Free The China Pandemic by A R Shaw Page A

so she opened the next one to make sure he had enough before they left.
    Shaking off her hand, she wiped it dry on her jeans. Macy walked back to the opened car to close it up, when Sheriff jumped into the backseat, surprising both of them. “Um, he wants to go with us?” Marcy asked.
    “Well, it’s up to him I guess. I’m not going to tell a police dog what he can and cannot do, are you?”
    Shutting the trunk and doors and seeing no protest from Sheriff, Macy started the ignition. Having had the benefit of watching her twin, she smoothly guided the car into reverse. She then applied the brakes carefully and stopped to adjust the seat in the closest position possible so that she would not compromise her vision. She began again and swung it around, heading towards Mountain View. Now that the road was wide open, they should be there in no time.

8 The Madman
     
    Horacio Campos had just finished pounding the last sign into the persistently damp earth surrounding his domain. It read, NO TRESPASSING in big letters above Violators Will Be Shot , followed by, See Mayor Campos for Supplies .
    Now that he’d posted it, everyone would know he owned this town, complete with all the homes and buildings, including their contents. No excuses would be accepted from any trespassers who ignored the rules, and failed to pay the toll he established. “No more, free rides, like those two bozos who thought they could just walk right through here without as much as paying a fee,” he grumbled aloud. There’d been rules even then before he’d posted the signs. There must always be rules.
    Just because most folks were dead, didn’t mean the few that lived could run off with everything else. After all, he kept the wild animals out, including the wild dog packs. He also kept the electricity on and the water running. If they paid, he’d even sell them gasoline. He had homes ready; complete with cars, for those few he thought would be good citizens. They just had to pay in either work or trade. If they wanted supplies or a way through his town, they needed to prove they could pay.
    Campos, having grown up here where his daddy was the town’s electrician, knew people often took advantage of you if you let them. He didn’t let them. Before Daddy’s time, his granddaddy owned this land, including a gas station where he worked.
    The government stole it from their family after Granddaddy refused their first offer. Back in the seventies, they claimed the tract of land they held was required for ‘urban renewal’ or some such nonsense. What really happened, after they offered only half of the land value and Granddaddy refused, they stole it through Eminent Domain. That caused Granddaddy to get so upset after spending his entire life farming here that he up and died of a heart attack from the stress of it all. That had left his own daddy fatherless at the age of fifteen.
    With bitter resentment, his daddy had told of holding his father, dying in his arms, and watching his momma cry her eyes out but not for long. Soon after, she went whoring around and she left his daddy alone to fend for himself. Campos remembered his daddy swearing that he’d get the land back someday.
    After living well through most of his childhood, Daddy had to go into the navy. He learned to become an electrician and then came back to his childhood home. He resented providing service for those men that had once worked for his own daddy on the dairy farm.
    So, when this virus struck and everyone began dying off, including his own father, Campos decided the time had come for payback. This land belonged to his family once again, and he wasn’t going to let anyone take it away. Daddy would be so proud of him now, if only he’d survived the virus to see what his son had done for him. He wouldn’t get mad at him anymore.
    Night and day, he cleaned the place up. It took several days to round up all the dead bodies and burn them. He also killed all the family pets to keep