EMP Post-Apocalyptic Survival by Hunt, James (acx book reading .TXT) 📗

“Willie—”

“Save it!” Willie snarled, Carolina still squirming and crying in his arms. “All of you women think you’re so clever. You think that your wits will save you when the chips are down, but you want to know what will save you? A man. You need a man around to save you, and when there are none, you’ll find yourselves vulnerable.” He looked down to Carolina, grimacing. “That’s the lesson you need to learn.” He looked up to shout at the rest of the women. “That’s the lesson you all need to learn!” He raised his voice and glanced out to the women from the clinic by the tents, and then finally, he looked back to Mrs. Riker. “And you need to learn that you can’t save everyone.”

Nancy knew this was the moment. She needed to find a shot and take it. If she didn’t, then Carolina was going to die.

Mrs. Riker sensed it as well, and she dropped the act and drew her sidearm, aiming it at Willie. “Let her go, now!”

“Everyone must understand that there are consequences when you cross me,” Willie said, raising his voice as Carolina sobbed. “A woman must understand her place, and if there is no other man to show them, then I will take it upon myself to do it.”

“Willie, I’m warning you,” Mrs. Riker said.

Nancy tried to line up the crosshairs over Willie, but each time she thought she was close, Carolina would pass into her line of sight. She had no shot.

Willie pulled Carolina even closer, brought his lips to her ear, and while Nancy couldn’t hear what he said, she could read the words on his lips. “Say goodbye, bitch.”

The gunshot rang loudly, and everyone jumped, screamed, or gasped. Mrs. Riker lunged forward, tackling both Carolina and Willie to the ground, but Nancy remained frozen in shock, the gun still gripped in her hands, arms extended.

After all of the training, everything she had done, Nancy had frozen. She stared at the blood that stained the grass and knew that part of what happened here was her fault. She should have trusted herself to take the shot. She had hit targets like this so many times. But when it counted, she had hesitated. And she would have to live with that for the rest of her life.

But then Nancy watched as Mrs. Riker got up from the ground, holding Carolina in her arms. And Mrs. Riker wasn’t holding up a body or a limp corpse. She was holding a very pale-looking—and alive—Carolina.

When Nancy stared at the blood on the ground again, she saw that it was coming out of the side of Willie’s head and that it was he who lay motionless on the ground.

Mrs. Riker pulled Carolina away from the gruesome sight of Willie’s body and then set her down on the grass to look her over near Nancy. “Are you all right?”

Carolina was trembling, her eyes wide, her pupils dilated. She looked like she was catatonic or about to vomit. But she remained quiet.

“Nancy!” Mrs. Riker shouted as if she had been calling her name for several minutes.

“Huh?” Nancy asked, finally peeling her eyes off of the blood from Willie’s head.

“I need you to get everyone back,” Mrs. Riker said. “Now!”

Nancy nodded and then realized the crowd had gathered even closer now that the danger had subsided and curiosity had taken control. “Okay, everyone, move back. Let’s go, give her some room.” She managed to push the people aside, giving Mrs. Riker and Carolina some much-needed space. But what Nancy couldn’t figure out was who had pulled the trigger?

She knew for sure that it wasn’t her, and the angle of the bullet wound Nancy saw on the side of police had didn’t match up with the angle that Mrs. Riker had on him. That meant someone from the tower must have taken the shot. And when she looked up and saw Jane Percy walk down the last few steps with the sniper rifle in her arms, Nancy’s heart skipped a beat.

“Is she all right?” Jane asked, rushing over to join Mrs. Riker, who was looking over Carolina.

“She’s in shock,” Mrs. Riker answered.

Jane looked back over her shoulder to the dead man. “Bastard. He never should have been let into this place.” She stood and saw the approaching crowd. “This is the kind of thing that wouldn’t happen under my watch.”

Mrs. Riker looked up at Jane and the surrounding crowd listening to her.

“I hope everyone remembers that at the vote later this evening,” Jane said, and then she pointed back to Willie’s body. “Because we can’t afford to have any more of those mistakes walk through our front gates.”

Jane walked away, but Nancy saw as the entire crowd watched her leave. She had captured their attention, she had saved the day, and Nancy looked at Mrs. Riker, who realized the same thing she had mentioned before.

Jane Percy wanted to win no matter the cost.

16

Mark’s unit of men was making good time on their march toward Asheville. He was confident they would arrive in time to set up a scouting party to get a good feel for the military units that were heading their way.

Mark had stopped for a break so as not to tire out his men before the fight. He could already see the signs of battle fatigue on many of the men and didn’t want to push them to the brink. They had been fighting nonstop since the EMP had been detonated, and some of the men were growing vocal about their dissent.

And while Mark had his own doubts, he didn’t voice them aloud. He needed to stay the course because any hesitation he showed would eventually leak back to the supreme leader, and Mark knew the price of doubt better than anyone. There wouldn’t be a third chance for him.

But the longer Mark sat and dwelled on the events that had happened in the previous town, the harder it was to quiet those