Man Eaters Read Online Free PDF Page A

road with four high powered rifles pointed at them. Roper was off the bike before it came to a complete stop, shotgun in hand.
    “Whoa. Hang on there, little lady,” one of the men said as he shouldered his rifle.
    Roper raised the shotgun as well, only she pointed it at what appeared to be the youngest of the four. “Unless you can kill me before I can pull this trigger, Bubba, I won’t go out of this life alone.”
    Dallas put the kickstand down and hopped off the bike, hands in the air. “Easy, fellas. We just want to go home.”
    The other man sporting a ZZ Top beard, stepped out, his rifle lowered to the ground. He wore a red flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and Western cut jeans. “Haven’t you heard? No one is s’posed to be on the roads. It’s called Martian law.”
    “You mean martial law? When did that happen?”
    “Twenty-thirty minutes ago? You haven’t seen the news?”
    Roper shook her head. “We haven’t. We just want to go home.”
    The four men exchanged glances. “We’ll let you pass, but you gotta leave the bike.”
    “Not gonna happen, Jethro,” Roper said, eyeing the sightings on the shotgun. “Now get the fuck out of our way.”
    All four pointed their rifles at Roper, who didn’t flinch.
    “Wait,” Dallas said, holding the keys up. “Fine. You can have the bike.”
    “No they can’t.” This came from an older woman who stuck her head out the front door of a nearby house. “Clarence, you should be ashamed of yourself. It’s two girls and a boy. You four lunkheads get out the way and let them pass.”
    “You heard the news, ma. They said to stop anyone who—”
    “Don’t make me tell you twice, boy.” To Dallas she said, “My apologies, young lady, but the announcement has made my lunkheaded sons very nervous.”
    Dallas put the keys in her pocket and moved next to Roper. “Lower the gun, Roper.”
    “Not until they do.”
    Reluctantly, they did, and Roper followed suit.
    “Thank you.” To the older woman Dallas said, “Ma’am, if you don’t mind, can you tell us what the news said?”
    “Certainly. Boys, get in the house. Now.”
    The four men walked into the house and the woman came out to the deck. She leaned on the railing, her white hair framing her oval face. She had light grey eyes that said she had seen too much sadness in this life. “Those Iranians have bombed us with some sort of bioweapon. The military initially thought they could control the situation, but as is the way of our government, they lost any control they thought they possessed. Now, they’ve announced martial law. No one should be out of their houses at all.”
    “We understand that. We’re just trying to get home.”
    She nodded. “Three on a motorcycle should have told the boneheads that, but everyone’s afraid of this virus and what it does to folks. Before the news went off the air, the images we saw...well...it didn’t look possible.”
    Dallas tilted her head to one side. “What do you mean the news went off the air?”
    “The government’s shut everything down. We’ve only gotten news from the State Department now.”
    Dallas glanced behind her at Einstein, who nodded.
    “They know people would panic if they saw the truth of those things. This just means it’s worse than we realized. We gotta go.”
    Dallas thanked the woman for not letting the men shoot them. She wished them luck and they were quickly on their way.
    When they came to an intersection where large oak trees created a canopy above, Dallas turned the bike off and dismounted.
    “You okay? Roper asked, also getting off, followed by Einstein.
    Dallas shook her head. “One minute, our lives are just cruising along, and the next, we’re dealing with martial law and a lying government dictating our lives while zombies eat us.”
    “You don’t know they’re lying.”
    “Roper, they were shooting the living on that bridge! You saw it. I saw it. He saw it. Stay indoors? How many zombie