Snareville Read Online Free PDF Page B

lived-in places.
    Jenny went with me when I reported to Kenny. We hiked over to the library five blocks from the house. The library served as our headquarters, as it was located in the center of town and made of solid brick. We still used the grade school for the kids. We wanted to keep things as normal as possible, so we kept classes in session. We had a hundred kids from kindergarten through high school left in town. The older ones taught the younger ones. Most school days were only half days, and some subject matter didn’t get covered all that well, but it was better than no routine at all for the kids.
    As we walked in, I saw Terry Hines, another platoon leader, coming down the walk from the opposite direction. Most days, we all met up together. Dale Thompson was already in talking to Kenny. On days after a storm, we met later than normal because of the cleanup. Jenny and I went in and sat in the area that used to be the children’s room—Kenny's office now—to hear what Dale had to say.
    “ Hakim came back last night,” he told us. The corners of his mouth twitched up. His platoon covered the north quadrant of town, which was the most exposed. We’d thrown Hakim out of town three weeks ago when he wouldn’t let us have any of his gas unless we paid for it. Fucker thought despite the Zeds wandering the countryside, we still had to pay him two-fifty a gallon. We shoved him out the gates by force, and his wife walked back into town with us. From her black eyes and broken nose, I figured she wouldn’t miss him much.
    “ Dead or alive?” I asked Dale as Terry wandered in.
    “ Dead. Missing an arm and half his face. Recognized the bastard, though, from that bald head of his. Guess he didn’t make it back to Chicago. Should we tell Talula?”
    “ No," I said. "I think she got over him a couple weeks ago.”
    Talula had taken up with Dale about a week after we got rid of Hakim.
    “ How ‘bout you, Danny? Anything?” Kenny asked.
    “ Three deaders. One in the fence, two stuck in the ditches. We got the burn pile goin’ with the rest.”
    “ That makes eight from last night. Only one we knew was Hakim. That's the most we’ve had in a while. Hope it doesn’t mean they’re building up out there for another swarm.”
    “ Don’t know," Terry said. "Hard to figure deaders. Food’s probably getting tough for them to find by now. Probably pretty desperate. Hope none of 'em remember the way to Snareville.”
    We all stared hard at the desk. We were a small town, and we were getting smaller. The sign at the edge of Snareville said we boasted eight hundred souls. The first week of the outbreak, a few over five hundred made it home. Since then, after all the attacks, suicides, and people just up and leaving, we were down to less than four hundred. Those of us left kept ourselves busy building up our defenses and getting on with our lives the best we could.
    Kenny broke the silence. “We need to make a run to Princeton.”
    We all looked up. We all knew this was coming. We’d been preparing for another raid on town. Until now, we'd hit up the farm store on the edge of town for our wiring and building supplies. But we were low on food and other things. Our little grocery mart and the convenience store in town were already tapped. The frozen stuff was long gone, and the canned goods would be soon to follow.
    “ We need more than food, Ken,” Jenny said. “We need soap of all sorts, plus women’s supplies.”
    “ Your platoon’s up, Danny,” Ken said. “You’ve got the best raiders in your group. The trucks fueled?”
    “ Gassed and waiting for the next run.”
    “ Hit Wal-Mart. It’s on the edge of town.”
    “ We’ll go the long way around, so we don’t have to run through residential or down Main Street.”
    “ Good idea. Dale, get your people on the tractors and keep working on the ditch. Terry, your crews keep working on the houses. Get them up to snuff. Let's get goin’, folks.”
    Our little