Free THE COLLAPSE: Seeking Refuge by Frank Kaminski

taking a huge gulp out of it and another bite of her fruit-nut bar, she finally said, “Oh my god, thank you.”
    “Are you alright?” Stephen asked.
    “Yeah,” Alexis answered, “I’m just hypoglycemic.  If my blood sugar drops too much, I get angry.  Like, really angry.  Like…stupid angry, as you just witnessed.”
    Fish guffawed at her comment, then started to say something but Stephen shushed him.
    Alexis continued, “I’ve been to the docs for this.  They say that when I get angry, my adrenalin skyrockets out of control and feeds into more anger, which raises my adrenalin even more.  Like a snowball effect.” 
    Fish said, “So, what you’re saying is…that you’re basically the female version of the Incredible Hulk.”
    Alexis howled a hideous sounding laugh and answered, “Yeah, I guess that’s one way to put it.  It’s called ‘going hypo’ and I am really sorry about that.”
    “No worries,” Stephen started, “we’re just glad you’re okay.”
    Once Alexis had recovered fully, she and Fish spoke about the situation at the beach.  Now, the “beach” at Deception Pass isn’t like the brightly-colored, sandy California beaches you might see on television.  If you’ve never been to Washington State, you wouldn’t know that most of the beaches are rather dark and dreary.  Sure, there’s some sandy ones here and there, but the beach at Deception Pass was mostly covered in small, ocean-worn, dark colored rocks and pebbles.  Not only that, but just about the entire perimeter of the beach was lined with a vast amount of driftwood.  Smooth, bark-stripped logs and branches ranging in depressing colors from an ashy gray to bone white.  Driftwood was normally illegal to remove from any of the Washington State beaches, but since The Collapse had begun, anything was fair game.  Dry driftwood was great for fire-starting, it burned really hot and fast.
    It didn’t take very long for Alexis to figure out that Fish was a twenty-year Navy veteran that had served two ground combat tours in Afghanistan.  Once she had ascertained that information, she assumed that she didn’t need to brief him on watchstanding procedures and countermeasures.  She focused instead on the proper use of the air horns during an attack, and the location of rendezvous and rally points along the beach should an incursion actually occur.  She informed both Fish and Stephen that the last two attacks were similar in design.  Both times, the insurgents had landed their boats somewhere on the other side of the bridge (to the east), then they had traveled on foot using the trail that led under the bridge and into The Park.  Both attacks had occurred at night (the men guarding the bridge were unable to see the infiltrators sneaking along the trail directly underneath them), and both times none of the intruders had left alive.  At least, to their best knowledge nobody had escaped alive.  They were just “thievery missions”, in her own opinion.  An attempt to get at the modest amount of supplies that The Park had stockpiled.  And speaking of supplies, she had asked if Stephen and Fish had visited Victor and Gerty Martinez yet, the provisions managers.  Of course, neither of them had. 
    Alexis was under the assumption that the attackers had originated from the Bowman camp across the water.  She had referred to the scum at Bowman Bay as “Bowmen”.
    Alexis had also told Fish that “her policy” was to fire a warning shot at any watercraft that came any closer than three hundred yards from the beach.  Alexis did not take invasion lightly.  Her heart and soul had gone into defending The Park.  She concluded her brief by adding a supporting statement that Claudine and William will back her up on any of her decisions, usually without question.
    During Alexis’ brief, Stephen had noticed a large sign on the beach, and another one about a football field away.  He asked what they read, and Alexis laughed.  She