Warfare Season: An Apocalyptic Thriller Read Free

time
being. He also had a twenty-four pack of smaller water bottles.
    His
supplies wouldn't be enough to live off of if the stores never opened
again.
    The
sound of the doorbell startled Austin. It's the military, he
thought. They're here to search the house and interrogate me. He
looked through the window above the front door.
    It
was Eddie.
    Austin
opened the door and said hello.
    Eddie
looked dismal. He stared back at Austin, not saying anything.
    “ What's
up, Eddie?”
    “ Hello,”
Eddie said, trying to sound enthusiastic and upbeat. “I know in
a time like this, it might sound like a lot to ask, but. . . do you
have a gallon of water that you could spare?”
    “ Sure,”
he said without hesitation. “You know what, I'll have to dig it
up out of storage, so it might take a minute. Do you want to come
in?”
    Eddie
stepped in. “I'd appreciate it.”
    “ Yeah.
Hopefully, I won't need any of them, anyway. I have a water filter
pitcher. The gallons of water are just there in case the tap water
comes out all grimy or something. But it seems to be okay so far.”
    “ Oh,
you have a water filter? That's what me and Anna should have gotten a
long time ago. But she doesn't drink anything but bottled water.”
    Austin
went down to the basement and checked the expiration date on the
water, before bringing up a gallon. “Here you go. It doesn't
expire until late next year, although it's somewhat widely believed
that bottled water never expires.”
    “ Yeah,
it's not like it's a dairy product or anything,” Eddie agreed.
“I'm hoping this will get us through the next couple of days.
Maybe the stores will reopen by then.” He looked over at
droning air conditioner. “You got generators running?”
    “ Yeah.
If this was winter, I wouldn't need them as much. I tolerate the cold
really well, but I don't like the heat.”
    “ My
wife's the same way,” Eddie said.
    Austin
looked out the living room window at the army patrolling the streets.
“It doesn't look like these troops are gonna clear out of
here.”
    “ Nah,”
Eddie said, shaking his head in agreement. “Not anytime soon,
anyway. This is martial law we're talking about here.” He
turned around and headed for the door.
    “ How's
everything else?” Austin asked.
    “ Can't
complain. All things considered, it could be a lot worse. I actually
had my car parked in front of the house last night. I didn't put it
in the garage until this morning. I noticed a dent on it that I had
never seen before, but that's about it. Gerald got his car stolen.”
    “ I
know. I heard him out there yelling about it.”
    Eddie
sighed. “It's crazy.” He reached for the door.
    “ Are
you going to stick around? Or are you going to leave town?”
    Eddie
turned back around to face Austin. “If anybody was gonna leave,
last night would have been the time. They've got roadblocks set up
all over the place. If you want to go anywhere now, you're gonna have
to through a series of security checkpoints. At the checkpoints,
they've been telling most people to just go back home. I don't think
they want anyone leaving town.”
    Austin
froze, as a wave of depression crept over him.
    “ Well,
thanks for the water.”
    “ No
problem,” Austin croaked.
    The
door opened and closed.
    Austin
looked back out the window in revulsion. Then he looked down at his
cellphone. Surprisingly, there had been no calls that day. He assumed
that his friends were busy attending to their families. Family always
came first in emergencies; friends came second.
    With
his place of business closed, he was already starting to experience
cabin fever. Nothing was open, except for the dire emergency camps
and his collection of horrid memories from the night before.
    He
had read up on stuff like this before in hopes of preparing himself
for worst-case-scenarios. But it was nearly impossible to completely
prepare for situations that a person had never experienced before.
Research was good, but hands-on-training was