Read Online Snareville by David Youngquist - Free Book Online Page A

her eyes. "But we’ve had contact with other places. There’s a few little pockets of people like us, and a few military bases are organizing. It’s not going to be easy, but we can survive. There’s about twenty of us now who've caught pregnant. Even some of the women in their thirties who've already got kids in junior high school. We just kinda started thinkin' like this.”
    Cori considered for a few moments. “I didn’t know about the other places. How’d you find out?”
    “ My old house out in the timber has a generator and Internet hooked into a satellite. We’ve even been in touch with the CDC up in Chicago. They’re working on a vaccine, and they want us preggers to come in and get inoculated. I just don’t know if I wanna make the trip… or if I believe they've got any sort of a vaccine at this point that really works.”
    “ True. I guess we wait it out.”
    “ Yeah. It’s gone pandemic. When this is over, it’s still going to be a mess.”
    “ So… are you girls waitin' for the stores to open to start shavin' again?”
    Jenny laughed. “Dull razors and cold water are not a good combination. You should know.”
    “ It’s driving me nuts to let my legs get so furry.”
    “ You get used to it. Now, what should we do with that hair on your head?”
    Cori ran a couple fingers through her thick nap. A few inches of curl, then it went straight where the perm ran out from the last time she'd been to the hairdresser. “If I had a set of clippers, I’d just shear it all off.”
    “ You’re in luck. We’ve got a battery-powered beard trimmer that’s dying to be used.” Jenny led the way into the house. “Danny only uses it about twice a month.”
     
     
     
    Leaving an hour later, Cori felt around at the short, natural curls atop her head. She couldn’t remember a time in her life when her hair had been so short.
    She walked through town with a lot to digest. We can fight back every way possible . Snareville boasted a little more than three hundred people in town. Seventy-five men, Jenny said, a hundred and thirty women, and the rest kids. Up in the hills lived a hundred more at the Mennonite camp. But now she knew there were others out there, and even some forms of real civilization.
    Pausing, Cori looked around. The kids were still in school for the morning, but she saw a few people out in their gardens. They leaned on rakes or hoes as they chitchatted back and forth, speaking of life.
    Everything looked so normal.
    When she got back to the Jaques’ place, Cori headed out back to help with the garden. It needed weeding, and, with little else to do, she thought it a good task at which to contemplate.
    Hours later, the kids came home from school. Before long, Cori spotted Tony loading up the wagon with his bucket.
    “ Hey, there,” Cori called to him. “You mind if I go with?”
    “ You wanna go fishin’?”
    Cori crossed the yard as the kids giggled behind her. “I grew up along the Mississippi. My Daddy took us girls fishin’ damn near every weekend.”
    “ Load up, then.”
    Tony swung aboard the machine and fired it up. Cori hopped on behind.
    "I'll be back in the morning," she told the kids. "Make sure you get your homework done."
    With that, Tony revved up and pointed the quad away from town.
     
     
     
    They stopped at a tiny house built within a few feet of the south canal levee. People from Chicago once used the place for a weekend retreat and hunting cabin. Tony opened the door to go in and fetch the rest of his supplies. Inside, Cori saw clusters of jugs, hooks tied underneath. Nets occupied another corner of the cramped main room. Along one wall stood three rows of milk jugs, filled with a light brown substance.
    “ My bombs,” Tony said simply, then added, “Help me grab the jugs."
    Cori looked at him, brow cocked.
    “ The milk jugs… the ones I fish with,” Tony sputtered. “With the fish hooks tied to them.”
    Cori smiled as she helped gather what they needed.