Badlands Trilogy (Book 3): Out of the Badlands Read Online Free PDF Page A

he’d spoken since the prior night.
    “How do you know?”
    “Too bright.”
    Remembering how effective the camera flash had been at blinding the creatures, Chloe nodded. “Makes sense.”
    “Jonathan kept the guns in the library,” Sam added.
    “How do you know?”
    “He told my mom.”
    Chloe almost asked how she knew, but stopped short. Of course Jonathan had told her. They were basically boyfriend and girlfriend.
    An early morning breeze blew through the hallway, bringing with it the smell of spoiling blood and rotting meat. The air would only get warmer throughout the day and by tomorrow the entire place would smell like a rendering plant.
    “The food’s in the teachers’ lounge,” Chloe said.
    Sam nodded. “I know.”
    A pause followed. “You don’t have to go back in, you know,” Chloe offered. “I can do it by myself if I need to.”
    Sam’s lip quivered slightly, but he forced himself to keep his composure. “It’s okay.”
    “No, really.”
    “Really. I’m okay.”
    More silence followed, deep and profound. Chloe shivered; the entire building had begun to feel like a giant tomb.
    “My mom was killed two years ago,” Chloe said, beginning slowly. She kept her focus on the wall in from of her, avoiding Sam’s eyes. “They killed her in front of me. I was eleven.”
    “I didn’t know,” Sam said.
    “I never told you. She hid me away before they found us. They did awful things to her before they killed her. I saw it all.” She paused. “I can still hear her screaming when I close my eyes at night.”
    This time it was Sam’s turn to sit in silence. “I’m sorry.”
    “Nothing to be sorry about,” Chloe said. “But I appreciate it.”
    “My mom died because of me,” he said.
    “That’s not true.”
    “Yes, it is.”
    Chloe placed a finger on Sam’s chin and turned his face toward hers. “Listen to me very closely. It’s not your fault. Just like it’s not my fault that my mom died. I blamed myself for a long time, but it never got me anywhere. Those creatures…whatever they are; that’s what killed your mom. Not you.”
    Sam looked into Chloe’s eyes for several very long seconds before a single tear streamed down his cheek. He wiped it away quickly before turning away from her. “We’d better get going before night comes,” he said, heading deeper into the dimly-lit hallway. “Those things might come back.”
    Chloe sighed. Getting through to him was proving more difficult than she’d expected. She headed after him down the hall, trying not to look at the carnage that surrounded them.
    * * *
    They took all they could carry from the teachers’ lounge, stuffing Chloe’s pack with smaller items like Slim Jims, pretzels, stale potato chips and cans of Vienna Sausage two years past the recommended consumption date. The meat was fine, but they left the canned fruits behind. Experience had taught them that much of the canned fruit’s high acid content compromised the integrity of the packaging, causing the contents to spoil. When her pack had been filled, they found four pillow cases and stuffed those full of canned and other packaged food, like boxed Mac and Cheese, various pastas and some MREs that Jonathan had stashed in a corner.
    They sawed the straw end off of two brooms from the supply closet then tied a pillow case to each end of the staff with some short lengths of rope they found with the rest of the supplies. The broom stick could then be balanced behind their heads with their shoulders bearing the weight. It wasn’t comfortable, but it was tolerable and worth the effort. Finding food in the wild had become increasingly more difficult with so many years passed since the virus broke out.
    With their provisions on their backs, they made one more stop. Sam needed his pack. It contained too many specialty items to leave behind: fishing line and hooks, plastic bags, tablets for making the water potable (and coffee filters for getting rid of the grit), a saucepan,