Hungry Independents (Book 2) by Ted Hill

Author:Ted Hill
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: zombie, Young Adult, dystopian, horror, four horsement, coming of age, outbreak, apocalypse, Survival, famine
Publisher: Permuted Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Five

Scout

After a while, Vanessa left Scout alone. He sat on the couch in the dim aftermath of his breakup, wishing he had something better to do than wait for supper.

Raven didn’t need to leave town. They could have worked their problems out together like couples did, not bolt when the first sign of trouble popped up. But Raven chose the easy way out. She was riding into the sunset while Scout sat in their apartment and stewed.

It sucked.

Shadows stretched into the living room as evening approached. He thought about rehearsing Sunday’s sermon, but the idea left him feeling cold. Raven said she was leaving him because of the way she was treated by everyone else. He was left with a congregation that drove his girlfriend away. How was he going to bring those kids the Good News?

Standing up, Scout noticed the early birds milling around Main Street, waiting for the Brittanys to open their doors. He looked at the orange sky in the west and then picked up his spiral notebook.

He read his sermon out loud. The topic was about loving thy neighbor. Scout didn’t miss the irony and his presentation sounded hollow. How could he continue to preach to these kids after the way they treated Raven? He stopped and tossed the notebook on the couch and looked out the window again.

A black storm cloud swelled over the horizon, rolling and breaking apart before closing back in on itself unlike any other cloud he’d ever seen. Scout sunk his knees into the back of the couch and leaned forward for a better look. A grasshopper twitched outside on his window sill and then hopped into the sky, wings buzzing.

“Do you hear that?” someone said on the street below the open window.

“Yeah,” said another boy. “Sounds like a car.”

“Sounds like a really big car. Let’s check it out.”

The boys raced across the street, and Scout leaned closer, cocking his ear. The loud drone sounded like a tractor engine running full bore inside a barn. Scout looked back at the cloud as the massive shadow from its approach blocked the late afternoon sun, creating an eerie kind of twilight. His window screen rattled from the sound and he jumped back. Then the screams started and Scout shot out the door and ran down the stairs to the street.

He slid to a stop on the brick cobbles as something struck him in the face, and then another and another until he threw up his arms, wondering if Billy had returned with more rocks. Twenty or so grasshoppers hummed and twitched at his feet. He picked one up. Several more bounced off his back. Scout looked toward the sky that was falling like a giant hand intending to crush everything underneath.

Across the street, candles were being lit inside Brittany’s. Kids plastered their faces against the large pane windows to see what the deal was and a few began trickling out beneath the awnings, staring up at the creepy darkness.

“Get back inside and get everybody away from the windows now!” Scout ran across the street, waving his arms frantically.

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