Free The Second Intelligent Species: The Cyclical Earth by Dale Langlois

maintenance tunnel. He led six out. The rest of them died of asphyxiation.Three more died before they made it here. Now Tex, I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him. He has a cowboy hat and talks with a fake southern accent, pretends to be a real tough guy. I think he’s from New Jersey.”
    Mick turned back to look at the group. “He was on Carl’s train. Carl told me that when they were in the maintenance tunnel, he saw the asshole push some children away from a crack in the wall, where breathable air was coming in. Carl wanted to stop him, but he was busy rotating children and the elderly so they could breathe near a ventilation shaft. The kids didn’t make it, Tex did. We only let him stick around because he’s good at scavenging around in the debris, like the rat he is. He has found a lot of food for everyone, but he makes sure that he gets the best of it all. That’s the only reason he’s doing it. He’s the reason I’m talking to you. He seems extremely interested in what I have in my left pocket. Another thing, he’s gone way too long when he goes scavenging. Sometimes he comes back with nothing. Other times he comes back with things, but won’t tell where he found them. I don’t trust him.
    Will you and your woman stick by me, so I can talk these people into leaving this mall and looking for more survivors? As it stands, Bonita has a lot of pull with the rest them. They won’t leave the place because Bonita wants to stay. Iguess she just yells louder. I have some control of her because I keep her sedated. She won’t let Marcos leave, and I won’t go because he needs these pills. If I left them with Marcos, Tex would take them away, then Marcos would suffer.” Again he nervously looked back at the rest.
    I felt extremely uncomfortable. “I’m sure that Beth wants to go down to the hospital and see if she can help out.” I scrambled for any excuse, since staying here wouldn’t increase our odds of survival.
    “Let’s go back to the fire, and we’ll get something into your stomach,” Mick said.
    We made it back to the fire after stumbling on broken cement blocks and other debris.
    There was a large slab of Phony Bologna on a makeshift grate. It looked burned, as if it had been there for a while.
    Mick saw me looking at it and handed us both a plate and fork and knife. “Enjoy this. It’ll probably be the last meat you’ll eat for a long time. We’re using up the last of it. Most of it is rancid, but when it’s cooked well done, it’s edible. Until somebody gets sick we’re going to eat it all, then we’ll hit the canned goods. We found some seasonings. Those take away the spoiled taste… kind of.”
    “You still didn’t tell me how many people are left alive in the city. Aren’t there any shelters?”These people already made it clear that we would only be welcome one night. Tomorrow we would still need water and food. The water that we could carry in the canteens would only last us a day if we rationed it. We’d need to drink twice that much every day.
    Carl spoke up. “Ain’t one shelter in the city that was prepared for this. All of them burned to the ground. They were designed for the cold, ya know? Three hots and a cot, out of the cold, off the street. We’ve all been there once… well maybe not all of us.” He looked at Beth and me, and then at Beth’s diamond ring. The fire reflected off it still, though it was covered in soot and dirt.
    Again I felt threatened here. I noticed Tex looking at her hand. I knew Beth did too. I knew money wasn’t worth anything anymore, but gems never lose their value, in one way or the other. These might get us a couple cans of soup, who knows, they might be worth even more in the future.

Chapter 12
    On the Road Again

    Beth and I slept away from the others. I awoke to see a figure looming over her while she rested.
    I leapt to my feet. “What to fuck! Get to fuck away from her!” I lunged at the man as he dodged my grasp. He