Storm Tide Rising: Blackout Volume 2 Read Online Free PDF Page A

brow creased as he saw that the man meant what he said. Joe closed the door and carefully locked both deadbolts, then motioned toward the back of the store. Henderson understood and went to find the back door they'd seen from the outside of the building. Joe walked back down the aisles to the pharmacy counter and handed the list to Benny just as he was setting the second group of full bags up on the counter.
    "Find the things on this list," Joe said, "and put a one week supply of each in a bag. Bring the list and the bag to me when you're done. Got it?"
    The pharmacist nodded and set about the task. It didn't take long for him to hand the list over to Joe with neat little red check marks by each item. MacPhail had always seemed so calm and cool behind the pharmacy counter, and Joe now understood why. He was in control here, and he was comfortable. He'd been a pharmacist all his life, and it was all that he knew. The sudden uncertainty of the world had taken even that small measure of certainty.
    Joe took a pen from his pocket and wrote at the bottom of the list one word, Sorry .
    MacPhail looked up at him, eyes wide, "Wait, that's all you're giving them? They'll be furious!  They'll rip this place apart!"
    Joe nodded. "I'm counting on it. While they take their anger out on this place, we'll be out the back and gone before they realize it."
    Benny shook his head and worked his mouth, but no sound came out for a moment. Finally, he managed to find his voice. "But those people," he  gasped, "their loved ones, some of them will die!"
    Joe looked at the pharmacist, his eye hard. "Listen, Benny, I meant what I said. The lights ain't coming back on. More than half those people out there will be dead in a month from thirst, hunger, or dysentery. You have to ask yourself, do you want to join them? Or do you want to survive as long as you can? Even with a head start, we'll be lucky if one in ten of us is living this time next year."
    Joe left the one bag and the list on the counter and started heading toward the back with the rest of the supplies. Benny stood gaping at the list and the meager supply of medicine and then raised his eyes slowly, a glare boring into Joe's back. Benny knew he couldn't be there when the mob finally broke into the store, so the pharmacist followed Joe down the hall and out the back door.
    Henderson carefully eased the heavy metal door closed and did his best to block it with stones and cinderblocks from the alley. The three men found their way through the lengthening shadows at the back of the shop as quietly as they could. Benny turned and cast one glance back at his former business when they were safely out of earshot. "Just what exactly is your grand plan?" the pharmacist asked Joe, his voice bitter and cold.
    "Survive," Joe answered, never breaking his stride.
     

Ch. 5
    By Any Other Name
     
    Terry closed his office door, locked both deadbolts, and headed across the room immediately to pull the phone cable from the wall outlet. He nearly fell into the chair behind his desk, he was so tired. He rested his head in his hands and took slow, heavy breaths in through his nose and out through his mouth. He swallowed hard twice and did his best not to empty his stomach into the metal trash can. His hands shook, so he clenched them into fists to still them and then let his forehead rest directly on the edge of his desk.
    When he was on the Teams, Terry had lost men under his command on more than one operation. Later, working in intelligence, he had at times passed on information and orders that he knew had resulted in deaths on both sides. He knew all too well what it was like to kill men and to watch them die. In both, there was an intense, torturous sense of responsibility and vulnerability.
    But this was different. This time, Terry wasn't ordering men into a mission that might get them killed. He wasn't even the one responsible for pulling the trigger or providing the intel that would get them killed.