Will of Man - Part Two Read Online Free PDF Page A

to be very exciting.
     
    I was not frightened, just terribly interested in what was happening. The ROAMERS were a small but growing army. They originated from the larger cities like Detroit, Chicago, and Indianapolis. Soon after what many called the LAST DAY and the end of civilization as we knew it, the people in the larger cities used up all their resources, which was primarily food and supplies from local grocery stores. Many didn’t have the knowledge of how to live off the land and hunt. And even if they did, there are no animals to hunt and little land to grow food.
     
    Some tried to start gardens with the patches of land available, but desperation prevailed over camaraderie and people began raiding each other’s gardens to feed themselves or their families. The cities fell into chaos and horrible things happened.
     
    Dad heard a man named Lockheed began organizing the people within the cities and bringing order back. His methods unfortunately involved unspeakable violence and tyranny. But it worked - and this was the beginning of the ROAMERS.
     
    They stay alive by raiding and plundering smaller towns and cities -taking everything as they pass through. At one point their numbers grew to an unsustainable number and they became selective to who could be a part of their murderous piracy. They began weeding out the weak and those considered to be leaches. One would have to earn their way into the army by being the most vicious and warrior like.
     
    In the early beginnings of the ROAMERS, communities would choose to fight. But the ROAMERS grew too strong and soon weaker communities would bow to their tyranny.
     
    People across the nation were calling it a civil war, but my dad said it was really a bunch of desperate people (the ROAMERS) acting lawless and attacking those that were surviving in a lawful way.
     
    The world is in chaos now, but in the country, people are making things work and not at the cost of war. Now the ugliness of desperation has reached us in our quiet little town of Laingsburg - a place where people found a way to survive and help each other while doing it. Laingsburg is a good community.
     
    The first thing my mother said was, “Tyler, the bad people are close, and there will be no going to town today. You must stay near home. Do you understand?”
     
    I acknowledged, but couldn’t imagine the ROAMERS actually attacking Laingsburg. It just didn’t seem real to me. I couldn’t imagine anyone being so bad and wanting to hurt people just to take their belongings. It just didn’t make sense.
     
    Later in the evening when Mom was busy making sure our bags were packed with food, clothes, cooking gear, etc., I ran to Sam’s house to the shed behind his house where we always meet.
     
    When we were younger, we played there all the time and had created a pretty cool fort up in the rafters, complete with a telescope for spotting spies, and a booby trapped entrance that only Sam and I knew about.
     
    We would play there pretending to be outlaws hiding from the sheriff who was usually my younger brother Tanner and Sam’s younger brother William.
     
    Occasionally we allowed Sam’s younger sister Sarah to play. But she would have to play the role of prisoner. Sometimes we’d take sticks and pretend they were guns. We’d pretend to shoot at Sam’s dad as he worked in their garden. He’d laugh and shoot back saying, “Pow, pow, bang!”
     
    Today though it didn’t seem like a storybook fort at all. Sam’s dad and a bunch of other townsmen from down the road were gathered around holding weapons of all sorts. There were men with guns, axes, bows, and any other thing they could gather for a weapon.
     
    They were worked up and looking angry. They spotted us watching and chased us away. Sam’s dad told me to go home.
     
    Instead, we hid in the trees across the field. We could see people walking down the road towards Sam’s house where everyone was gathering. They were all chattering and