The Tree of Penance: Society Lost, Volume Three (A Post-Apocalyptic Dystopian Thriller) by Bird Steven

Author:Bird, Steven [Bird, Steven]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-07-22T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Hearing the door behind them lock with a bolt from the inside, Jessie turned back to Frank, who lit a match and said, “Have a seat,” as he gestured to a wooden bench lining the wall. Lighting an oil lamp, a soft glow filled the room.

“Paul!” Allison wailed, as she ran over to her husband who lay on a sleeping bag on the floor. “Is he okay?” she cried, seeing bruising and trauma across the side of Paul’s face and feeling a large knot on the back of his head.

“They walloped him pretty good,” Frank said. “He’s alive, though.”

Feeling for his vital signs, Allison exhaled and felt a feeling of relief when she detected a strong pulse, and watched his chest rise and fall with each breath. “Has he been conscious?” she asked.

“When I found him, he was mumbling gibberish,” Frank said as he walked over toward them. “He was by the chicken coop where he had been standing watch. The Hofstadter guy was gone. Then I heard a gunshot come from inside the house. I carried him here and immediately went back to look for others, which was when I saw you running away. What happened? Where is Daddy? Where are Shauna and the kids? Where is Mike?”

Sitting down on the bench, Jessie placed his elbows on his thighs and rested his head in his hands. With a sigh, he said, “The Hofstadter clan seem to be in cahoots with the McCullough bunch. They used the guise of helping us as a Trojan horse. I can’t believe we fell for that. ”

“Oh, God. Billy,” Tina moaned at the revelation. “That means…”

“We don’t know that yet,” Jessie interrupted.

Looking to Jessie, Frank said, “You stay here with them. I’m gonna go take another look for others.”

“No, I’ll come, too,” Jessie insisted.

Holding his hand out to stop Jessie, Frank insisted, “For God’s sake, just do what I said.”

Nodding in agreement, Jessie conceded, “Okay, I’ll bolt the door after you leave. Hurry back.”

“I will,” Frank assured them. Turning to leave the cellar, he slid the rusty bolt open and quietly opened the door before slipping away into the darkness.

Locking the door behind him, Jessie turned to look around the room. It was an old structure. It had to be at least one hundred years old by Jessie’s estimation. The room was damp, but had no standing water. The concrete walls contained pebbles from nearby streams, and at one place, it appeared a large crack caused by a tree root had been hastily repaired.

Shelves lined the walls and contained canned foods, as well as sealed storage containers labeled rice, flour, and cornmeal. There were also several jars of honey, and some Ball canning jars full of various vegetables from the family’s garden. On the back wall of the room were first aid supplies, several knives, an older hunting-style compound bow, and several boxes of ammunition.

Opening an old cigar box, Jessie found a .38 special snub nose revolver, as well as several dozen loose .

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.