Enemy Unseen: A Post Apocalyptic Adventure by Kevin Partner

Author:Kevin Partner [Partner, Kevin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scribbleit
Published: 2024-01-08T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

They passed another elementary school shortly after leaving the house with the reptiles. The wind had gotten up, but it couldn’t penetrate the fleece-lined skiing jacket that had once belonged to the man in the shed.

Evelyn had taken the lead now. She seemed to have been invigorated by the warm clothes and chocolate biscuits she’d scavenged from the kitchen.

Nate shook his head and smiled as he watched the black cloth bag move rhythmically on its strap across her shoulders. It was a ukulele she’d found in the reptile room as they were getting ready to leave, and she’d insisted on bringing it with them, despite Nate’s protests. There was no doubt it was a good one — a Millar custom tenor made of solid mango wood — but he couldn’t imagine playing anything anymore. Back in the day, he’d followed in the steps of Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty in taking to the diminutive instrument when he was on the road, and he’d occasionally gotten other members of Union Beat to strum along. Unfortunately, though the ukulele was about the simplest instrument to learn, the others had no patience even for learning one finger chords. And after the band broke up, he didn’t travel much and stuck to his acoustic guitar.

He looked away from the ukulele bag and back to the dull world he was walking through. There was no point in looking inside the elementary school. He couldn’t see a single intact window as they walked along the outside of the one-story building, picking their way from one car wreck to the next. It had been set alight, and comprehensively destroyed. Why? Because while human beings were capable of deep compassion, when brought together in large groups they devolved to the level of the least among them and became a ravening, destructive rabble.

Leaving the school behind, they passed into an area that felt bizarrely familiar. The homes here were smaller; bungalows on large, grassy plots with family cars parked outside. They could be in suburban England if it weren’t for the unusual regularity of the streets.

He shook his head to dismiss the home-sick malaise that lurked at the margins of his thoughts.

And then, quite suddenly, they saw people. Living people.

“What the hell?” he said, moving alongside Evelyn as she stood and took it in.

They’d walked for an hour and hadn’t seen a single living soul, but in the space of one block they found themselves in what almost felt like a living suburb.

Except that, as he looked more closely, he realized these people were waiting in line. Good grief, had the government finally responded? Was there a working government? This felt like a revelation, having seen no evidence of one in the weeks since the attack.

“Hey, don’t cut the line!” a voice called as they walked along the road, past people waiting.

He was an old man pushing his wife in a wheelchair. Well, presumably it was his wife.

Evelyn ignored Nate’s protest and approached the man.

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