America The Dead Book Two: The Road To Somewhere Read Online Free PDF Page B

smile on her face, maybe to
offset the pistol, Mike thought.
    The front drivers door of the lead Hummer
opened and a large red-haired man stepped out onto the cracked and
buckled pavement. The other doors opened and the rest of the party
began to climb out.
    “ Jeff,” Mike asked?
    “ Mike,” Jeff Simmons responded
with a smile. They both nodded and then shook hands
heartily.
    A tall woman, almost as large as
Jeff himself stepped next to him. “This is my woman, Shar... Sharon ,” Jeff
said.
    Patty, Kate and Janet Dove stepped
forward.
    Sharon smiled and took their
offered hands, “Shar... To pretty much everyone,” She said.
    It took a few minutes to introduce everyone,
and then they made their way to the tables. There were three small
children, about the same age as Janelle and Brian, accompanied by
an older woman. She took a seat next to Lilly where she had settled
Janelle and Brian to keep the two smaller children out of the
way.
    “ Who is you?” a blonde haired
little boy asked Lilly. “I'm Ben,” he smiled.
    Lilly smiled back, “I'm Lilly,” she told him.
“This is Brian, and this is Janelle.”
    The little boy looked suspiciously at Janelle.
Probably at the age where he didn't quite trust little girls yet,
Lilly thought. He smiled shyly at Brian.
    “ I'm Jessica, Lilly,” the older
woman told Lilly. She turned to the other two children who were
trying to hide behind her. “And this is Mark, and this little lady
is Rain.
    Lilly smiled. “Hello, Mark. Hello, Rain. Rain
is such a pretty name.”
    “ My mom told it to me,” The little
girl said seriously. She fixed her eyes on Janelle. “I got some
dolls. You got some?”
    Janelle turned and pointed at the
store behind her. “I got some. I got a lot. Are you going to live with us? ”
    Rain shrugged her shoulders. “I don't know
'cause nobody told me, 'cause I'm just a kid.”
    Janelle solemnly nodded her head.
    Rain got up, crossed the short distance,
climbed up on the seat next to Janelle and sat down.
    The other couple from the third Hummer had made
their way over to the table. They were young, possibly younger than
Lilly, Mike thought. He reminded himself how much everything had
changed though, how mature eighteen was now, how actual age didn't
have as much to do with life as it once had.
    As Mike shook hands, he realized he had been
wrong. David, the young man, was certainly Lilly's age, maybe a
year or two older. But the woman, Arlene, was much older. Maybe in
her early thirties. Again he reminded himself that it didn't
matter. Even so, it reminded him of Lilly and Tom. Lilly came over,
Tom with her, and the two couples seemed to hit it off
immediately.
    The entire camp was bubbling over with
conversation. Janet Dove, Patty, Tim and Annie began serving
breakfast to the newcomers. The hum of conversation dropped lower
as the camp began to settle down to eat.
    ~The Dog~
    The Dog sniffed along the edge of the tree
line. He had wandered away from the camp, attracted by the smell of
the cows. It was the most wonderful scent he had ever smelled. He
had already found two pilings of dropping and rolled in them. It
was good. Like heaven, he thought.
    But the scent he was following now was even
more intoxicating. It was the smell of something dead, but he
didn't see it that way. He classified scents in an entirely
different way. It was the best scent in the entire world. Two
seconds from now, another scent might come along and transplant
that scent, but for now, it was the top.
    He stopped and peered off into the gloom of the
trees. Something had moved in the shadows, and a soft warning growl
began in his chest and quickly built. Deep, bassy, rolling out of
his small frame.
    The thing in the shadows moved again, and its
head seemed to cock to one side, the eyes focused on The Dog
through the gloom of the shadows. A higher growl, more like a
subdued snarl reached the dog's ears. He stopped his own growl
momentarily to listen, but his body posture