Journey Through Darkness: Book 2 (An EMP Post-Apocalyptic Survival Story) by Mark J. Russell & J.J. Holden

Author:Mark J. Russell & J.J. Holden [Russell, Mark J. & Holden, J.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-03-27T05:00:00+00:00

14

Leo couldn’t believe the girl’s condition. It wasn’t just the injuries she’d suffered in the accident that had killed the Gordons and her walk back to the house—assuming she was being honest about that. The kid was also appallingly thin, her skin looked terrible, her hair brittle and dull. It was the kind of wasted look he was used to seeing on junkies that had stopped eating because they only lived to feed their addictions anymore. It was the look of chronic malnutrition and neglect.

He knew that Rhodes was involved in some really unpleasant business. The kidnapping and selling of kids had always been a part of the business, but it had always been abstract to Leo. Buyers used code phrases to negotiate payment for and delivery of merchandise. It had always been no different than the movement of drugs or stolen goods, the laundering of money, the old-school protection rackets.

With Katie Mason sitting right in front of him, hollow-eyed, stinking of festering wounds, trying to look even smaller than she was, terrified of strips of plastic and a basement, that part of the business had suddenly gained a very human face. Even if that face hadn’t resembled his own dead daughter’s, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to ignore it.

He’d always been able to not see the tweakers and burnouts that were slowly dying on the product Rhodes sold. When he and his guys had to rough somebody up or take the big guy’s displeasure to the ultimate end, Leo had always justified it by telling himself they were adults who knew what they were getting into.

He couldn’t pretend that snatching a kid off the street and selling her to people who would treat her like the Gordons had clearly treated Katie was a predictable result of conscious life choices. Jeff might still have been able to think of her as a “loose end,” like he’d done dozens of times himself with people that had crossed or failed Rhodes. Leo couldn’t do it anymore. Not with kids, at least. While Katie huddled in a tight ball on the far corner of the couch, he wondered if he’d be able to talk Rhodes out of that line of business once things got back to normal. Failing that, he’d have to find somebody else to work for.

Phil came out of the master bedroom. “None of the handguns are better than what we’ve got. Got a decent hunting rifle, if we need to do some distance work, and a couple good shotguns.”

“You know if the Gordons had a hacksaw?” Leo asked Katie.

“One of them’s already cut down,” Phil said. “Unless you want me to saw off the other one.”

“I’ll have Jeff do it. I need you to run downstairs and get Katie’s clothes.”

Phil gave him a sidewise, curious look.

“Just do it, all right?” Leo said. He turned to Katie. “Where are your clothes?”

“My room was over to the left of the laundry area. Can’t miss it. I don’t have a dresser. All my stuff is on the floor next to the bed.

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