Dystopia: The Beginning of the End Read Free Page A

described things to anyone who might have observed something like the interaction in the kitchen; that it might have seemed like Dez was some kind of tyrant about the messes in the house. 
    She was quite the opposite though, Dez was easy going with a gentle demeanor.  Some even said it was her biggest downfall, she was too trusting and accepting of what people said as truth.  Her children often scolded her for not standing up for herself, when often she would stand without wavering in defense of her children or others but rarely for herself. 
    A beautiful woman she often found herself fending off suiters with hopes of more than friendship and could never understand why she would be taken advantage of.  For this reason, Tawny kept a keen eye on Matt, and he knew it.
    Dinner was not as quiet as brunch had been; they sat around and discussed what they each wanted to talk about at the group meeting scheduled for later that evening.  Although Tawny had never gone, she wanted to share some of what she and Dez had been discussing earlier. They were worried about communications and getting some ideas about creating a system that could be worked out to rotate channels for security reasons.  Dez wanted to make sure all the facts about the Ebola virus were available as well.  She thought that they should work toward precautionary measures. 
    Matt was, as usual, interested in security.  They were discussing different options, when Dylan whined,
    “I wanna go to the meetin!  I’m big now and I made a trap, I wanna say about my trap.”
    Tawny said, “Honey, I know you’re big and I am very proud of your trap, but this meeting is for bigger people.” 
    He pouted and crossing his arms defiantly said, “I am big.” 
    With that little fit, Matt, who was always good at getting him to agree to things, got up and drew a line on the door jamb at right about 4 feet high.  He looked at Dylan and said,
    “Buddy you gotta be this tall.” 
    While pointing to the line, he continued, “Just like the rides at Kings Island.” 
    Dylan scrambled over to the doorway and placed his back right up against it to allow Matt to draw the line that would show where his height was.  Turning to look at the line he frowned and said,
    “I’m never gonna be that big.” 
    Everyone laughed as Tawny replied, “You will get that big if you eat all your food.” 
    “Even the peas?” he asked.
    “Yes… even the peas.” 
    For Dylan this was a double whammy, now not only was he not big enough to go, but he had to eat peas too.
    He mumbled under his breath, “This sucks!”
    A comment Matt had been the only one to hear.  He raised an eyebrow, looking at him saying,
    “That is quite enough young man.” 
    Dylan’s look to what Uncle Matt had said, said all it needed to.  They all shared a look, not daring to comment on it, but secretly laughing inside.
    When they arrived at George’s house they noticed the meeting was already well attended.  Dez laughingly said,
    “Gee, all it takes is a good disaster to get people to actually show up.”
    The comment made Matt and Tawny both laugh.  Once inside, they noted a few new faces along with some that rarely attended. 
    Matt whispered to Dez, “Listen, I don’t know about some of these people so don’t say anything about our location, supplies or anything else, ok?” 
    Dez winked whispering the same to Tawny.  Tawny agreed with them that they should feel out the room and wait until most had retired from the meeting. They wanted to stay and discuss some things with George and Loel afterwards anyway.  This group was a sort of Militia group, mostly like-minded Preppers but some were just looking for a fight and precisely why Matt insisted on keeping some information private. 
    While George was good at organizing things he insisted no one could have an opinion that differed from his or he would kick them out.  Dez didn’t really like George, she’d told Matt a number of times that