Free VOLITION (Perception Trilogy, book 2) by Lee Strauss, Elle Strauss Page A

was
shattered. I helped her up, but she wouldn’t look me in the eyes.
    “Zoe?”
    “What?” she sputtered.
    “Just stay away from that guy, okay?”
     
     
    Chapter 11
     
     
    Finn had more than a few ruffled feathers. He accosted me
outside.
    “I asked you to attend chapel,” he said through gritted teeth,
his spit spraying through chapped lips. “You dishonor me in front of my family
while taking advantage of my hospitality!”
    He leaned in close and I took a step back raising my palms.
“Look, sorry, Finn. We didn’t mean to offend you.”
    His eyes narrowed and he pushed close, poking my chest with his
finger. “You did offend me. And as long as you’re on my commune, you’ll do as I
say.”
    I wanted to punch this chump in the nose. He outweighed me by
fifty pounds, but I had a couple of inches. I stood up tall and peered down my
nose at him, my fingers curling into a fist at my side.
    The veins in Finn’s neck bulged with barely controlled rage.
His eyes were bloodshot and glossy, piercing me like swords. I felt a flush of
fear. This was a side to Finn he worked to keep hidden. I didn’t doubt he was
capable of harming me if he lost control.
    “Like I said, I’m sorry. What do you want from me now?”
    He huffed. “Since you’re a heathen, you can do heathens work on
the Lord’s day. The wood needs chopping.”
    I was raised in a good Christian home. My parents loved us kids
unconditionally and gave us the gift of faith.
    They were nothing like this lunatic.
    Finn was too crazy to argue with. I’d chop his wood and pray
the weather warmed up enough for me and Zoe to get the hell out of here.
    I found that I liked chopping wood. It was a way for me to take
out my anger and frustration without drawing blood. Especially Taylor’s or
Finn’s, who showed up when my pile to chop was almost completed.
    “Meet me in the bunker when you’re done. Don’t let no one see
ya,” was all he said before disappearing.
    I finished up the rest of the wood, and piled it up against the
house. I wiped my brow and tried to quench my thirst with snow, debating
whether or not I should go. I hated being dictated to, but the conflict that
would result from not complying with Finn’s request wouldn’t be worth it. I
sighed hard before sneaking off for the bunker. I took a circuitous route,
being careful not to be seen.
    I tapped on the bunker door before opening it. I could picture
Finn down there with a loaded gun pointed at the entrance, and I didn’t want to
take the chance of startling him.
    “Finn?”
    “Hurry up and close the hatch,” he said. He was sitting in
front of his old laptop, squinting at whatever was on there.
    “Reading the bible?” I said.
    “Don’t get smart with me, boy. Get over here.” He stood and
motioned for me to sit.
    “Another blog post?”
    He grunted and nodded.
    Something about blogging under Finn’s orders didn’t sit right
with me. I almost refused, but the thought of getting online again and checking
in with the outside world was too much of a draw.
    Finn offered me his chair, and I breathed out a defeated sigh
as I accepted it. I tapped in my password and waited for my blog page to load.
    “Anything in particular you want me to say?”
    “How about your encounter with that humanoid in Marley?”
    “I can’t give my position away. You know that.”
    “You don’t have to say where you are, just what happened.
Aren’t you at all concerned by the increase in humanoid activity?”
    The folks here leaned toward being delusional conspiracy
theorists, but I had to agree with them on this point. I was concerned.
    “It’s a little un-nerving,” I reluctantly admitted. I didn’t
want Finn to get the idea that we were on the same page philosophically. We
couldn’t be further apart in that regard. “There seems to be a sudden rapid
rise in numbers mingling with society.”
    Humanoids were the latest tech gadget recently available to the
average citizen. Like other tech