Read Online The Second Intelligent Species: The Cyclical Earth by Dale Langlois - Free Book Online

nuthin’ left here, they took too much already. Now git out of here.” The pitch in his trembling voice rose at the end of his last command. It was obvious that he wasn’t anyone to be afraid of. His voice crackedas he pretended to be a bigger man than he really was.
    The little man’s tirade was interrupted by the one in charge. “Shut up, Tex, you’ve said too much already.” He walked closer to greet us. “They’re nothing to worry about.” As soon as he spoke, the other two dropped their guards and became docile.
    “My name’s Nick and this is Beth.” I didn’t think last names were important right now. “We’re from upstate. We came down along the interstate. How many of you are there?
    Without any introduction he spoke. “First things first. I run this place and I decide what questions will be asked and I’ll be the one asking them. Secondly, I’m sorry but there’s not enough food for everyone so I’m going to have to ask you to leave, but before you do, we’ll give you one meal, and all the water you can carry, and then you’ll have to go. Don’t come back. Fair enough?” He came forward like this was a business deal and he was in a rush to meet a deadline.
    “Yea… ok …” I was still in shock. This was not the welcome wagon I was expecting. I expected that people would want us to join their group of survivors—strength in numbers. “We’re no threat to you. We just thought if we could find a group of people, we all would have a better chance of surviving.Beth’s a nurse and maybe she could help with…”
    “We’ve got that all solved,” he interrupted. “Look, here’s how it is. We had enough food up until two days ago. We had some stolen. We would have let you both stay then, but now there’s not enough. Giving away one meal to everyone that passes by is more than the rest of the group would like, but that’s the best we can do. You probably won’t like what we have to feed you either. They won’t let me give away any of the good food. You’re going to get the stuff nobody else wants.”
    I could sense the pressure he felt, but believed he still held the authority of the group. “Well, we’ll take whatever you offer. Thank you.”
    Beth and I walked behind the third guy as he headed back to the rest. He hadn’t even told us his name.
    I kept looking over my shoulder at the scrawny guy. I positioned Beth in front of me. I didn’t like the way he acted. I half expected to get hit in the back of the head as he followed us. He just had a weasel-looking face. I didn’t trust him.
    We walked over to the fire smoldering under a small section of roof that had survived the earthquake. Two people got up so we could sit down. All it took was a hand gesture from their leader. I felt very unwelcome and anxious. Nobody said a word until we both sat down on some cementblocks that were placed in a circle, like campfires when we used to go camping. I thought for sure that somebody would break out a guitar and start playing “Kumbaya.”
    “Have you seen any other people or any other animals alive?” He didn’t waste any time asking the questions he promised he would.
    “We’ve seen a lot of rats, an opossum, and a priest who died soon after we found him. Other than that, we haven’t even seen a dog.” I had said enough and stopped giving any more free information until he made it worth our while.
    “Have you found any place that didn’t burn?”
    “Would we be here if we did?” I said, and then realized that I back talked to him. We were really in no position to piss these people off. “No, I’m sorry. It’s been horrible for us. Beth lost her family, we lost our house and…”
    It was Beth‘s turn to interrupt me. “Nick, they don‘t care.” She surprised me when she spoke up.
    “That’s right honey, we all lost people. Your people weren’t any better than our families.” Some middle-aged African American woman with no teeth blurted out, and then raised her