Read Online Children Of Fiends - Part 2 A Nation By Another Name: An Of Sudden Origin Novella by C. Chase Harwood - Free Book Online

following her tight athletic buttocks moving rhythmically as she walked away. He felt a shift in his pants and he found himself averting his gaze to put out the small fire that was building in him. He grumbled lightly under his breath and admonished himself further. He needed to get a handle on things. Distractions were not good in his business. He walked up the stairs telling himself to pull it together.
    At the back of the train Hansel and Gretel offered mental smiles to each other. Gretel started the conversation. It is funny that he doesn’t know that she likes him.
    Funny and disgusting.
    Very disgusting.
    Yet you stare at their private parts when they are not looking. Elizaandra’s private parts all the time.
    Yes, that is true. But I don’t like it.
    You can’t lie to me. You like it. You like staring at her. You tried to see her naked last night.
    I don’t like it. It’s like being hungry and not being able to eat.
    You’re right, but worse. It is like when one of them gets drunk. I hate the feeling when they are drunk.
    Yes, that is horrible. Hansel paused and his stomach grumbled. I am weary of wanting. I hate the wanting. These birds are not satisfying. Satisfying would be eating Dean alive while Elizaandra watched and making her taste Dean as we chewed.
    That’s funny.
    They laughed together and their mouths experienced brief pain as so much saliva filled the spaces between their teeth.
    Hungry.
    Very hungry.
    MacAfee stepped through the coal tender and listened with appreciation to the corkscrew workings of the coal stoker as it carried fuel forward to the engine and the waiting firebox. As he stepped up to the engineering platform he could feel the heat from the firebox full on. Despite the cool air that passed through from the outside, Wen and Abner were covered in a thin sheen of sweat. “How goes it up here?”  
    Wen put a hand to his ear and the Colonel asked, “Seen anything unusual?”
    “Nope. Nothing but cold desert,” yelled Wen over the racket.
    “We spotted a small air drone behind us. Short distance one.” The two men stopped their work and turned to look out the back. “It’s gone now. Maybe the same folks who attacked us on the water.”
    “You think?” asked Abner incredulously.
    “Lots of those drones used down this way by Border Patrol back in the day,” offered Wen.
    “We’re still pretty far from the border,” said MacAfee.
    “Still.”
    “Who says where the border is anymore?” asked Maggie, stepping in to start her shift.
    “She’s right,” said Wen. “The Mexicans didn’t have Cain’s like the way we did. Maybe they’ve done okay. This used to be part of Mexico, right? I mean before Texas.”
    MacAfee thought about this and finally said, “We’ve just started trading with North Africa. I think we would have heard from the Mexicans.”
    “I don’t know. Thousands and thousands of Americans being gunned down trying to head south. You think they would reach out to us after that.”
    “Point taken. We don’t know who it is. Just keep an eye out front.”
    “We do that anyway,” said Abner with a scowl. He pointed up. “You got one of your soldiers freezing their ass off twenty-four/seven.”
    “I’m talking to them next. And both of you take a break. Get Kitta or Murphy or Wall up here to help Maggie.” MacAfee stepped out of the cab and climbed to the roof of the train where the passing breeze was indeed cold. Hernandez was on watch and she sat comfortably enough in an outdoor lounge chair that they had strapped onto the roof in front of a steam relief valve. From there the smoke billowing from the stack in front managed to pass overhead without causing her to gag. She was wearing her helmet, which proved the best possible way to keep an eye out in all directions. Yet, she had missed the drone behind them, which was both frustrating and unnerving. MacAfee filled her in and left.  
    Frankly, Dez hadn’t considered keeping a look out in the sky.