Fear the Fallout by Kyla Stone

Author:Kyla Stone [Stone, Kyla]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
ISBN: 9781945410291
Publisher: Paper Moon Press
Published: 2019-01-07T06:00:00+00:00

25

Dakota

Dakota watched in tense silence as the group slowly closed in around the first responders. She had hoped the altercation would play itself out without escalating, but it didn’t look promising.

She and Logan were still barely visible at the corner of the building, but the attackers’ backs were turned to the street; the responders were too busy fending off the crazies to notice them.

“This is certifiably insane!” The male responder jabbed his gloved finger at Bandanna. “I’ve had it with you people! Take your circus somewhere else!”

Dakota agreed with him. Every word he’d said was correct, but it wasn’t the right move. Instead of diffusing the situation, the tension ramped up tenfold.

He was trying to be the hero, but he’d just made things worse.

The tough, muscled guy in the black tank top who’d been hanging back, mostly watching, shifted and lifted his pistol slightly. His face darkened. “You people? What the hell does that mean?”

“That a racist remark?” Pinstripe growled. “You a bigot? That why you couldn’t bother yourself to get down here before now?” His voice rose. “Is that why you let my wife die?”

“What the hell? No!” the male responder sputtered angrily. “I’m volunteering for this, you festering buttholes—”

“Park!” the female responder warned sharply.

“You threatening us now?” Bandanna stalked up to him, halting a couple feet away. He towered over the short first responder, whose head only reached Bandanna’s bulky chest.

Still, the guy didn’t back down an inch. His gloved hands were balled into trembling fists. He was losing it. “Enough!” he exploded. “Everybody back the hell up, right now!”

“No, I don’t think I will.” Bandanna lifted the length of rebar like a sword and pressed it to the guy’s throat. “I’ll take that radiation suit you’ve got, right now.”

They were crazed, out of their minds from pain, desperation, and shock. Logic and reasoning weren’t even making a dent.

They were going to seriously hurt someone.

Instinctively, Dakota started forward.

“What’re you doing?” Logan hissed. He grabbed her arm and pulled her back around the corner of the coffee shop.

“Those are first responders!” she whispered fiercely. “They’re risking their lives to help people.”

He blinked at her. “Still not a good idea.”

She lifted the M4 carbine and pressed the butt against her shoulder. “We should help them.”

“We’re not in danger. If we get involved, it’ll waste time, energy, and someone will get hurt. Likely us. Those people are psychos. They could attack for no reason at all.”

“Like they’re doing now—to innocent people.”

Even as she spoke, part of her agreed with him. It was past 5:40 p.m. and they hadn’t even reached Palm Cove yet, though they were close now.

They’d already been out here longer than planned. Every minute they spent in the hot zone exposed them to more radiation.

Every minute wasted might be the difference between life and death for Eden.

In a crisis, you only took care of yourself and your own.

That was the first rule of survival.

Ezra hadn’t taught her that. That one, she’d learned on her own.

And yet…

Ezra helped you. He took her and Eden in when he could have turned them away or even shot them.

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