Ex-Communication: A Novel Read Online Free PDF

to do more than singe them, but the one-handed man lost his eyebrows. They all glared at the hero and bared their teeth. Then their expressions went slack and their teeth started clacking against each other. They pushed their arms between the pipes and tried to reach St. George with slow, clumsy grabs.
    A couple people gave halfhearted laughs and cheers, but the mood was dead. The crowd scattered. Guards turned to watchthe streets outside the Big Wall while others walked up the wooden staircase to join them.
    St. George turned away from the gate and saw that two people had stayed behind to speak with him. The first was Billie Carter, the nominal head of the scavengers, the people who headed out once or twice a week to search the city for whatever supplies they could find. From a distance, the Marine sergeant sometimes got mistaken for a teenage boy with a buzz cut. Up close, it was clear she was a woman who shouldn’t be messed with.
    The second was Jarvis. No one was quite sure where Jarvis fit into the scheme of things. He went out with the scavengers, but it wasn’t uncommon to find him walking the Wall. He pulled shifts as a hospital guard and even spent time weeding in the gardens. His willingness to do whatever needed to be done meant everyone liked him, so they all tended to listen to him when he spoke. St. George found the man to be an endless source of cheerfulness and common sense without ever crossing the line that made cheerful people annoying.
    “So,” said the hero, “are we still on for tomorrow?”
    Billie nodded. “Assuming Legion hasn’t messed up the roads too bad, we should be able to make Sherman Oaks in an hour. There’s lots of little shops out there that might be worth checking out. If we can make it all the way to Sepulveda there’s a ton of apartment complexes.”
    “Probably too many to hit on the same day,” said Jarvis, “but we can get a sense of how things are looking out that way.”
    “There better be something,” said Billie. “We’re getting close to the point this isn’t worth it.”
    St. George glanced at her. “Meaning what?”
    She shrugged. “Basic logistics. If we burn ten gallons of fuel to bring ten back, we’re pretty much right back where we started. There’s still a lot of gas stations out there, but we’re getting near the point it’s going to cost us more to go looking thanwe’re going to get out of it. Especially with Legion making us fight for every mile we travel.”
    “Always nice to get out, though,” said Jarvis.
    “I’m serious,” Billie said. “Every time we head out we’re tied to the Mount, and we’re running out of rope.” She crossed her arms. “I think we need to think about setting up a forward base or two farther out. Something out in the valley, or over in Burbank. Maybe just a dozen or two people in a secure area. Someplace we can scavenge from without trucking what we find all the way back here.”
    St. George bit back a smile. “Stealth suggested something similar a few weeks ago,” he said. “I wasn’t sure how the idea would go over.”
    “You could’ve asked us,” said Billie.
    “She said if I waited you’d probably come up with the idea yourself. You specifically, Billie.”
    “’Course she did,” smirked Jarvis.
    “What if we try this? I can do a few scouting runs out into Van Nuys or maybe out toward Glendale. Maybe there’s another small studio out there we could use, or a school.”
    “There’s a National Guard armory out in Van Nuys,” said Billie. “We had you check it out once. You said it still looked secure. We could definitely use whatever ammo’s there.”
    The hero nodded. “We’d need to check it again. It only had one fence, right?”
    She nodded.
    “There’s also downtown,” said Jarvis. “We’ve avoided it till now, but maybe it’s time to think about heading that way.”
    The hero shook his head. “Downtown’s still a death trap,” he said. “Stealth figures there’s still at