Five Days Dead Read Online Free PDF

tree toppled across the street, its fall broken by three old NG automobiles. Part of the old city hall had collapsed and there was the pitched roof of a building sitting on the lawn of the prehistoric museum. With shattered trusses bared and shredded shingles it looked like the skeleton of some great beast.
    Harley walked two blocks west and stopped when he saw a young boy throwing rocks at the windows of a long abandoned clothing store.. The boy didn’t see Harley at first and when he did he was about to throw another rock. He didn’t throw it, but he didn’t drop it either.
    “Whatcha lookin’ at?” The boy asked. He was wearing an eyeset, but his clothes were filthy and his hair was unkempt. He looked like he wasn’t more than 10-years-old.
    “You.” Harley said.
    “You a neand or somethin’?”
    “No. Why do you live here?”
    The boy shrugged. His T-shirt was thin and his collarbones were sharp little points beneath the material. “Folks don’t care for the Hub. Not our kind.”
    Harley nodded. “They let you run around the city without a weapon. Aren’t you afraid of animals?”
    “Ain’t no animals to speak of.”
    “Cats? Rats?”
    “Got me a stick to beat ‘em with. They ain’t so bad in the daylight. At night, they’re worse. Bunch of cowards. Cats and rats.”
    “Is there any place in town where you can still get a hot meal?”
    The boy wrinkled his brow. “If you’re not a neand, why don’t you just order something and have a stork deliver it?”
    “I’d just rather not. Thought it might be nice to eat a meal with someone else. You hungry?”
    The boy didn’t answer for a moment, and Harley knew he was on the Link. “Mom says I can’t, you might be a boy lover. But the McDonald’s is still open. Neands mostly eat there. Food’s not very good. You know where that’s at, McDonalds?”
    Harley nodded. “I know.”
    “K then.”  The boy turned and started to walk away. He still hadn’t dropped the rock, but he did pick up his stick.
    “I’m looking for transportation. A car, truck, motorcycle. Know where I can get one of those?”
    “Everywhere that sells somethin’ like that closed.” The boy called back.
    “Was there a place here that used to sell old cars?”
    “Like antiques?”
    “Like antiques.”
    “There’s Krantz, down there. There’s still some cars in the lot, but they’re dinosaurs.” The boy pointed to a side street and then turned and ran away.
    Harley adjusted his pack and walked where the boy had pointed. At the end of the next block, there was a squat building in the middle of an overgrown parking lot with a faded sign that read Krantz Classic Autos. The building looked like it had suffered some damage in the Rages but the dozen automobiles in the parking lot looked fine. They were all antiques, just like the boy had said. Harley found two that looked like they still ran on gasoline and several that ran on NG.  What he was looking for was something electric that had been retrofitted to feed off an energyband. He found it in a dilapidated Ford pickup with a dent in the quarter panel. The tires were airless and still had good tread, but the most important thing was it was old enough that its system didn’t bond with the owner through the Link. That little bit of technology had singlehandedly eliminated most automobile theft in the world. What was the point in stealing a car if its computer system wouldn’t power up unless it recognized your Link?  
    Retrofitted with an electric motor that fed off a powerband, the old Ford didn't need Link access to run. Harley spent half an hour combing through the dealer's office until he found the vehicle's access tag. When he activated it, the truck drew power from his powerband and hummed to life. He threw his saddlebag and backpack in the passenger seat, secured his sword between the seat and arm rest and draped his holster and sidearm to the passenger seat head rest where he could quickly pull it free if