The Forge of Darkness by Scott B. Williams

Author:Scott B. Williams [Williams, Scott B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-05-16T23:00:00+00:00

* * *

Benny moved as quickly as he could in the dark, cutting through the woods on the shortest route back to the house. It was essentially the same route he and Lisa and Stacy had taken that afternoon when they set out to find a Christmas tree. He knew the men on horseback would be using the gravel lane to get to the house, and he wished now they’d done more to make it less appealing to visitors. The lane made it obvious that a house was nearby, even though Mitch had removed the mailbox months before. If the condition of the barbed wire fences and the presence of the cattle weren’t evidence enough, in the daylight the house and barn were visible through the trees from certain angles along the road. And while the gate at the entrance might discourage honest passerby, Benny knew men such as these could simply ride their horses around it after cutting the fence.

The extra weapons he carried slowed him a bit, but Benny expected he would need them soon. Both of the rifles he took off the men he killed were imported eastern European AK-47s, modified to semi-auto for the civilian market. Such weapons had been plentiful and cheap at gun shows and pawn shops before the blackout and were a common choice now among the thugs who were out to raid and pillage in the aftermath of the collapse. Benny didn’t like them for his personal use, because in his opinion most weren’t accurate enough to be worth a damn for hunting. But they were reliable and would give him a lot of firepower, even if he only had the single 30-round magazine that was in each when he picked them up.

Benny didn’t know exactly what he was going up against, but he knew he needed more than his shotgun. He was pretty sure the automatic fire he’d heard from the house wasn’t from an AK though. The rate was different, more like multiple 3-round bursts back-to-back than straight full-auto, and he figured if these men were wasting ammo on spray and pray this long after the collapse, it was probably a common caliber like 5.56mm they could have easily gotten more of in their pillaging. They may have even stolen the weapon from a law enforcement vehicle or taken it from an officer they killed along the way.

Benny hadn’t gone far before he came upon the wheeled travois, abandoned and lying over on its side in the leaves. Seeing the outline of it there in the dark was heartbreaking; his hopes it would be of use in getting Tommy safely to the house completely shattered. The girls had not gotten there with it in time, but Benny knew it wasn’t their fault. He had made the mistaken assumption that there was only one shooter at large and had left Tommy to go find him. He would have dragged Tommy all the way home right by himself if he’d had any idea so many more were closing in on the farm.

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.