Read Online Rise From the Ashes: Lena's Story by Laura Franklin - Free Book Online
Authors: Laura Franklin
Tags: Fiction/Action/Series
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figured that would mean death if we didn’t run into a doctor along the way. I sighed, no use talking about it. I would just have to hope the lettuce milk would work. I kept walking on.
Nothing else for it but to keep moving forward.
Ed had lived in Vermont all his life and he figured we were near Middlebury, which was about ½ way to Burlington. Good, I thought, about 5 more days to go and we could stay in place and start making some long term plans. We got under way and no more was said about wounds or superpowers for a while.
Middlebury looked like a fairy tale gone bad. The streets and sidewalks were wide with lots of big trees in orange and yellow and a few still green. The trees were old and grand with branches that stretched to cover the sidewalks in sweet shade. The houses were big and Victorian, all painted well and like gingerbread homes, with greens, purples, creams and yellows. The colors were enchanting. The buildings were lovely. The dead bodies were putrid.
This was not like other small towns we had wandered through. Those places had people who had gotten sick, headed to their couches or beds or whatever and then faded away. This place was a horror story. We found the normal dead bodies, but it seemed that the survivors here had been hunted down. There were bullet holes in the bodies that were stretched out in the road, or flopped over stalled cars. Some were half-way inside their doorways – shot in the back. Most gross of all, as we made our way to the village green (a park in the middle of town) we saw people hanging from the trees.
Doug had set the village green as a meeting place, but he and the other bike drivers were on the hill just above the park, looking down. He must have recognized us and then turned to keep staring at the corpses swinging in the wind.
“Shit.” Mick laid his hand on Doug’s shoulder.
“You got that right.”
“You’ve been here a little, any idea what happened?”
Doug’s face was white. He didn’t respond right away.
“Mick, forgive me for feeling disgusted by your killing those people before.”
“What?”
“I didn’t let on, but I thought you over-reacted. You had to of. Just shooting people right in the street. But I knew you were basically a good guy and you were on our side. So I didn’t say anything. I was just going to keep my distance and keep my eye on you.”
As if to emphasize the error of Doug’s way, the wind changed direction and swirled a sick-sweet-rotting smell around us. We all gasped and then sighed as the wind settled back down. Doug hung his head.
“When we hit town, we knew something wasn’t right, well; not like the other towns, right. This whole thing is not right.
“I felt weird and knew I couldn’t hear over our engine noise. So I had us all shut the bikes down. They must have heard our bikes. Of course they could, there is no other real noise in the world any more. Thank god, just two of them. They looked like preppies, totally clean shaven and dressed well even now. But they were cackling, like hyenas. Really.
“I hadn’t even seen the people they hung here. But I saw the bullets in the back of some already and all the other people. I saw the guns in their hands.” He gave out a sob.
“Oh Mick. Mick. If you hadn’t spent our rest time teaching us about guns.” He paused, shook his head hard. “We would have been hanging in those trees. I told our ‘gang’ to get off their bikes and get their guns out without letting the guys ahead see. I called out to them like we were friendly – trying to offer them food to go away. I knew it was useless, but they thought we were helpless. I was just buying time. I pulled out the loaded gun myself. It was going to be 6 against two, but we could still be killed. It was obvious they had experience. But maybe not with anyone who was fighting back on their terms.
“We opened fire when they were laughing
Nothing else for it but to keep moving forward.
Ed had lived in Vermont all his life and he figured we were near Middlebury, which was about ½ way to Burlington. Good, I thought, about 5 more days to go and we could stay in place and start making some long term plans. We got under way and no more was said about wounds or superpowers for a while.
Middlebury looked like a fairy tale gone bad. The streets and sidewalks were wide with lots of big trees in orange and yellow and a few still green. The trees were old and grand with branches that stretched to cover the sidewalks in sweet shade. The houses were big and Victorian, all painted well and like gingerbread homes, with greens, purples, creams and yellows. The colors were enchanting. The buildings were lovely. The dead bodies were putrid.
This was not like other small towns we had wandered through. Those places had people who had gotten sick, headed to their couches or beds or whatever and then faded away. This place was a horror story. We found the normal dead bodies, but it seemed that the survivors here had been hunted down. There were bullet holes in the bodies that were stretched out in the road, or flopped over stalled cars. Some were half-way inside their doorways – shot in the back. Most gross of all, as we made our way to the village green (a park in the middle of town) we saw people hanging from the trees.
Doug had set the village green as a meeting place, but he and the other bike drivers were on the hill just above the park, looking down. He must have recognized us and then turned to keep staring at the corpses swinging in the wind.
“Shit.” Mick laid his hand on Doug’s shoulder.
“You got that right.”
“You’ve been here a little, any idea what happened?”
Doug’s face was white. He didn’t respond right away.
“Mick, forgive me for feeling disgusted by your killing those people before.”
“What?”
“I didn’t let on, but I thought you over-reacted. You had to of. Just shooting people right in the street. But I knew you were basically a good guy and you were on our side. So I didn’t say anything. I was just going to keep my distance and keep my eye on you.”
As if to emphasize the error of Doug’s way, the wind changed direction and swirled a sick-sweet-rotting smell around us. We all gasped and then sighed as the wind settled back down. Doug hung his head.
“When we hit town, we knew something wasn’t right, well; not like the other towns, right. This whole thing is not right.
“I felt weird and knew I couldn’t hear over our engine noise. So I had us all shut the bikes down. They must have heard our bikes. Of course they could, there is no other real noise in the world any more. Thank god, just two of them. They looked like preppies, totally clean shaven and dressed well even now. But they were cackling, like hyenas. Really.
“I hadn’t even seen the people they hung here. But I saw the bullets in the back of some already and all the other people. I saw the guns in their hands.” He gave out a sob.
“Oh Mick. Mick. If you hadn’t spent our rest time teaching us about guns.” He paused, shook his head hard. “We would have been hanging in those trees. I told our ‘gang’ to get off their bikes and get their guns out without letting the guys ahead see. I called out to them like we were friendly – trying to offer them food to go away. I knew it was useless, but they thought we were helpless. I was just buying time. I pulled out the loaded gun myself. It was going to be 6 against two, but we could still be killed. It was obvious they had experience. But maybe not with anyone who was fighting back on their terms.
“We opened fire when they were laughing
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