparently I was more tired than I realized.
    When I woke up, it actually took me a few minutes to get my brain caught up on where I was and what had happened. I climbed out of the bed I had no recollection of climbing in to. Imagine my surprise when Felicia greeted me outside and informed me that I had slept for four days! In that time, quite a lot had occurred.
    A scouting party had run into a pair of soldiers and killed one while