Read Online DEAD (Book 12): End by TW Brown - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: TW Brown
Tags: Zombie Apocalypse
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his. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to just survive. I want to live . I want my child to be able to live free and not hide in fear.”
“So you come here…execute the man who has held us together and stood against Dean and his tyranny and prejudice, and then tell us that we will be going to war?” the man continued to press, not backing down or showing the slightest degree of being intimidated by Catie.
“That is one way of looking at it,” Catie replied with a shrug.
“What is to stop one of us from simply killing you and cancelling your war?”
“That would be us.” Marty suddenly seemed to appear at the man’s left and Melvin on the right.
She had no idea how they did it, but the two monstrous men had been all but invisible until that very moment. Their sudden appearance at this man’s side made everybody step back and form a halo of empty space around the four individuals. Catie put a finger on the man’s chest and tapped him twice.
“There is no welfare system anymore. You either do your part with and for the better of the community, or you are out. It is that simple and it is not up for negotiation. If you would like to change your mind…” She paused, stepping back far enough so that she could let her gaze sweep over all who had yet to step forward. “This will be your last opportunity.”
That seemed to do the trick. Catie was not all that surprised. Nobody wanted to go out into the world alone and have to try and survive. Despite some of the romanticized fantasies of the old fiction, nobody survived out there on their own for too long. That had been the big reason that she had decided to try and make a go of living here.
Even in the many travels that she and Kevin had embarked on during their amazing trip across the country in that doomed attempt to see if perhaps his mother or sister had managed to survive, they had always fallen in with groups of people. Some had remained with them for months, others for just a few weeks or even a couple of days. The world was simply too dangerous for anybody to voluntarily go it alone. That was perhaps why most communities had one universal punishment when dealing with those who did not abide by the rules: banishment.
Being banished was the new form of capital punishment. Now that she had everybody on board, she was prepared to put her full plan into motion. The Beastie Boys would be leaving right away for their part in the mission. The only thing that she struggled with now was the fact that Kalisha and Caleb were still unaccounted for and people considered her a child killer. Now that she had dealt with the general population, Marty and Melvin would start for Montague Village and see if perhaps they could find any signs that the children had gone that way. She was doing her best to make it known that she considered them missing and not dead.
***
Catie stood about fifty yards from the main entry to Montague Village. She was flanked by the Wonder Twins. It had only been three days since she had assumed control, but it already felt like a lifetime ago. She was fairly certain that pretty much everybody that now marched under her command hated her and hoped that she would die a horrible death.
She could not say that she blamed them.
A student of history, she had pulled a page from the book of George Washington. She had held a public execution and announced that she would be hanging three individuals that had decided to go AWOL. When the sentence was about to be carried out, she granted clemency to one of the trio saying that she believed the person’s claim that the other two had been the instigators. After that, people seemed to jump any time she gave a command.
As she stood staring at the gates of Montague Village and waiting for Dean to show himself and decide whether or not there was going to be a fight, she had time to second guess every single decision that she had made up to this point. It all started with her order to
“So you come here…execute the man who has held us together and stood against Dean and his tyranny and prejudice, and then tell us that we will be going to war?” the man continued to press, not backing down or showing the slightest degree of being intimidated by Catie.
“That is one way of looking at it,” Catie replied with a shrug.
“What is to stop one of us from simply killing you and cancelling your war?”
“That would be us.” Marty suddenly seemed to appear at the man’s left and Melvin on the right.
She had no idea how they did it, but the two monstrous men had been all but invisible until that very moment. Their sudden appearance at this man’s side made everybody step back and form a halo of empty space around the four individuals. Catie put a finger on the man’s chest and tapped him twice.
“There is no welfare system anymore. You either do your part with and for the better of the community, or you are out. It is that simple and it is not up for negotiation. If you would like to change your mind…” She paused, stepping back far enough so that she could let her gaze sweep over all who had yet to step forward. “This will be your last opportunity.”
That seemed to do the trick. Catie was not all that surprised. Nobody wanted to go out into the world alone and have to try and survive. Despite some of the romanticized fantasies of the old fiction, nobody survived out there on their own for too long. That had been the big reason that she had decided to try and make a go of living here.
Even in the many travels that she and Kevin had embarked on during their amazing trip across the country in that doomed attempt to see if perhaps his mother or sister had managed to survive, they had always fallen in with groups of people. Some had remained with them for months, others for just a few weeks or even a couple of days. The world was simply too dangerous for anybody to voluntarily go it alone. That was perhaps why most communities had one universal punishment when dealing with those who did not abide by the rules: banishment.
Being banished was the new form of capital punishment. Now that she had everybody on board, she was prepared to put her full plan into motion. The Beastie Boys would be leaving right away for their part in the mission. The only thing that she struggled with now was the fact that Kalisha and Caleb were still unaccounted for and people considered her a child killer. Now that she had dealt with the general population, Marty and Melvin would start for Montague Village and see if perhaps they could find any signs that the children had gone that way. She was doing her best to make it known that she considered them missing and not dead.
***
Catie stood about fifty yards from the main entry to Montague Village. She was flanked by the Wonder Twins. It had only been three days since she had assumed control, but it already felt like a lifetime ago. She was fairly certain that pretty much everybody that now marched under her command hated her and hoped that she would die a horrible death.
She could not say that she blamed them.
A student of history, she had pulled a page from the book of George Washington. She had held a public execution and announced that she would be hanging three individuals that had decided to go AWOL. When the sentence was about to be carried out, she granted clemency to one of the trio saying that she believed the person’s claim that the other two had been the instigators. After that, people seemed to jump any time she gave a command.
As she stood staring at the gates of Montague Village and waiting for Dean to show himself and decide whether or not there was going to be a fight, she had time to second guess every single decision that she had made up to this point. It all started with her order to
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