The Renegades 2 Aftermath (A Post Apocalyptic Zombie Thriller) Read Online Free PDF Page A

anyway to treat a brother?”
    “You are no brother of mine.”
    “Listen, we just wanted to get a few things and be on our way,” Dax said.
    “By all means. We aren’t going to stop you. However, we would like it if you would join us this evening for a meal.”
    “No,” Ralphie yelled.
    Dax cleared his throat. “Um. Thanks but we need to get going.”
    “Ah, that’s a shame,” Isaac replied.
    Baja tapped me on the arm. “Maybe we should. I mean, we have basically robbed them of all their supplies.”
    He overheard Baja. “You haven’t robbed us. It’s yours to take.”
    I looked at Dax to see what he wanted to do. Meanwhile others were coming out of the church. They were older. They didn’t appear to pose a threat. Some were in their late forties, others their sixties. By all accounts they looked like regular townspeople. There was nothing that made me think they were anything more than a town that may have managed to get things under control. It was possible. Just because Castle Rock went to shit so fast, it didn’t mean every other town had. Maybe they quarantined those who were bit?
    “What do you think?” Baja asked.
    I turned to Dax and whispered, “If they wanted to kill us, I think they would have attacked now, right?”
    He nodded.
    “What about Ralphie?” he asked.
    We cast a glance over at him. He was hunched behind the wheel looking as if he was about to bolt.
    “Maybe. Maybe we can stay, just for a meal,” Dax replied to Isaac.
    “Just for a meal. Superb,” Isaac said. “Come, I’ll introduce you to some of the others.”
    I could hear Ralphie muttering to himself. “No. No.”
    We didn’t know what to make of Ralphie. There was something he wasn’t telling us. Besides the odd behavior, the place seemed normal enough. Though I was still guarded, something didn’t feel right. I asked Specs to go get Jess and the others.
    “Oh, don’t worry. We will have someone pick up your other friends.”
    Specs looked back at me. I shrugged.

THE DAMNED
    I t was an unusual gathering . They had requested that our weapons remain at the door, which gave us even more reason to feel uneasy. When asked why, Isaac told us that they had a zero policy about weapons inside the house of the Lord. They promised the weapons would still be there when we left. We were reluctant at first. After talking among ourselves and getting a whiff of the hot food, our stomachs made the final decision. I wasn’t sure what Ralphie’s issue was with these people. Sure, eating a meal in a church was a little odd, but they appeared to act pretty darn normal.
    “So you were saying that you were from Castle Rock? The mining town?” one of them said in between drinks of orange juice.
    “Yeah, that’s it.”
    He nodded. They had set out a large mahogany table in the church. It extended from the door all the way down to the other end. At the far end was a stained-glass window with a depiction of the cross.
    “Not many people there, I imagine?” he asked.
    “About the same as here. Which by the way, where are the others?”
    As we waited for our food, we learned that when the virus hit their town many of the community had died, but a small number of them had managed to get it under control. They had salvaged what they could. Burned the dead and were in the process of rebuilding the town.
    Across the table one of the men sneered at me.
    There was something about meeting strangers. The way they look at you as if they are judging you. I didn’t like it one bit. The interaction with them reminded me of when I was a kid and our parents took us to visit our aunties and uncles out in West Virginia. It was awkward. We had to bunk with our cousins who we had never seen before. They were all hicks. Living out in the backwoods, eating off the land, and spending most of the time up to their knees in cow shit.
    “Are you all that remains?” Isaac asked.
    “As far as we know. I don’t think many people had a chance to escape. It