DEAD: Confrontation Read Online Free PDF Page A

herself.
    “Okay,” Jody said with as much of a scowl as he could mu ster, “what’s so funny?”
    “She says that you seem way too prepared for the walking dead. She wants to know if you were one of those types who watched those kinds of movies.”
    “Not really.” Jody shook his head. “But you would be su rprised at how many out-of-the-ordinary scenarios you get thrown at you when you are on active duty in a foreign and hostile country.”
    Selina signed Jody’s response. Kat nodded with a sudden look of seriousness on her face. She got up, walked over to Jody and gave him a hug.
    “What was that for?” he asked.
    Kat was already signing to Selina before he had finished the question.
    “She says thank you for serving and taking care of this country. And that, even now, when there is no more country to protect, you are doing the honorable thing.”
    With that, the two females huddled together, sharing their blankets for added warmth, and went to sleep. Jody got up and went to the door, giving one look back at his companions. He hoped desperately that there were more of his brothers-in-arms out there…and that they were not like Slider.
     
    ***
     
    Major Wanda Beers signaled for the caravan to stop. For two days they had travelled in search of that ragtag group of rejects that had blindly followed Willa.
    “Traitorous bitch,” the major grumbled as she looked back at her convoy.
    During the past two days, they had lost three vehicles. It was likely that they would be without any before much longer. Gasoline was becoming harder to find. And what they did manage to scavenge was almost useless.
    She needed to find a place to settle in for the winter. Maybe there really was no longer any reason to look for the president’s daughter. It wasn’t likely that there would be anybody left to give two shits.
    Actually, if she was being honest with herself, she hadn’t cared whether they found that little over-entitled brat to begin with. She was simply seeking leverage. It didn’t take a genius to know that the world was screwed three ways to Sunday. Yet, for some strange reason, people were having difficulty coming to grips with what was truly valuable these days.
    So, some idiot commander of whatever military unit she would happen upon was likely to drop his guard if word came that Wanda’s group had the president’s daughter. By the time they knew what hit them, she would assimilate all who were of the right mind and do away with the dregs. It was all about survival now.
    That was why she hadn’t killed that scrawny little brainiac, Kevin Dreon. He held a commodity that was in short supply: the ability to think outside the box and create a survivable scenario. She should have been more careful with him. Perhaps she should have tried a more gentle approach.
    But when one of her patrols told her that Willa had been spotted, she had let her anger overwhelm her intellect. Now she had let a valuable resource slip away. But at least she was rid of that damned retard.
    “Damn,” she whispered. She already knew what her mistake had been. She also knew that, after two days, there would be nothing to find when she got back. Well, it couldn’t be helped now.
    It was time to hit the ‘reset’ button and start from square one. Up ahead were the wasted remains of a small town. The signs (the ones still standing or hanging anyway) had declared that this should be Conesville. It wasn’t difficult to deduce the cause of the devastation. To the east of town, across a small river, sat a big power plant. Thankfully, it was not of the nuclear variety.
    She had heard that, in the final days of communication, the government had ordered all nuke facilities shut down to try and minimize the potential for disaster. She had heard that some had actually been successful. However, shutting down a nuclear power facility is not like simply turning off a switch and calling it good. And if the amount of devastation that she saw here was