Tainted Grace Read Online Free PDF

“Set any weapons you have down and step back ten feet from the bottom of the steps.”
    “Happy to oblige,” said the man. He sounded older than any of us and had a very deep voice. Several seconds later we heard him call back. “We’ve left our firearms on the porch by the door. We’re moving back now.”
    Boggs signaled to Gus that he was going to look. When the men had boarded up the house weeks ago, they had fashioned a small corner to serve as a peep hole. Boggs stepped to the other side of the door, stood off to one side, and swiveled the small piece of wood aside so that he could look out.
    “Holy shit,” he mumbled. “They’re carrying something dead!”
    “What do you mean?” asked Gus with concern in his voice.
    “Dinner, I hope,” said Boggs. “I think it’s a skinned deer carcass. Or maybe a small elk.”
    “Do you just see the two of them, like they said?”
    Boggs held up two fingers in reply.
    “Ok buddy, go ahead and open the door. Grab their weapons. I’ll keep my gun on them.”
    Boggs unlatched the two locks we had set in place and removed a crossbar. The door opened inward.
    “Step forward,” called out Gus. “Just to the bottom of the steps.”
    Boggs bent down and picked up the firearms.
    “I trust we’ll get those back, friend?” asked the owner of the deep voice.
    “I imagine so,” answered Gus. “Step inside. Uh, leave the carcass on the porch?”
    “Sure thing,” answered the younger man who had yet to speak.
    Through the doorway, I could see the two men standing in the snow at the base of the porch steps. The bloody mess in the yard was almost gone, covered by fresh snowfall. The men wore ragged coats, which were splattered by snowflakes. Snow was falling heavily. They were large billowy flakes filled with moisture, falling heavily to the earth. The closer of the two men walked up the steps slowly, his arms beside him and held out showing he intended no harm. He was tall, dark-skinned, and looked like he had been living outdoors for some time. As he stepped through the threshold of our cabin, he extended a hand toward Gus, who took it hesitantly. As they pumped hands, the man cleared his throat.
    “Name’s Bill.”
    “Bill, nice to meet you. I’m Gus. We can do more introductions once you’re both inside.”
    Bill nodded in agreement. I heard a ‘thud’ from the front porch. The second man had climbed the steps and dropped his burden on the porch. He crossed the threshold as his friend had done, and extended a hand to Boggs.
    “Thanks for letting us in. I’m Nathan.”
    “Hey, nice meeting you. Boggs.”
    “Interesting name,” said Nathan with a tight-lipped smile. He looked to be quite a bit younger than the other man and was fair with rosy cheeks. Both of them wore similar clothing, dingy and ragged. They both had beards of several weeks.
    “Let’s get the door shut up tight,” said Gus. “We’ve had some problems today.”
    “We saw,” said Nathan. “Some guys in a military truck scattered that crap around your place.”
    “We were setting out to warn you,” added Bill. “But you went inside and we figured you must have figured out something was going down.”
    “So, was that you I spotted in the tree line north of here?” asked Gus. I could tell by his body language that he wasn’t fully trusting of the two men. “Watching with binoculars?”
    “ Yeah, sounds like us,” said Nathan. “We saw the dead come through here too. What they did to that poor old woman.” Nathan hung his head in what appeared to be genuine sadness.
    “That’s Zoe,” said Gus. “Susan beside her. And Emilie here.” He wrapped an arm possessively around Em.
    “Pleasure to meet you ladies,” said Nathan with a nod.
    “We brought the deer on the porch, hoping to share it. It’s been field dressed, but ideally we’d hang it to cure for two or three days.”
    “Very kind of you,” said Gus. “We’d be happy to trade shelter for some.”
    “We haven’t