Barren Fields Read Free Page B

it. If people react as quickly as the letter had said, then hardly anyone would be alive to give a warning. They would all be infected from the injection or bites.
    George makes one final attempt at seeing if he can reach his father or remaining family. Even with the numbers he would be facing, he has to try. He drives down the road to the bridge but it is up. The control shack for the bridge is on the other side of the bank, where a police car is sitting and the body of the police officer is laying on the ground. There are a few infected people near the body looking over at George. He must have been bitten in the process of raising the bridge and took his own life.
    *
    “We have to go now!” George says surprising Keith and Maggie when he walks back in.
    “Did you hear from your family?”
    “The city is gone. There are people just up the road shooting at hundreds, if not thousands, of infected people across the waterway. Those people got pushed back here from St. Bernard Parish and are making their last stand. We have to leave now.”
    Keith grabs George’s arm, and asks him, “Are you sure?”
    “If I had any doubt, I wouldn’t be back. The hospitals got overrun last night, and my father was in one of them. If I knew where my sister or brothers are I wouldn’t be able to make it to them if I tried. St. Bernard is overrun and that’s the only way back into the city. Please, let’s just go.”
    They begin the delicate process of getting Maggie transferred into his boat.

 
    Chapter 2
    The Threat at Wal-Mart?
     
    Grants Pass, Oregon.
    Present day.
     
    No good deed goes unpunished. I wish I knew who came up with that phrase because it seems so fitting to our situation right now. My group and I managed to outwit Stockton and his criminal gang at this store and free all of their prisoners without having to fire a shot. It looks doubtful that our departure from this place will go as smoothly.
    With only an hour of preparation left to transport most of the store’s remaining vital supplies and the freed prisoners back to my ranch, we now have to deal with the armed group of men that have pulled into the parking lot and most likely have surrounded the place.
    Standing next to me, Timothy Weyland asks, “Who are they?”
    “They are a survival group that did some training at the ranch,” I reply with a concerned look on my face. “When they trained, those two men in the front there were in charge. They are brothers,” I say while pointing them out. “The younger brother seemed like a decent guy. The other one was all right, but at times, kind of an ass. They stopped training at the ranch after they found out I was an atheist.”
    “Are you sure that’s why they stopped?”
    “Yes, unfortunately. The older brother was pretty upset with me when he found out. That’s also the reason they gave you, isn’t it, Arthur?”
    “Yep,” he says and nods while looking over the shelving and out the glass doors at the group.
    “That doesn’t mean they’re bad guys,” I add. “They just didn’t like giving money to someone that doesn’t share their beliefs.”
    “And are they a threat or potential allies?” Timothy’s girlfriend, Dianne, asks.
    “Both at this point,” I reply and pause for a second to think. “Get some shooters on the roof and have everyone ready to fight. There are a lot of unknowns in this situation, like what they’ve done since the collapse and why they are here. It’s also doubtful that they know who we are and why we are here, so we need to work that out first.”
    The well-armed men in the parking lot interrupt our impromptu discussion session with an announcement, “Criminals in Wal-Mart, you are surrounded! Lay down your arms and release the people you are holding hostage or we will flush you from the building you are cowering in and bring vengeance upon you for your sins.”
    I chuckle a bit and turn to Arthur with a questioning look on my face at the sins statement. “At least