Free Generation Dead by Joseph Talluto Page A

play,”  Jake said , moving forward and bringing his hands up.
    I knew I was in for it, but I was strangely calm.  I had never bested Jake so easily, and with an ego like his, it had to be difficult to swallow, especially with Julia watching.
    Jake feinted with his left and hit me with his right, although I just managed to block the second punch.  Jake then launched a series of attacks that rained blows on my arms and head, although I managed to avoid the worst of them.  A punch got through my defenses and hit me square in the gut.  As I went over, I threw an uppercut to try and get Jake to back off, not realizing he was coming in to try and finish me off.
    The punch landed on Jake’s chin and snapped his head back, causing him to drop his arms and fall to the ground in a heap.  As I recovered, I noticed Jake wasn’t moving, and Julia was coming over to check on him.
    As she rolled him over, I could hear Jake say, “Check his hands for bricks, would you, please?”  I guessed Jake would be okay.
    We waited a day longer than we had planned, mostly because Jake didn’t want to go out in public with a big lump on his chin.  I didn’t do much to help, I kept giggling every time I saw him, and Julia was no help either.  She kept leaving bricks where Jake could find them, and to his credit, Jake said nothing.
    On the night, before we were to leave, though, Julia woke the local dead screaming about the load of bricks Jake had piled in her bed.  I just closed my door and let the two of them fight it out.

 
     
    Chapter 16
     
    In the morning, Jake and I climbed into the truck and headed out, waving to Julia as we left.  We knew she would be all right by herself.  No one in their right mind would try to attack the park, as a family of cougars roamed in the woods and kept it free from trespassers. Not to mention, Julia was a crack shot and deadly with her weapons.  No worries there.
    Jake drove, and we headed out along Route 71.  That road took us on a southerly tour of the edge of our domain, and into the river lands.  The road twisted a lot at the eastern edge of the preserve, and since we were really bad about maintaining the roads, it took us an hour to navigate the turns and hills.  When we cleared the hills, it was straight sailing to Ottawa, the big city on the river.  Once upon a time, zombies had overrun this town, but after a serious pushback by our dad, people had been coming back.  There had to be over five thousand people there now, and seemed to be growing daily.
    We filled up at the one gas station in town, paying a silver for our gas and getting a handful of coppers in change.  Gas was extremely cheap, something my dad explained as the law of supply and demand, but I never paid attention when he started going on about economics.
    A small jog north took us to the interstate, and we were able to make pretty good time.  The irony was the main highway swung north, and would have actually put us in Peotone’s backyard had it stayed straight.  As it was, we were travelling an extra twenty miles out of our way, but it was faster and easier travelling, so it was okay.
    All other roads were maintained as well as could be expected, but the highway was a priority.  We had to be able to respond to an emergency in case of another outbreak, so the main highways had been cleared from the Appalachians to the Rockies.  It had taken ten years, and even Jake and I worked on it, but it was necessary.
    An hour into the ride, Jake took us over the bridge at Joslin.  That town had never recovered from the big outbreak, and it was still a ghost town.  Teenagers dared each other to go into the dark buildings at night, and everyone in a while little pinpoints of light could be seen walking around at dusk.  There were places in Joslin that even the best of collectors refused to go, and the whole place had been declared off limits by the government several years ago.
    “Bet there’s some neat stuff down