America's Sunset: A Post Apocalyptic Fight for Survival Read Online Free PDF Page A

She promised that once he settled in and things were going well, he’d be able to see his brother again. Ahmed couldn’t wait that long and ran away from foster care for good. In spite of his best efforts, he never was able to find where his brother was placed.
     
    It was time to complete his mission. He’d hoped and prayed that today would be the day. That the message he had hoped for all these years would be found. When he finally arrived and turned off his motorcycle, he was taken aback by how pristine the area was. Either he was in the wrong location, or his predecessors were even more fastidious about respecting Allah’s home than he was. He prayed for the latter, and it wasn’t long before those prayers were rewarded.
    Today, July 16, 2012 was the last day on the neatly folded, yellowed paper in Ahmed’s pocket. Along the way Ahmed had mixed feelings about the trip. Part of him didn’t want to go at all, but another part of him wanted to get it over with. He pulled the paper list from his pocket, and opened it. On the reverse side of the list, written in Arabic in his mother’s handwriting, were the words ‘Taqum biwajibuk’ …  ‘Do your duty.’ He felt he didn’t have a choice. Even after all these years, he could remember his mother’s insistence on following the list. She never told him where the list came from, only that it was part of his responsibility. His duty as a man. So, he drove on.
    His handheld GPS told him he was at the right location. He pulled a swig of water from his bottle before dropping his pack and unfolding his collapsible shovel. By the sixth hole, he was getting more than a little frustrated. It wasn’t unusual to have to dig this many holes, but today was different. What was the point of digging just to find an empty box? A hundred and twenty boxes to be exact. If he only found one hundred and nineteen, would he still have fulfilled his duty as a man, he wondered? He knew what his mother would say, so Ahmed kept digging.
    On the eleventh hole, he heard his shovel clink against something metallic. He knelt and brushed the dirt away from the box. This time, something was different. This wasn’t an old rusty metal box. This time, the box looked brand new. As he pulled the bright red box from the dirt, the only damage to it was the ding where his shovel had hit the top of it. Apart from the fresh dirt covering it, the box looked like it was fresh off the shelf of a department store. This time, the box was heavy. He had to pull with both hands to get it out of the dirt. This time, for the first time, there would be something inside.
    He sat back, just staring at the box in the dirt. There was no lock on the box, just like the others. The very last trip after ten years of digging and this time there was something there for him. Why? He wondered what his mother would say. After staring at the box for what seemed like forever, Ahmed knew what his mother would say. He did his duty, and opened the box.
     
    The writing on the case was Arabic, and a phrase he understood well. Ahmed smiled, and felt an anticipation in him than he hadn’t felt in years. His loyalty had finally come to fruition. Today was the beginning of a whole new life for him … and others. Not much longer would he breathe this earth’s air, as he moved closer to his one true salvation. He started chanting the phrase written on the case over and over. Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar . It rolled and danced off the tip of his tongue. His heart swelled as he chanted it louder still, while he packed the case away and climbed onto his cycle. Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest. Ironically, his chanting was drowned out by the sound of his American-built motorcycle racing across the desert. Ahmed couldn’t have cared less; irony was not something he believed in.

 
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 5 ~ Dungeons & Cruises
    “C’mon, Maggie, it’s not that much money. An extra five