THEM (Season 1): Episode 1 Read Free Page A

chit that you can take to the storehouse; Janie’s working today and she’ll fix you up with some supplies to take home with you.”
    “I was hoping for some of those Fredericksburg peaches I heard you got in.”
    Donnie chuckled and returned my smile. “Just don’t take ’em all. I got my heart set on some peach cobbler if the wife and I can scrounge up enough flour and sugar soon.”
    “I’ll leave plenty behind for you. Promise.”
    “Sure enough, Scratch, sure enough. You headed right home after this?”
    “Not just yet; I wanted to see if there were any caravan hands around I could talk to before I leave. Something the nos’ said has me curious about what they’ve seen out east.”
    “Sam Tucker has been hanging out at the Scalded Dog. You might hit him up for some scuttlebutt. Kara was asking after you anyways, so you may as well stop in there and see what she’s overheard, too.”
    “Thanks for the tip, Donnie. I’ll be seeing you.”
    “Hopefully not too soon, but don’t be a stranger, either.”
    - - -
    L ife wasn’t always this way, and I can still remember what it was like before the Great War. But then some asshat got voted into office who thought it’d be a good idea to let countries like North Korea and Iran develop nuclear arsenals. Now there’s a novel idea, give a psychopath the means to start World War III. Brilliant.
    So, it started with North Korea dropping the bomb on Seoul. Then, emboldened by the lack of an immediate counteraction by the US, Iran began posturing towards a similar action against Israel, which our friends in yarmulke weren’t having. They bombed Iran back into the Stone Age, following that age-old Israeli tradition of “do unto others before they do unto you,” which subsequently pulled Russia into the war. Soon after, America bombed North Korea into oblivion as a warning shot over the bow for Russia and China, which backfired and resulted in our losing Washington, New York, and a lot of the Eastern seaboard.
    Before the smoke cleared, we were all screwed. It was amazing how much the world’s economy relied on computers and the Internet, but no one seemed to think about that when they were pushing buttons and sending ICBMs helter-skelter. Immediately, infrastructures collapsed worldwide, due to the lack of communication networks necessary for continuity of supply chains.
    Lots of people died in the bombings, more in the nuclear fallout that followed... but tens of millions died of starvation and the ensuing violence. Ever think about the fact that there haven’t been any regional warehouses stocking foods and dry goods in the States since the advent of the digital age? Ever wonder where those groceries that used to hit store shelves just in time each week came from?
    Ever wonder how long it would take for your local grocery or superstore to run out of food when the trucks stopped rolling? Yeah, neither did anyone else, and the majority of Americans found the answers to those questions the hard way after the bombs dropped. Tens of millions of people died from nothing more than a disease called “learned helplessness.”
    Thankfully, I was always a little paranoid; a few tours fighting someone else’s wars will do that to you. After I got hit with shrapnel and lost part of my vision in one eye, I got discharged on a medical. Soon after that I got a place out in the sticks, where no would bother me and where I could work out my inner war in the peace and quiet of nature. I had a lot of food, weapons, and ammo stockpiled. Like I said, I was always a little paranoid.
    Turns out it came in handy when the SHTF. At first, it was just a matter of watching weather patterns to avoid potential fallout and hunting to supplement my meals with wild game so I could make my stored food last until things got better.
    Then, those things got set loose in the world. And quite literally all hell broke loose with them.
    - - -
    A s I was headed over to Kara’s, I caught a commotion