THE ALPHAS Box Set Read Free Page A

city. I saw the cities in the south go to hell. Some were taken over by gangs. It was a city-wide war for territory and everyone who stayed was forced to fight, or whore, or slave away for the gangs. Some were taken over by the big corporations and if you think that’s better, you’re wrong. You hated your job before? Now you’ll do one even worse, for no money, barely any food, a crap bed in a crowded dorm, and if you don’t like it you’ll be shot. So we’re looking for somewhere safer and when Anne here talks, you listen, because she’s talking for me. And we’ve already discussed my credentials to lead. We’re leaving in half an hour.”

IX.
    The village was surrounded by a make-shift wall made of metal siding, cars, and scrap lumber. Two armed men stood on low towers on either side of the gate. They levelled their guns at the approaching group and Damian called a halt. Roxanne jogged up to the front of the group.
    “What is it? It’s not dark enough to stop.”
    “I don’t think they want us getting any closer.”
    She nodded. “Ryan and Sean will come with me. I should go talk to them.” She didn’t even think of including Matt who had been demoted from official guard to regular refugee.
    Damian rolled his eyes. “Looks like I’m babysitting.”
    She ignored him, gathered her guards, and put on a brave face. The men atop the wall allowed them to approach but didn’t lower their weapons.
    “Who are you?” the one on the left shouted.
    “My name is Roxanne,” she called back. “We’re from Bismark. We’ve been walking for days. The city is in ruins, we need a safe place.”
    “We can’t let you in,” he said. “Go back up the road the way you came to the crossroads. You can camp there for the night.”
    “Why can’t we camp here?”
    “We don’t want to protect you, or have to protect ourselves from you.”
    “Please, we have children with us.”
    “We can trade if you need food but we can’t let you in.”
    She looked at the guns for a long moment. “Fine, we’ll move back and we’ll send someone to trade for food.”
    She stalked right past Damian and started rounding up the group. Once she had them settled she loaded up everything they could spare into the wagons and returned to the gates. They didn’t get much food and the villagers tried to take the wagons, but she refused to part with them.
    “Will you at least let the children in?” she begged. “Most of them are orphans. They won’t survive on the road. Please.”
    “We took in a lot of people already,” an older woman said. “They came from all around here. We can’t defend enough farm land to feed the people we already have. We can’t take anymore, especially not children too young to work. I’m sorry.”
    “Is there anywhere else we can go?”
    “I’m sorry,” she said again.
    When Anne returned with the food she saw Damian talking to Ryan. She fully intended to ignore him, but he fell in step beside her and followed her to her tent. He said, “There’s still some light. I’ll be moving on.”
    She turned on him. “And what are we supposed to do?”
    He shrugged. “Stay here. Move on. I don’t know and don’t rightly care.”
    “You were supposed to guide us to safety.”
    “No, I was supposed to guide you to the next town.”
    “You wanted to be in charge!”
    “Now I don’t. You’ll only slow me down. I’ll just grab some supplies and …”
    “No. Whatever you have left from Bismark you can keep but you will not touch what I traded for.”
    “What you traded for? I helped you scavenge, remember?”
    “I didn’t need you for that. And I’m sure you kept a little something from that expedition for yourself.  If you need more supplies you can go to that village and trade. If you try to steal from us I’ll have you shot.”
    “Afraid of pulling the trigger yourself?”
    She pulled a hand gun from the holster at her side with the ease of someone who had handled a gun before and levelled