Home Fires by N. C. Reed

Author:N. C. Reed [Reed, N. C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction | Post-Apocalyptic
Publisher: Creative Texts Publishers, LLC
Published: 2018-09-14T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

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Clay was honestly glad to see night fall. This had been a long day. He was working the response crew tonight on the late shift, so he hadn't even bothered to go home, choosing to hang out with the others in Building Two. He sat with Janice for a while in the radio room, listening to military frequencies. It was something he and Jose both had been doing of late, but so far, they'd heard nothing.

Clay firmly believed that at least some of the military apparatus had survived, but that didn't mean they were anywhere around Peabody. There was no regular military presence nearby so it was long odds they would see or hear a regular unit at all. But there was nothing that said National Guard units, or at least rogue elements of them couldn't be out and moving. Again, Clay didn't think anywhere near their area or they would probably have already either leveled Holman or else teamed up with him.

But listening gave them something to do. He wondered where Jose was at the moment.

-

“Are you going to speak to me, mamacita, or just keep ignoring me?” Jose asked softly in Spanish. Martina was at the sink cleaning dishes from supper.

“Why ask me to go with you only to foist me off on someone else?” she didn't bother to turn around as she replied in Spanish as well. “I was having a good time being with you right up until you shoved me in with the others.”

“I had something I had to do and I didn't want you to be there,” he replied honestly. “I didn't want you to see it,” he added. At that she stopped what she was doing and turned to look at him.

“What did you do?” she asked him, head cocked to one side.

“Talbot was threatening the woman and her kids,” Jose refused to lie. “He also threatened us. Threatened to find someone who wanted information about us and tell them whatever he knew if it helped to destroy us.”

Her eye widened at such a threat. How could a man do something like that to a woman he claimed to love?

“What did you do?” she repeated, less of a challenge this time.

“I made sure he couldn't do that,” Jose looked her straight in the face as he replied.

“By killing him?” Martina asked softly.

“Yes,” was his simple reply.

“I see,” Martina sighed.

“And that's why I didn't want you to be there,” Jose admitted. “I promised. . .I swore to do whatever I had to do, regardless of what it was to keep you, Robby and Rae safe. Whatever it is,” he stressed. “He was a threat. He had to go. I didn't want you to see me do something like that,” he admitted.

“Why?” she asked, and this time there was a hint of challenge in her voice.

“Martina, would you want me to see you do something that you were afraid would make me hate you?” he asked. “Or would you try to make sure I didn't have to watch?”

“I could never hate you, idiot,” she snorted.

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