Warfare Season: An Apocalyptic Thriller Read Free Page B

of being
conservative, it simply felt right to eat big for a change.
    Screams
began to fill the air, similar to the night of the terrorist attack;
only this time, the screams sounded more like pure desperation
instead of fear. The sounds were jarring enough to interrupt his
meal.
    From
what he could see out the window, people were being forced out of
their houses and dragged into military vehicles at gunpoint. They
were a block away and working their way down the street, towards
Austin's house.
    Instead
of just running and bugging out, he had to at least warn his
neighbors what was happening first. He wouldn't take anyone with him,
but he would advise them to leave town.
    He
picked up his cellphone and tried dialing, but there was no service.
    He
rushed over to Eddie's house and rang the doorbell. He waited twenty
seconds before ringing it again. When Austin opened the screen door
to try knocking on the main one, he realized that the main door was
hanging slightly open. He let himself inside the dim hallway.
    His
racing mind made it difficult to find the right words. Finally,
something came to mind. “Eddie? Ed? It's Austin from next door.
Your door is open.” Since Austin knew that Eddie had a gun, he
didn't want to sneak up on him. “Eddie?”
    Austin
picked up a flashlight from off the floor and turned it on. There was
a trail of broken glass that led him to the living room.
    Eddie
and his wife were both lying dead in a pool of blood on the floor.
Austin shined the light on the bullet holes that had emerged on the
corpses.
    Was
it a double suicide? Was it the soldiers? Either way, why hadn't he
heard the gunshots? It was possible that he had his headphones on
with the volume turned up real high when it happened. It was also
possible that he had fallen into a deep sleep when it happened. It
was amazing what he was able to block out sometimes.
    On
closer inspection, there were no guns lying around in the immediate
area. It was not suicide.
    The
chaotic noise was growing closer.
    He
needed to hurry. But he didn't want to bug-out without a gun. He
hurriedly searched the house, looking in places that people were
likely to stash their guns. He thought about how some people duct
taped them under their desks, while a friend of his said that he used
to keep his in his dresser drawer.
    Then
he saw a safe inside one of the bedrooms. The door to the safe was
open, but nothing was in it.
    After
a minute of doubt, he convinced himself that the military must have
confiscated Eddie's guns. If his guns were registered through federal
forms, it would have been easy to track. But guns were illegal in
that city. If Eddie owned guns illegally, there was no reason to
register them.
    Knowing
Eddie, it was possible that he tried fighting the military with
lethal force after they had forced their way into his house. But why
had they entered Eddie's house, but not his own? He was thankful to
be alive, but also terrified.
    He
headed back to his house to grab the bug-out bag. He would go to the
underground shelter that his granddad had built on his farm, but it
was a long walk away.
    His
granddad had died fifteen years earlier, but his uncle had taken over
the farm and shelter.
    Due
to the security checkpoints in the major roads, driving was not an
option. Fortunately, he was in very good shape. The only thing about
the long walk that bothered him was the very real possibility of
being attacked or shot and killed.
    Thinking
about the long distance involved on the journey was intimidating. The
important thing was to break the large obstacle down into smaller
pieces, focusing on one step at a time. The first objective was to
get out of the city as soon as possible.
    When
he reached the front porch for his house, the military was only a few
houses down. He watched them force their way through the door of the
Petersen's house and drag out the family members, before loading them
into the vehicle.
    “ We're
under orders to clear the area,” one of the