Harvest, Quietus #1 Read Online Free PDF

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Chapter 2

    My smile disappears pretty damn fast.
I don't very get far at all. After a few stops and starts and
encountering blocked routes at every turn, I give up trying to
drive to Ocala. It's at least twenty if not thirty miles away, on
the minor routes, and I'm so hungry I can't think straight. The
nearest town is two miles away from my current position. I get as
far as I can by car, and have to walk in the rest.
    I call my mom as I walk, but she seems
to be permanently engaged. So I send her a text to call when she's
finished whatever is so important that she is saying. Then I try
James. It annoyingly sends me to answerphone. I text him an update
on my situation and position.
    - Left car outside Floral
City. Walking in for food and water and to see if anyone is there.
How are you doing? Please call me :( - Wynter.
    It's so hot and I'm dying for a Coke.
I think I'm hallucinating, seeing one hovering in front of me,
covered in lovely cool condensation drips.
    The thought of a large Coke full of
ice makes my mouth water like crazy and my brain fry even
more...I'm getting desperate for a drink. The small bottle of water
I'd brought with me, has long ago been consumed.
    I enter the town limits, exhausted by
the walk in the heat. Floral City might have been a nice place to
stop under different circumstances.
    On first sight, it doesn't look
promising. I am met with the same things I've been seeing for a
couple of hours. The same abandoned cars. No people whatsoever.
Anywhere. I arrive at a gas station and enter the small provisions
kiosk. The bell on the door rings loudly causing me to jump. It is
overwhelmingly hot inside.
    “Hello, anyone home?” I
call out. But my words hang in the heavy, humid silence. I huff a
long drawn out sigh, which I seem to be doing a lot today.
“God, please ...what have you done with all your people?” The sentence
sounds ridiculous as it leaves my lips, but at that moment the
whole situation is ridiculous.
    Wearily, I open the cooler and
retrieve a few bottles of water, and finding no cans of my desired
Coke, I opt for Dr Pepper instead. The drinks don't feel as cold as
I expected. But I really don't care all that much. A drink is a
drink when you're thirsty. I find a bag behind the counter and put
the water bottles in that, then I open my can of soda. It hisses,
spraying my hand with a light mist and enticing me to glug it down
in one big gulp. I try to hold out a little, to five long and
gloriously satisfying fizzy slurps.
    ”That was just so...mmm,” I say to
myself.
    I take a deep breath, getting another
from the cooler.
    I'm thinking I'll sit a while and call
mom before I look for food. I'm tired with walking this far. I need
a rest.
    It appears the whole area is affected,
by this mysterious event, and has been evacuated. I'm hoping mom
can find some information for me from her side.
    Then I think of something, and
wh y the hell I didn't think of it before, I have
no idea. Google. News channels...
    I flick around on my cell and get the
Internet up. The signal is weak and it's slow, but I get there
eventually. I check the major news channels websites for Florida
news, weather channels, just about everything I can think of, but
no luck, with anything.
    For a few seconds I look at my cell
phone, praying it would somehow magically give me the answers. But
it's a useless weight lying in my hand. I call my mom, but she's
still engaged. I really do not understand this at all. Who the heck
is she speaking with? I suppose it could be my gran? I try my dad,
my friend Lucy and James again and it's all answerphone or no reply
at all. I'm getting frustrated and anxious now.
    I can't help it, as I look out, and
down the road outside, I have a very worrying thought cross my
mind. Maybe I'm paranoid and have seen too many sci-fi movies, but
what if I am discovered here, by some government agency? How will I
be treated, being in what appears to be an exclusion zone? I could
well be infected with