Invasion Read Free

bullets stopped.
    She could hear a new sound.  The air thumped as the sound came up the highway from the South.
    “Keep running Daisy!”  They ran off the side of the road and into the ditch.  There was a large drainpipe leading away from the intersection along the ditch.  The pipe was new, and had just been installed over the last month to support a new neighborhood down the road.  She ran into the pipe and stopped.  Daisy was right behind her and stopped as well; she was panting.
    “Good girl,” Leah said, petting the dog’s head.  “I’m glad they didn’t use a rocket,” she said, while leaning out of the drainpipe to look down the road.  She wanted to be sure of what the second noise was.
    Flying up the road were three small black helicopters.
    “We’ve got to get out of here,” she said.  She turned and started down the drainpipe.  Once she couldn’t see anymore, she turned on a small light that was clipped to her black ball cap.
    The drainpipe transmitted the sound of the helicopters landing at the intersection.  She quickened her pace and didn’t look back.

CHAPTER 3
     
     
     
    Joshua wanted to take the horses, but Grace felt that they would draw unwanted attention to themselves.
    “It’s only ten miles,” she teased. 
    “But it’s five miles up and five miles down,” Joshua countered.  “You’re gonna wish we had the horses a few miles into this.”
    It was 6:00AM, they were supposed to meet Grace’s mother at a location that was ten miles away in six hours.
    Grace never gave her friend Anna a chance to volunteer for the mission.  Anna’s nose and eye were black and blue from where she had been punched by a freaker two days earlier.
    Violet, Joshua’s mother, and a nurse, thought that Anna’s nose was broken and that her eye socket might be fractured.  The swelling was just starting to go down, and she was beginning to look normal again.
    Anna seemed okay with the decision for her to stay at the farm with Bob and Violet.  The couple was happy to have the girls, and the girls made themselves at home.  Violet took right to the care of Anna, and Anna soaked in the attention.  She also seemed to show a real interest in the medical talents of Violet, so Violet had started working with the girl on triage types of procedures.
    The time they spent together was a diversion for both women.  For Violet, it drew her attention away from her youngest son, who was being led home by Grace’s father.  It also took her mind off Joshua, and the fact that he was about to leave on a mission of his own.
    For Anna, it took her mind away from the fact that her parents were most likely killed in the nuclear attack on Atlanta.  She held out hope, but really preferred not to talk about it.
     
    Joshua scanned the road up ahead.  The pair had trudged along the side of the road and tried to keep to the tree lines as best they could.  They had seen one black helicopter about an hour after they left the farm.  It was flying along the ridge behind the farm and was several miles away.  It wasn’t a threat, but with the radio traffic about hunter drones and helicopters, they were very mindful of any noises.
    “How far is it from here?” Grace asked.  They had been walking up hill for the better part of thirty minutes.
    “It’s over this ridge, and then about three or four miles.  Even though we’re a long way off, there’s a great view of the city from up there.”
    Grace nodded and looked to the top of the road, she could see an old blue water tower at the apex of the hill and assumed that the ‘great view’ was somewhere close to that.
    “Sounds good,” she said bending down to tug at one of her socks.  She was still getting used to the loaner boots that Violet had given her.  They were about a half size too large, so the extra pair of socks she had on was making her feet sweat. 
    “Can we stop for a minute, I want to take these extra socks off.”
    “Sure,” Joshua nodded and