Castroville: Countdown to Armageddon: Book 7 Read Online Free PDF Page A

faced the threat of being locked away in another type of cage, he’d surely rebel. Surely not be taken alive if he could help it.
         And if he couldn’t help it, if they managed to capture him alive, he’d just do himself and the rest of the world a favor.
         He’d merely end his life the first chance he got.
         So it was likely he’d never see Hannah again. Never feel the touch he so desperately craved. Never feel her lips against his, her body against his, her breath on his cheek.
         So the unconscious woman on the ground before him would have to do.
         He rolled her over and raped her as she lay unaware of his actions. That was okay with Robbie. Her active participation wasn’t necessary, and in fact would have made the act more difficult.
         After he was finished he’d stood over her and used the two by four to smash her skull. Once, twice, a dozen times. It was overkill, he knew. But it felt good to Robbie, for it was another kind of release. Different from the kind he’d felt a couple of minutes before, but equally satisfying.
         Once confident she’d drawn her last breath, he’d retreated into the house and searched it.
         The boy was the easiest of the three. He slept peacefully in an upstairs bed. Was never aware of Robbie’s presence.
         He opened his eyes as Robbie thrust the eight inch blade of the Bowie into his heart, but only for a brief moment.
         It was the only movement his small body made, and it wasn’t resistance. Not even defiance. Just the body’s natural reflex, Robbie supposed.
         The house was bordered on its north side by an acre of undeveloped land that was heavily wooded. It was the route Robbie had chosen to sneak up on the family.
         The woods would also make a convenient place to place the bodies. And there they’d gone, one by one, placed atop one another like a macabre human pyramid.
         The husband on the bottom.
         What was left of the wife was placed atop the bloody husband. The boy was placed on top of her.
         Robbie stood back and admired his demented artwork.
         And he smiled.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    -6-
     
         He never even knew their names.
         Nor did he care to know them.
         All he really cared about was that the house in which they’d lived and died was chock full of food. Canned goods, jarred meats and vegetables, dried fruits and vegetables, trail mix, a hundred pounds of dried beans.
         Enough to keep a single man going for a year or more.
         Now Robbie’s main concern were other looters. He’d punched holes in the interior walls and had hidden as much of the food as he could within the walls. Then he covered the holes with paintings and posters to hide his secret stashes from prying eyes.
         That same night he’d made three trips from the home to the zoo, each time carrying a backpack loaded down with provisions.
         At the rate he was going, he figured it would take him a dozen nights to get all the food from the house to the zoo.
         Of course, if he weren’t running from the law, he could have just moved into the house and consumed the food at his leisure.
         But that was not an option for Robbie Benton. He was the subject of the largest manhunt the SAPD had undertaken since the blackout occurred. Cops were going door to door across the whole of San Antonio and Bexar County, showing his photo to residents. Unoccupied houses were being searched thoroughly for any signs he’d been there.
         The city had succeeded by now in disposing of the hundreds of thousands of corpses that had piled up since the blackout began. Most were gun deaths, either suicides or victims of robbers. Few were ever investigated, because the homicide division of the decimated police department hadn’t existed until just recently. And because beat cops had