Breach (The Blood Bargain) Read Free

Shive are going to press on Graham to nominate one of their cronies.  Richard and I can only do so much.”  Richard Mineral was an old family friend and one of the other heads of the colony.  It was his farm and the surrounding town that became the refuge for so many when the world went to shit a decade ago.
    “But I like working with the kids...” Teaching was rewarding, not just survival skills but math, science, art, music and reading.  All the basics that tended to go by the wayside when safety, food and shelter became primary concerns.  There were so many things I wanted to cram into their little minds before the first snowfall and we became more homebound.  Which according to local farming mouths, would be any day.
    Dad’s face softened, his voice settling into pleading.  “I know, but this is about Junction as a whole, your little ones included.  We both know when you put my generation in the ground that Zack will not be able to fill his father’s shoes.  Someone is going to have to keep that board level, keep our community thriving.  A good heart and a critical mind are the kind of attributes we need in leadership.  The kind of person that everyone in this community can look toward for strength when all seems lost.  The colony needs you Evelyn.  I need you.” 
    I wanted to scream that I’d done enough for Junction.  Life was finally settling into a semi boring routine, the pain in my legs was becoming a distant memory.  The future offered only more of the same repeatable pattern of survival, no undetermined variables of drama or wait of the world decisions.  Still, with all the no’s running through my head.  My mouth opened and didn’t listen to me.
    “Fine.”  His aged face spread into a wide smile, pride resonating off of him in waves.
    “Thank you Evelyn.  You won’t regret it.”  I smirked.  Funny, I was pretty sure that I already did.

 
     
     
     
     

     
    The trek to the wall was all too familiar.  I had held the very post Cole was now on since the wall was completed when I was sixteen.  That would have made eight years I walked this way to ‘work’.  Eight years I held the line against the wandering dead.  My weapon of choice had always been the crossbow, when I was just learning defense my father didn’t want me getting close to any of them, his usual over protective self in overdrive.  As I trained with the thing though I discovered I liked it for more than just the range.  I didn’t have the upper body strength for prolonged hand to hand.  It fit me well.
    I felt surprisingly naked walking out here without my bow.  Not that I was en route for anything that would put me in harm’s way, just a delivery to the inside.  Parents of my class had declared the children were all needed at home to help prep for the pending winter so I found myself with surprise free time.  Free time which I had decided was best spent delivering Cole some lunch.  It wasn’t much, just some carrots, cooked corn and a hunk of potato bread.  I don’t know what possessed me to come visit him out here, I had held no desire to get within five hundred feet of the wall since I woke up in my room after jumping off that roof.  Maybe I was just using lunch as an excuse to see him or maybe I was using him as an excuse to test my nerve on seeing the wall.
    Maybe maybe maybe.
    Crossing off the last of the sidewalks into open field I saw it in the distance.  The thing was not aesthetically pleasing in anyway.  A hodgepodge of wood, metal and anything else we could get our hands on as a resource.  It was tall and it was ugly, but most importantly it was solid.  It was the structure that allowed the people who were still alive to have any sort of peace in their lives.  The barrier between us and those of us who had departed in spirit over a decade ago.
    Since it was finished, the number of deaths due to deadhead infection had been limited to careless guards.  The vampires did their