The Age of Reprisal by Ryan Schow

Author:Ryan Schow [Schow, Ryan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Post-Apocalyptic | Survival | Thriller
Publisher: River City Publishing
Published: 2019-05-23T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-One

Draven woke up, checked on Orlando and the girls, then learned that Fire, Ice and Xavier left to do…whatever it was they were going to do.

He didn’t get mad about being left out, but he did get pissed thinking about the three boys he asked to come over the night before. He understood that the woman he talked to might not want to be a part of anything. She was an adult. Prepared in life enough to make her own decisions.

But the boys?

He crossed the street, knocked on their front door, waited.

“What do you want?” a voice on the other side of the door said.

“I want you to open the door on your own so I don’t have to kick it open myself,” he said casually.

“You gonna hurt us?” the young voice said. It sounded like Ross, the middle boy. Draven put him about ten years old.

“I invited you over for dinner, moron. Of course I’m not going to hurt you!”

The door unlocked and slowly opened up. He saw three faces, all of them looking back at him wondering what he wanted.

“You don’t get it, do you?” he asked.

“Get what?” Chase said. He was the oldest. In his hand, Chase was holding the knife he’d used to stab the guy who took Phillip. There was still blood on it.

“This whole thing about safety in numbers. This is not just your house, and that just isn’t my house across the way. These are our houses in our neighborhood. It means when they attacked us, they attacked you and vice versa. So when I invite you over for dinner it’s not because we’re just dying to have three little turds eat our extra food, it’s so we can figure out what’s what and start to form a strategy. Unless you want what happened last time to happen again, but worse.”

“We ran them out, killed them,” Ross said.

“Yeah,” Phillip agreed.

“They’re not coming back unless they want to get more from us,” Chase said.

“I’ll make you a deal,” Draven said. “If I can take your weapons and get you tied up in your living room in less than five minutes without a cut, scrape or bruise on me, will you come to dinner tonight?”

The three boys looked at each other, then Chase said, “What time?”

“Same as last time. Near sunset. And bring something to eat because we’re running low on food.”

“Fine,” Chase says.

“Good,” Ross says.

He left the boys, then went over to the woman he’d talked to yesterday. He knocked on her door. She was slow to answer. When she did, she seemed less apprehensive than she did the day before.

“Hi,” he said.

“Hello.”

“Why didn’t you come to dinner yesterday?” he asked.

“I prefer my own company to others,” she said. By the look of her, she’d been crying. “Plus, if my kids come home, I don’t want them to think I’m not here.”

“How long have they been gone?” he asked, his tone more congenial. She blinked several times, her eyes becoming reflective, shinny. “Ah, man…I’m sorry.

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