Doomsday Warrior 04 - Bloody America Read Online Free PDF

throw the Reds out once and for all. His years in the wastelands, trekking across the heartland of the country, had made him tough, resourceful. But then—at the very moment of his greatest triumph—his election by the Re-Constitutional Convention to the office of president, the Russians with a spy planted in the freefighters’ midst had dropped two neutron bombs, wiping out nearly ninety percent of the delegates from every Free City in America. Langford was deeply depressed about the decimation of the newly formed government. It had lasted all of an hour before the mushroom clouds had fried flesh into crumbling charcoal. The shortest reign in history, Langford thought bitterly to himself. And his body didn’t feel too hot either. Ever after the Glowers had worked their magic on himself and Kim, his legs were wobbly, his gums blistered and sore, his stomach constantly churning as if about to vomit. The human body could only take so much. He was falling into a deep depression made only worse by the realization that he, of all people, was the elected moral and spiritual leader of the free men and women of America—and he had nothing more to give.
    “Please sir, don’t talk about yourself that way,” Rock said, looking nervously down at the ground. “You don’t have to apologize to me. As the commander-in-chief of the new United States, I and every other freefighter are at your command.”
    “I’ll let you do the commanding, Rock,” Langford said with the first grin he had shown for days. “If you don’t mind, I’d probably guide us into quicksand or something.”
    They headed on for hours. Rock carefully gauged the skin tone and breathing of his two charges. Both were putting everything they had into the endless walking. Rock remembered when Kim and he had first met, naked in a Russian jail cell. How she had offered her untouched body to him that night—before the KGB swine could get their hands on her the next morning. She was tough. In her own way as tough as Rockson.
    After nearly a day of stumbling across the parched land on the other side of the chasm they reached higher ground where there began to be a little more life: wildly colored flowers, shrubs that rose nearly twenty feet into the air. They had gone from an almost dead zone to fertile terrain in just over fifteen miles. The three of them looked around in amazement as the lushness of the land grew in leaps and bounds. Here, fruits—pink and red and green—hung down tantalizingly from vines and trees, fields of rainbow flowers, petals as large as dinner plates, blazing with a glory all their own, slowly closing as the ochre sun beat down from the late afternoon western sky.
    “Can we—” Kim asked, reaching up and plucking a greenish pink banana-shaped fruit from a stalk.
    “Yeah, these are all right,” Rock answered, grabbing a few himself. “I remember eating some like these a few years ago. Didn’t die—but they were sour.” They peeled back the thick moist skins and took tentative bites.
    “These are sweet as sugar,” Kim said, taking bite after delicious bite. The three of them gorged themselves, having not eaten for nearly two days. The fresh fruit and leafy rich vegetables they found growing wild everywhere made them feel much more positive. Even Langford’s face seemed to relax and glow with color. Not everything was wasteland. It was as if nature was giving them a reprieve—a moment’s rest and nourishment before the realities of a harsh world would again bare its fangs.
    “Must have been farms here once,” Rockson said as they walked slowly on through fields of edible produce now bizarrely twisted and colored from the low rad radioactive soil. “See how things are growing in their own geometric areas—mostly squares.” He pointed out the nearly straight-lined fields. “All pink fruits there and these green leafy plants here—looks like—lettuce I think they used to call it. This must have once been a big farm belt.