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

None of them had. But if she was honest with herself, her game was way off. She was deeply depressed over the loss of Gomez and it was affecting her performance. It took all she had not to crawl into a ball and just sleep. Only the fact that others were counting on her made her stay focused at all. She was volunteering for long watch assignments. Long watches made for listlessness. She’d have to change things up.
    They had yet another uneventful night in a dusty town called Sierra Blanca. The much hoped for water was not available. Texas was desperately dry. It wasn’t just that the train that was getting low on water, their own clean supplies were getting thin. MacAfee began rationing. As soon as there was enough light to see more than two hundred yards, they made way.  
    Several long hours later they were passing through the suburbs of El Paso. Sergeant Green stepped up to swap places with Hernandez and they found themselves warily scanning their surroundings, agreeing that Hernandez should remain up top until they got to the massive rail yard that was in the center of the city. Wen reduced speed as the city closed in around the tracks. At moments, the Mexican border was little more than two thousand feet away and occasionally they could see the massive fence itself. The barrier seemed to have taken on an almost organic shape. The city itself was just another abandoned place; scoured, like a sandblaster had been taken to every surface, sand dunes piled against buildings, whole sections of streets covered. Only the raised nature of the train tracks left them free enough for the train to pass.
    As the tracks and the border nearly converged, the ‘organic wall’ was revealed for what it was: death. Thousands upon thousands of crucified human remains were sewn into the steel wire. Dean found himself dumbly standing in the observation level surrounded by Eliza, Kile, Sanders, Palmer and Jamesbonds. “Jesus,” he finally said.
    “The rumors were true,” said Palmer.
    “Rumors?” asked Jamesbonds.
    “The cartels made sure Americans didn’t head south.”
    “You think the Mexicans did that?” asked Kile.
    “It wasn’t the infected.”  
    Eliza called down the stairs. “Hansel, Gretel, can you come up here please?”
    The children ascended the steps with glee on their faces. Hansel said, “It’s beautiful isn’t it?”
    No one had an answer for that. Eliza asked, “Would pucks do that?”  
    “How could we know?” asked Gretel.
    “What does your gut say?” asked Dean.
    Hansel said, “Yes, maybe.”
    “What the hell for?” barked Kile.
    Eliza put a hand on Kile’s rigid shoulder and asked the children, “Are there pucks in this city?”  
    The children’s eyes sort of glazed over and their ears began to perk up. Hansel said, “There are some.”
    The energy in the room instantly shifted. “When were you going to tell us?” asked Sanders.
    Gretel said, “We only just felt them when Eliza asked.”
    Within sixty-seconds, those who weren’t, were helmeted up, armed and alert, each at a predetermined battle station. Fifteen minutes later, Wen brought the 1218 to a stop in a massive rail yard adjacent to a water treatment plant. Despite the mental weight of countless skeletons hanging on the fence to his left, he was thrilled by the sight of the nearly full water ponds. As the big black machine settled, Abner released some deafeningly loud pressure from the pistons and eerie quiet replaced the hours of chugging clickety clacking. Wen noted the ringing in his ears and resolved to find something to plug them for the next leg.  
    Green yelled from the roof, “I’ve got movement.” He keyed his mic. “I’ve got movement. Two o’clock. Maybe half a click.”
    Hernandez was between cars. “I got it. The train station. Two, no three, ducked into the building.”
    They were male pucks, longhaired, heavily bearded and dressed in clothes that had clearly been manufactured; the pants modified to match