Wormwood Dawn (Episode II) Read Free Page B

They would be much better than a generator.”
    Drew nodded, saying nothing. Dan knew that he was on to him. He wasn’t really interested in the solar panels, but Drew kept his knowledge to himself.
    “I’m checking the bulletin board,” Dan said, getting up to boot up his laptop.
    Drew put on some music; some weird, techno-death that Dan had never heard. He ignored it, waiting for the Windows logo to disappear and booting up his browser. He typed in the address, and was surprised to see another video.
    “More news,” Dan said. Drew got up to join him, pulling a chair up next to him and leaning his elbows on the table.
    Martin Patterson began his speech after the video buffered.
     
    “Our sources have discovered that the security firm responsible for the attacks on civilians has been identified as Gephardt Security, based out of Houston, Texas. They number in the mid two hundred thousand range and have been dispatched by unknown forces in an attempt to seize control of the country. The National Guard and active military have since been officially disbanded and are considered criminals and terrorists.
    Amid the chaos that is happening, with civilians fighting against mutated humans and animals, there is an active war going on between these rogue military personnel and the black-clad mercenaries. Citizens are urged to avoid contact with Gephardt employees and to trust and assist the actual military when the need arises.
    Also intercepted was a memo to mercenaries in the area to evacuate Bloomington, Indianapolis, and other larger, surrounding communities. There was no information found as to why, but speculations are abundant, and those of you out on the fringe are warned to stay away from metropolitan areas. Since these areas have been overrun with mutants, it is likely that Gephardt is planning on destroying them. Again, avoid larger cities at all costs.
    Since this information was found, we have moved our base of operations to an undisclosed location. Our techs are working diligently to keep our bulletin board up and running, and we will continue to do so until this plague is eradicated and order is restored.
    This is Martin Patterson. God be with you.”
     
    “Holy shit,” Dan said. “They’re gonna bomb Bloomington.”
    Drew sighed. “If they use a nuke,” he said, “we would be poisoned by the fallout.”
    Dan shook his head. “I don’t think they would use a nuke… probably.”
    Drew took a swig of his Fireball. “Yeah… I guess they wouldn’t be able to get one, unless the government gave them one, or two, or three.”
    “Fuck,” Dan said, leaning back and scrolling through the posts. “So much for going there for supplies.”
    Dan clicked the search box, typing in filling propane tanks. The search brought back two posts, one entitled Converting natural gas heaters to propane, and another, entitled Propane tank basics. Dan clicked on the second, and a PDF loaded up. The document was filled with diagrams on how to hook up appliances, places to find propane, and finally, a diagram on how to fill a tank from a truck.
    “Hot shit,” Dan said, smiling. “Here we go.”
    Dan sent the document to his printer, and leaned back smiling. “That’s going in the Apocalypse Compendium.”
    Drew pointed at the screen, where another link reading Mutant types was located. It had several thousand hits and replies. Dan clicked it.
    It was a forum post, where people were relating their experiences. The title post had over fifty thousand views, and several hundred replies. Dan clicked it, and read it out loud:
     
    “In light of recent confusion on the nature of the rampant mutations, we should come to some common naming conventions for what we have all seen. Below is a list of mutants in order of appearance as related by subscribers.
    First and foremost are the millions of ordinary citizens that have succumbed to the mutation effects on a basic level. They are collectively known as zombies, obviously, but they