Read Online Instinct by Ike Hamill - Free Book Online

parked in a semicircle, all pointing with their headlights towards the house. Half of them were running, the other half were burning the headlights from the battery. Judy crawled inside a vehicle and curled up on the seat. She slept.

 
    CHAPTER 6: PENNSYLVANIA
     

     
    T IM WEIGHED EVERYTHING BEFORE he loaded it into the plane. He wanted to balance the load and he wanted to know exactly what to expect. He ran through all his periodic maintenance, even items that weren’t yet due. He brought enough rations, for both himself and Cedric, to last a week—ten days if he remained thrifty.  
    “What am I forgetting?” he asked.
    Cedric sat on the tarmac. He knew he was supposed to wait until Tim told him to jump up onto the wing.  
    “It’s not like we’re going to be flying around for a week. We’ll have to land and find more fuel. I’m not even going to let it get below half a tank, in case we can’t find a hand pump. I should bring that siphon.”
    Cedric wagged his tail and it swished back and forth on the ground.
    “Yeah, okay, get in,” he said.
    Cedric sprang up onto the wing and then nosed open the door. He was in his seat with a flash of auburn fur.
    Tim could barely resist the urge to go back in the little house and wander around again. He’d already made several passes through the place. Anything he needed was already packed. It was an adorable airstrip. Tim was sad to leave it behind. When he’d discovered it, he thought he might never leave. Now, he was about to depart just because he couldn’t think of a reason to stay. There might be more people out there somewhere, and it was more important to find them than to stay at his perfect airstrip.
    He climbed into his seat and buckled Cedric into his. The dog closed his mouth and let out a low whine.
    “I brought your ball. It’s in the back. I can’t have it rolling around on the floor while we’re in the air.”
    Cedric didn’t cock his head at the word “ball” like he usually did. His eyes were fixed on the little pond next to the house. It was his favorite place to get muddy. Cedric let out another tiny whine.
    “I know,” Tim said. “If we don’t find anything, we can come back. I promise.”
    He pulled out his preflight checklist.

    ✪   ✪   ✪   ✪   ✪

    Tim headed north and west until he found the shore of Lake Erie. He flew low and slow up the shore, looking for any signs of life. He was looking for movement or smoke. Cedric looked out the window for a while and then settled against his harness. The dog’s head bobbed as he slept.
    This lake seemed very democratic. Sure, there were golf courses and plenty of big, stately houses, but there were also a ton of little camps and farms along the shore. This wasn’t just a playground for the rich. This was everyone’s lake. Tim thought about finding a manual on water landing and looking for a plane with pontoons on the bottom. Maybe he could live right on the shore. Fuel would be a problem. At least with wheels on his landing gear he could always find a stretch of highway and steal some gas from an abandoned car.
    Up ahead, a spit of land extended into the lake. The shore was stacked with big gray stones that looked out of place. The whole extension looked like maybe it was man made. That was one way to get more shore property—you just created it. The stones caught his eye at first, but what kept his attention was the white fluttering in the lawn. Near a long building, strung between two trees, someone had hung sheets. They blew in a strong breeze. Tim scanned the building and lawn, looking for any other movement.
    Little wind-driven waves lapped at the rocks. The branches of the trees swayed gently. Tim couldn’t find the owner of the sheets anywhere.  
    “Wake up,” Tim said to Cedric. He nudged the dog’s shoulder. “There might be someone down there.”
    The dog seemed to wake up with his nose first. It began twitching and then his eyes opened. He looked at