American Apocalypse Wastelands Read Free Page B

the waves of government attempts
to control the digital flow of information, that being the only truly valuable currency left in the world. Along with the ability to host, they had the tools and the desire—especially after being so thoroughly screwed—to broadcast. And what they broadcast was the truth—or at least what the U.S. government managed to suppress with the assistance of those who controlled the media.
    â€œDamn, what time is it?” I asked.
    Night answered. “Eight.”
    â€œDaytime or night?”
    â€œNighttime. Come on, sit down with us. The president is going to make a speech.”
    I groaned. “Who cares? Obama wore me out years ago when he was president.”
    â€œYou might want to listen, buddy,” Jake said. “I got a feeling it’s going to determine what’s next for a lot of people.”
    â€œYeah, Jake. Whatever.” Jake was, of course, sitting in his favorite chair. I thought of it as “the throne.” It was a leather recliner and I decided that from then on I was going to sit in it whenever I had the chance.
    As usual, Jake was armed. What was interesting was how he was armed. He was wearing a Colt, a Peacemaker it looked like, in a hand-tooled holster that was tied down. A lot like what I wore, but far more expensive. That was weird. Why that gun in that style? I had noticed it when I first saw him. He kept wearing it, too, which surprised me. I figured he would switch to something more modern. He seemed like the black plastic type, after all.
    Iceland News cut to the White House and the president appeared on screen. She sat behind her desk dressed in military camo. No rank insignia that I could see. I wondered
if she had a cute little beret to match. She wasn’t as hot as Palin was a few years ago, but she wasn’t as obviously ignorant either.
    She dropped the bombshell right off the bat: martial law. Jake and Night responded with “Wow!” and “Damn.” Max added, “She’s going to lock us all down. For our own good, of course.”
    She wasn’t done. It really was for our own good. As she put it:
    Â 
    In this sea of internal turmoil, where so many seek to profit by undermining the authority of the state, we have decided to increase everyone’s personal and professional security by creating Zones all across the United States. Furthermore, we will stamp out the terrorist groups that have, through their wanton embrace of vandalism for the sake of vandalism, harmed so many of you, my fellow citizens.
    Â 
    She went on and on, of course. She was a politician, after all. Night wanted to watch the analysis of the speech afterward but Max overruled her. “You need to sleep and heal up, kiddo. We are going to need to move soon.”
    She went reluctantly. I joined her. I liked lying next to her. If we were both up to it, we talked in whispers. I liked feeling her breath in my ear. We had no privacy. Our bodies were willing, but with her burns and my thigh there was not a lot we could do even if we had privacy.

CHAPTER THREE
    One thing Jake had going for him was his inventory. The man had taken seriously the warnings of doom and The End of the World as We Know It. He had it all: ammo, weapons, and the high-end and hard-to-find pharmaceuticals that we were burning through.
    He didn’t say anything about it. He didn’t have to. He pretended everything was just fine, but there was an edge to him that I didn’t like, a hint of arrogance that came out only when he was dealing with me. I also caught his eyes lingering on Night’s ass when he thought no one was looking.
    After I was able to start moving around for more than fifteen minutes at a time without bleeding too badly I found out what he was after: He wanted to join our elite team of commandos.
    I was standing on the deck outside holding on to the railing and trying to look like everything was just fine. The reality was that I was