Storm by Bonnie S. Calhoun

Author:Bonnie S. Calhoun
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Regression (Civilization)—Fiction;Survival—Fiction;Science fiction;Dystopias;YAF003000;YAF015000;YAF056000
ISBN: 9781441220547
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2016-10-01T04:00:00+00:00

Selah gathered the ladies, and Pasha counted off the buildings then pointed to an alleyway between two tall brick buildings. The light mounted on the building had been knocked off, and the air smelled ripe with intoxicating beverages and human waste.

Selah raised a hand. “Stay here. Let me look first.” She was ready for this, but she hadn’t told Pasha about the woman’s possible fate.

She concentrated the light beam and passed over the alley the first time. Traveling back over it from the other side, Selah saw some waste packaging. She slid back the largest strip. The sight made her want to lose her last meal.

The poor woman lay among the corrugated package refuse. One leg was bent at an odd angle, and a dark crimson spot had spread across the front of her tunic. Dried blood had caked on the outside of her right ear and down the side of her neck, merging with the blood at the corner of her mouth.

Her face. A shiver crawled up Selah’s back. The woman’s face seemed familiar.

Selah bent close to the woman’s ear. “Can you hear me? Pasha sent me to help you.” She checked for a pulse. The woman was dead. “Mother, come here, please.”

Pasha moved slowly into the lane, shuffling up behind Selah without looking down. “Is she . . . dead?”

“Yes. Is that her?” Selah pointed to the body.

Pasha looked over Selah’s shoulder and shuddered. “Poor woman. Yes, that’s her. Can you tell how she died?”

Selah grimaced as she knelt down beside the body. “It looks like she was hit in the head with something heavy.” She looked around the immediate area. “But I don’t think it happened here because there’s too much blood on her and no splatter anywhere.”

Tears slid down Pasha’s cheeks. “So they just discarded her like trash. We can’t leave her here.”

“Brejian will call the proper authorities,” Selah said as she rose. The copper smell of the drying blood made her stomach lurch.

A glint of light caught her attention. Selah hesitated but then gingerly used her foot to move the woman’s bloodied hand.

Pasha had started to walk away but turned back. “What’s the matter?”

“I don’t know.” Selah moved closer to the body. Congealing blood collected in the woman’s hand, obscuring the object except where her fingers had closed over it.

Selah reached out. Her fingers hovered over the gelatinous mess. She gagged, turned away, and grabbed a piece of packing material.

“What are you doing?” Pasha asked.

“I’m trying to see what’s in her hand. The edge is shiny but it’s mired in her drying blood,” Selah said.

“Lottery tokens are gold!” Pasha moved closer.

Selah used the packing material to scrape away the blood, but it wasn’t enough. The other fingers on the woman’s hand would have to be pried open. Selah turned her head away from the body, sucked in a great gulp of relatively clean air, and turned back with a grimace. She swiftly pried the fingers open as her stomach flopped a couple times. She was rewarded with the nonbloodied face of a lottery token.

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