The Liddy Scenario Read Online Free PDF

back to the office. I just hope I have enough fuel.”
    “Maybe you’d better take my truck,” Brody said, drawing a startled look from Ranger, though he didn’t say anything.
    “Oh, I couldn’t do that!” Julie Anne protested.
    “It’s got city diesel in it,” Brody said. “So, why not?”
    “I really don’t think I have enough fuel… The warning light came on last night.” She was hesitating, but Brody decided his silence was better than more encouragement. It was.
    “Well, since it is city fuel, I will take it. But you’ll be compensated in some way in the future for its use, and the work you’re doing now,” she said firmly.
    Brody took the keys out of his pocket and handed them to Julie Anne. “Uh… It’s bigger than your car, by quite a bit. Be a little cautious about getting into small spaces with it.”
    Ranger chuckled.
    Very seriously Julie Anne said, “I will. Thank you for this.”
    Brody watched anxiously as Julie Anne got into his pride and joy and started up the truck. She backed it up just fine, but when she put it into drive, she chirped the tires when she pressed the accelerator. It had a lot more ‘go’ to it than her little hybrid.
    “I never would have believed it if I hadn’t seen it,” Ranger said as Brody watched his truck disappear, driven by what amounted to a total stranger.
    “Yeah,” Brody said, turning back to his bicycle with a sigh. “Me either.”
    Brody breathed a little sigh of relief when he and Ranger biked up to the garage and saw Julie Anne pulling into the cemetery just before seven that evening. Brody thought she looked as bad as she had that morning when she climbed down out of the truck.
    “How’d it go?” he asked as she walked wearily up to the two men.
    Julie Anne sighed. “No end in sight,” she said and sighed. “I can’t thank you enough for doing this.”
    “Yeah, well, what about you?” Brody asked.
    “I don’t know. Maybe I’ll get paid next month. Maybe there will be some food deliveries. And fuel. And the electricity will come back on. And the water will come back on. And…” She was starting to get tears in her eyes again and obviously hated the fact. She wiped them away angrily.
    “I’ll be fine,” she said after a pause.
    “Do you have enough fuel to get home?” Brody asked.
    “I don’t know… Even if I get there, how do I get back? The Mayor is expecting all of us to do our jobs, despite everything.”
    “Well, if it were me, I’d tell the Mayor where to get off,” Ranger said. “Either get me the tools I need, or the job doesn’t get done.”
    “Ranger isn’t too fond of the Mayor,” Brody explained when Julie Anne looked shocked.
    “But I have to do the best that I can with what I have available,” Julie Anne insisted. “It’s part of my job. And besides, you are doing the same as I am.”
    “Yeah… Well… I’m doing it for Brody. Not the Mayor. And… well… for you, too. You’re showing gumption that… Never mind,” Ranger said. “We just need to figure out how to keep going. If these bodies aren’t buried or burned, there is going to be an epidemic, for sure. The city doesn’t need that. We don’t need that. I don’t need that.”
    “Burned! We couldn’t possibly…” Julie Anne looked horror struck. “Even the mass graves…”
    “There is the problem of fuel to burn them, anyway,” Ranger said. “Bodies don’t burn well on their own.”
    “That’s enough, Ranger,” Brody said softly. “Look, Ms.. Baumgartner, we will continue to do what we can, but there is a limit.”
    Julie Anne sighed. “I know. And I’m almost at mine. I honestly don’t know what to do. I may not even be able to get home.”
    “You should stay with us until things get better,” Ranger suddenly said.
    “What? That’s preposterous!” Julie Anne said, rather outraged at the suggestion.
    Brody quickly entered the conversation. “Wait,” he said. “Ranger does have a point. You obviously don’t