Enduring Armageddon Read Free

right, far to the side of where I’d expected it to be since the road led right up to the wall. Three people dressed like scavengers came out from the gate and two of them had shotguns that they aimed right at us. The men wore heavy coveralls and had long trench coats to help with the acid rain. They wore military style gas masks and all had what looked to be firefighter helmets on, which was a wise choice since the helmet could protect against both rain and blunt force trauma.
    The unarmed man came up to me and said, “I need both of you to strip naked.” I started to object, but he sighed and held his hands up to stop me. Clearly this wasn’t the first time that he’d encountered people unwilling to get naked in front of strangers. “Look,” he said, “Neither of you has anything that we haven’t seen a thousand times. We need to ensure that you’re not bringing any obvious diseases into our community. Either you strip and let us examine you, or you guys can continue on your way to wherever you’re headed.”
    “It’s okay, Charlie,” my wife said to me. “I can handle it. We need a safe place to stay and if this is the price I have to pay, then so be it.” She didn’t even wait for my answer before she shrugged out of her backpack to let it slide to the ground and began unzipping her rain jacket.
    Before long, both of us stood stark naked in the chilly air. The only exception was our masks, which they’d allowed us to retain in position over our mouths and noses. The man inspecting us had each of us bend over to expose the area between our ass cheeks and then I had to lift my scrotum up for his scrutiny while Becca was forced to raise each breast up so he could ensure there were no sores hidden underneath along the creases of her skin.
    When he was satisfied, he said, “Alright, you passed. You can put your clothes back on. Welcome to Virden. I hope you enjoy your stay, but let me warn you right now; if you aren’t a contributing member of the community, you will be asked to leave and not return. Is that understood?” We both nodded that we understood the terms of our admittance into the town.
    We rushed to pull our clothing back on as a storm blew in rapidly from the west. Just as we entered the main gate of Virden it began to rain. The dark sludge fell from the sky and we couldn’t see beyond a couple of feet in front of our hands. The men quickly swung the gate back into place and shuffled off to their protected watch positions.
    As soon as we passed through, a girl yelled, “Come on, this way! We’ll get under the pharmacy’s awning.” She wore a large rubber army poncho and also carried an umbrella to further retard the rain’s ability to reach her. We ran behind her as she made her way to the front of the town’s pharmacy less than a block from the town’s walls. We ducked under the wide striped awning, both of us unsure what to make of our guide.
    She closed the umbrella and leaned it against the building’s brick wall pulling the hood off of her head to reveal clean, straight blonde hair. Her eyes crinkled as she smiled behind the mask she wore. “My name is Samantha, Sam. Welcome to Virden,” she said.
    “Hi Samantha. I’m Chuck, this is my wife, Rebecca,” I said as I indicated Becca.
    Sam gave us both a quick once over with her eyes. “Have you guys been on the road very long?”
    “We’re coming from just south of Chicago, the city became too dangerous. We’ve been traveling for a little over two weeks,” Becca said while she self-consciously tried to smooth out her wrinkled and dirty overcoat.
    “Oh, wow! You made that trip with only a baseball bat for protection? You’re either really brave or stupid…” Her eyes widened as she realized she’d accidently insulted us. “I mean... Look, I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t mean to say you guys were dumb, it’s just really dangerous outside of the town’s walls,” she stammered.
    I wondered how old our hostess was. It was