Humanity Gone: After the Plague Read Online Free PDF

for the trunk handle with his left. He looks at me and mouths, “One, two, three…”
                  He throws the trunk door into the air and points the gun into the back.  Someone huge is hiding back there.  Someone filthy.  I inhale air in fear.  As my eyes focus, I realize that everything I’ve just thought was wrong, except for the filthy part.  It is actually two girls.   Both of their blue eyes meet mine.  They are quivering.  I exhale relief and I feel all my muscles release.  I reach to pat Jon's arm down, but he already has the gun dangling toward the ground.  He drops it.  His right hand shakes.
                  I study the two girls and how tiny they are.  Both had the same blue eyes and dark hair.  Maybe it’s black but they’re both so covered in dirt that I can't tell.  They are the most pathetic looking creatures I have ever seen, apparently homeless and hungry, with sunken cheeks and cracked lips. They must be twins.  I feel awful.  How many other children already look like this?
                  One of them finally breaks the silence, talking quickly, just like a little girl might if she knows she’s in trouble with her parents.
                  “Please help us, we have no one.  We didn't wanna scare you, but we didn't know what to do. We are sorry. We didn't want you to leave us too!”  I guess they are around ten or eleven years old.  Jon looks at me; his eyebrows show more concern than I normally see on his face.  The right side of his face smiles.
                  It isn't long before Jon is giving the girls as much of our food as they can eat.  One is making peanut butter crackers while the other washes down her granola bar with some bottled water.  Their faces glow with happiness as they fill their stomachs.  We all sit in a circle on the side of the road with some food in between us.  I keep anxiously looking around us but it seems to be a pretty safe spot.  The one girl offers me my own cracker with her dirty hands.  Normally I would want my hand sanitizer, but I eat it anyway, and it tastes even better in front of their smiling faces. I hear a crunch to my left as Jon bites into two crackers on either side of his mouth, making a goofy face that pulls a bunch of giggles from the twins.  I sigh again, this time with a little bit of happiness.
                  Still with a smile on his face, Jon clears his throat after swallowing the crackers and wiping his hands on his jeans.  “So now that we’ve given you half of our food, what are your names?”
                  “I’m Sara.”
                  “And I’m Caitlyn.”
                  Hearing their lighthearted voices distracts me for just a split second, and I realize that I’ve already forgotten which is which.  “Jon, this is going to be difficult…”
                  A warm laugh comes from my left as both of us look from one identical face to another.  “Yes, yes it will Jo.”
    No matter how close I look, I can’t find an obvious physical difference between the two.  Sara tells me their story as Caitlyn continues to eat.  Sara seems to be the more outgoing of the two. We sit for another ten minutes and eventually Jon picks up the food.  The girls look so sad and stare at him longingly.
                  “You can't eat much more or you will both get sick.” he says through a laugh. “Don't worry we will keep you full of food.” 
                  They both smile at him.  I had never seen Jon so good with children before, especially considering what I remember when I was younger. I don't know how much longer we will be with these girls, but they quickly brought him a serenity I have not seen in a long time.  I smile as the two follow him to the car and pile in the backseat as he finishes putting the food in the trunk. 
                  He