Read Online Sunrise by Mike Mullin - Free Book Online

finished cutting off a chunk of my T-shirt.
    Darla had reached an old Chevy Silverado. She grabbed a piece of conduit, ripping it free of the brackets that held it to the underside of the car. The wires inside the conduit didn’t break, though. “They made these old trucks too dang well,” she muttered as she yanked on the conduit, trying unsuccessfully to break the wires.
    I stepped over to her. “He’s right, you know. I’d do anything to get you back. Anything.”
    “Let me see your knife.”
    I handed it to her, hilt first. She took it and started sawing away at the wire. I stood and watched quietly.
    The chunk of conduit came free, and Darla handed back the knife. Our gloved fingers touched as I took its hilt. “I know,” she whispered.
    “I’ll go,” Ed said. I hadn’t even noticed him following us. He grabbed one end of the hunk of cloth I was holding, but I didn’t let go. “If they take me hostage, nobody’ll care.”
    “No,” I said, “I’d care.”
    “He’s right.” Darla handed the conduit to Ed. It drooped from his hand, a bit too floppy to make a really good flagpole.
    “I can do it,” I said, pulling on the rag.
    Ed held the rag tight. “But you shouldn’t.”
    “Alex,” Darla said softly, “let go.”
    I dropped the rag, and Ed tied it to the top of the conduit. He handed me his rifle and held the improvised flag high over his head. He walked slowly toward the gate, waving it over his head. Darla and I followed as far as the gate so we could peek above it.
    Ed’s march from the gate to the panel van seemed interminable. He held both hands above his head, one waving the white flag, the other open and turned out toward the enemy. When he was about twenty yards from the panel van, two guys ran up and patted him down. Then all three of them walked slowly around the panel van, disappearing from view.
    That made me uncomfortable. What would I do if Ed never came back? Send someone else? Go myself? It wasn’t that I distrusted Ed; the last couple of days had changed my view of him forever. The problem with the past is that you can never truly escape from it. Ed would always be a former member of a flenser gang. But despite his cannibalistic past, he’d saved my life—probably twice— and been there for me in every way that mattered yesterday during the fight and its aftermath.
    Darla was leaning against the car wall beside me. I turned and muttered to her.
    “What if he doesn’t come back?”
    “He’ll come back.”
    “They might not let him.”
    “If you don’t quit obsessing about it, I’m going to slap you.”
    “But—”
    Darla flattened her hand and wound up in an exaggerated gesture. I put an arm up to block. She changed direction and swatted me on the butt, far harder than necessary to make her point.
    “What’s with the extra English?” I said.
    “That? That was a love pat. Wait until I’m feeling better.” Her grin was wide and wicked. It faded suddenly, and she leaned in to kiss me. “Alex, you’re doing great. Ed’s going to come back. Try not to worry so much.”
    I smiled despite my churning thoughts. The arguments we’d had with Uncle Paul about my age when we first reached the farm seemed like scenes from a previous lifetime now. Whether Darla and I could share a bed seemed utterly trivial in comparison to the life-and-death decisions we were making now.
    When I turned back to the wall, nothing was moving. A few dozen guys pointed their rifles down the road at us. We pointed our rifles back. No one shot. The wait stretched out forever.
    Darla leaned close. “I brought our food stash with me. The stuff we brought back from Iowa. It’s in the truck.” Good thinking,” I said.
    We passed the time by sharing the food with all our fighters. Those trucks contained Warren’s whole supply of frozen pork—I’d be willing to bet anything on it. Soon we’d either have plenty of food or we’d be dead—it didn’t make sense to save anything.
    Finally