Free Apocalypse Unleashed by Mel Odom

dream.”
    “But it’s not.”
    “No, I guess not.” The sergeant looked at Joey again. “But don’t worry about it too much, kid. The brass will figure this out. They always do.”
    “I hope so,” Joey said. “The sooner the better.”
    “I’m keeping my fingers crossed. In the meantime, stay back from the fence, okay? It makes the snipers tense.”
    Snipers? Joey looked around at the nearby buildings.
    “They’re there, kid. Always on watch.”
    “Okay.” That made Joey feel even more safe. The camp was like one of those old medieval castles. The armed guards were the moat that cut it off from the rest of the world.
    “I gotta get back to it,” the sergeant said. “Got a lot of miles to cover before my shift’s over.”
    “Have a good day,” Joey said. After the sergeant and the dog had moved on, Joey sat astride the ten-speed and stared out where Columbus sat touched by the early dawn. He thought about the madness that was in the city.
    Many metropolitan areas had tried to return to a semblance of order. That was what people did, he supposed. Just picked up the pieces and moved on. Like his mom had when his dad left them. And like what she’d done in the camp when so many kids needed somebody.
    But that was just the surface. Looting and violence had broken out all over. People were scared and mad, and they were going to be that way until they knew for sure what had happened.
    And that it wasn’t going to happen again.

    St. Francis Hospital
Local Time 0656 Hours

    Jenny luxuriated in the hot shower. The nurses had allowed her into their locker room weeks ago, once they’d discovered she was living at the hospital. Megan Gander had tried to get her to return to Fort Benning, but Jenny didn’t want to leave her father. Her whole life, every time he’d gotten bad, wherever they’d been living, whether in jail or in a psych ward, she’d always managed to be there for him. She lived with the fear that if she wasn’t there, something would happen to him.
    Dark hair washed and dried with a community hair dryer, she quickly dressed in a pair of khaki cargo pants, a white blouse with three-quarter sleeves, and her tennis shoes. She used a separate plastic bag to put her dirty clothes in. She planned to wash them later.
    Jenny looked in the mirror and noticed how hollow-eyed she was becoming. Red rimmed her green eyes. No wonder the nurses are worried about you. They probably think you’re going to be their next patient. A little makeup would have helped, but she didn’t have any.
    Satisfied she’d done all she could do, she turned from the mirror.

9

    United States of America
Columbus, Georgia
St. Francis Hospital
Local Time 0703 Hours

    Having possessions was turning out to be a problem. Over the last few weeks, Jenny had pared everything she owned down to one backpack. The new clothes didn’t fit inside. She got frustrated thinking she was going to have to carry her bags around like a homeless person.
    “Problem?” a voice asked.
    Jenny turned to see a nurse putting on makeup two sinks down. “No.”
    “You look like you don’t have enough arms.” The nurse was in her early thirties. She wore a charm bracelet that had pictures of a small girl on it. The woman didn’t look familiar, so Jenny assumed she was on loan from one of the other floors.
    “Things were easier,” Jenny admitted, “when everything fit into one bag.”
    The woman laughed. “I know that’s true. But that’s not really life, is it?”
    Jenny silently thought that all the good things that had happened in her life could have fit into one bag with plenty of room left over. It was trouble that seemed to come in bushel baskets.
    “No,” Jenny said.
    “Tell you what,” the nurse said, “I’ve got an extra lock here somewhere.” She rummaged through a big purse. “Bought one and never used it.” She produced a Master Lock with two keys taped on one side. “You’re welcome to use it.”
    “I can pay you