Stone Cold Fear | Book 1 | Powerless by Fawkes K.M

Author:Fawkes, K.M. [Fawkes, K.M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Post-Apocalyptic | EMP | Survival
Published: 2021-07-22T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

Eventually, after Pete had seen to the rest of his unit, he changed back into his regular uniform. Then he chose a corner outside the control room, sank down on the floor, and breathed out a heavy sigh. He couldn’t decide if he had enough energy to eat. Chewing might as well be a marathon, he was that tired.

The prison guards stuck together, as did the kitchen staff, sitting in groups. Pete’s men broke into smaller groups that mimicked their social lives when they weren’t in active service. Marie had joined one of the groups, and Pete heard Baldwin ask her how her brother had come to be incarcerated in Mueller. Pete wondered if she’d give him shit, tell him to mind his own business, but instead, she began to speak.

“Dillon was a year younger than me, and we’d always been there for each other.”

Pete finally took a bite of the bar and thought about how sick he was of military rations.

“Mom had a drinking problem so Dad got custody of us, but then he died and we had to go live with her. I was seventeen at the time, and Dillon sixteen. Mom was a crazy drunk, one minute making our favorite meals and the next, threatening our lives. It was a hard way to live. Then I met Steve.”

Marie sipped from a bottle of water and then continued her story. “I met him in a bar known for not looking too closely at a person’s ID. He was older and traveled for business. He treated me like a princess, or a goddess. Whatever. The point is, I was smitten. And you need to understand something about being smitten. It’s not just about being in love. It’s about being stupid in love. Which I was.

“Anyhow, Steve wanted me to come to Nebraska, where he lived. He told me we would get married, the whole deal. Dillon came into my room as I was packing my bags to leave and asked me where I was going. I told him, and he begged me to take him with me. Begged me not to leave him there with our mother.

“‘Oh, Dill,’ I said. ‘Don’t be so melodramatic.’ As though I hadn’t stood across from Mom as she waved a hot iron at me, screaming that she was going to scar my face. As though I didn’t know exactly what he was talking about. But all I could see was myself.

“I got to Nebraska, and Steve set me up in a shitty hotel at the edge of town. Turned out he had a wife and three kids. I was so ashamed, and felt so dumb, that I couldn’t tell Mom or Dillon. I got a job, finished high school, saved my money, and went to college for nursing. In the meantime, living with a crazy woman broke Dillon, and he turned to drugs. Before long he was stealing, and getting involved with more and more of the wrong kinds of people. He

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