World of Ashes Read Online Free PDF Page A

driver side window. Even in the old world approaching someone’s car window was a good way to get shot in the face. He also didn’t seem to care Ethan had a pistol on his lap, as if that were normal now.
                  "They're letting people past, man, but don't give ‘em any shit.” The kid said as if he’d already said it a thousand times and was bored. “Are either of you hurt?" He wasn’t unfriendly, just not very sociable, probably still going through cell-phone withdrawal.
                  "No." They lied. Keith was still beaten up pretty good, but they didn’t want to get stopped for some other medic to check him out. If Keith thought he’d make it, he probably would. That was a good way to lose what items they’d already collected, someone might decide those weapons would be of better use to them. "We were hiding in the countryside. We found this stuff. The owner blew his own head off.”
                  "Whatever, man. They'll probably try and bribe you to stay and help fight. They figure the corpses from St. Louis will follow the highway here in a couple of days." The kid jumped into the bed of their truck without asking. He didn't make any threatening gestures, he just didn't want to walk the quarter mile to the checkpoint and miss all the action if his people decided to blow Ethan and Keith’s heads off.
                  The truck was guided to a halt in a Sally Port surrounded by bomb proof barriers called Hesco Bastions. The bastions had saved countless lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that was only filled with the crap dirt that existed over there. Filled with solid Missouri river clay the barriers could stop a small tank. A woman approached the truck in woodland fatigues, though they could tell she’d been a cop once too. She still had her shiny leather utility belt. "Is this your truck?" She asked.
                  "It is now." Ethan said, looking at the skill tabs sewn onto the lady’s uniform. Airborne, Air Assault, Combat Action Badge, 10 th Mountain Division Combat Patch and a faded boony hat with salt stains where staff sergeant’s rank had been long ago.
                  "I see. Does the legal owner know you have their truck?”
                  Keith froze, he didn't know what to say to that. Luckily, Ethan did. “Ask him if you want. Whatever’s left is probably still stuck to the suspension. Let’s just say he had a wicked case of the munchies and wasn’t in the negotiating mood.”
                  There was a brief moment where Ethan and the woman in charge of the traffic control point locked eyes. This was it, the game was up and they were going to be eaten alive in jail or shot. The woman burst out in an unexpected laugh that was horribly out of place in the dying world around them. Keith and the people at the checkpoint were mildly disturbed, but to Ethan it was a relief to meet someone who understood sarcastic nihilism. “So where are you coming from?”
                  "Wildwood."
                  She took a step back and looked at the tarp in the bed of the truck. "What's in the truck?"
                  "Oh, you know, letters from home, a couple hookers I chloroformed, a box of duct tape, some Skittles in case we get hungry… oh, and the full second season of Scrubs in HD. It’s the best show no one’s going to be left alive to watch. We're heading for his place." Ethan said with a wide eyed smile, putting his arm around Keith’s shoulders.             
    “I don’t know this psychopath.” Keith tried, but to no avail.
                  "You two meet in the Army or something?" She said with a sly smile. Ethan shared the smile as Keith realized it was a gay joke.
    Keith shoved Ethan off of him and a fter a good laugh he pointed down the road. "So what's it gonna take to get you to let us on through,