Free Surviving Day by Day (Book 3): Still They Come by Audra Allensworth Page A

earth we see more vultures than we ever had before. The white man had always taken from us over centuries and will continue to as long as they walk the earth. You all have been the exception and that is why our group was watching you for as long as we did. We just never let you know it because we could see that you all were not out to take anything or harm anyone. You could say that is why you all didn’t see us because we meant you no harm. Where with these guys up in the hills out there.... They were able to be spotted quickly. We decided to take the low road of playing as though we didn’t see them but in fact we did know that they're up there. You can bet that they do in fact mean us a world of harm. Beth, that there is in our favor. So it is all how you look at it. Another thing is that there are more of us together then those few up on the hill.”
    Beth sat and quietly listened to what Niz was saying. Believe it or not, all of it made sense but when she ended her statement, a red flag popped up, “But those few up there may have a bigger group. They may be just spotters sent out to check on us then go report back to the bigger group.”
    Niz looked at Beth, “True Beth, but you can’t think like that. If they do have a bigger group and they probably do, every man has his flaws and weaknesses. We may not know the weaknesses of those guys, but we know what strengths we do have and many if not all of our kind do look at our strengths more. Now as for the number of people they may have, it could be thirty to fifty, that I don’t know and neither do you.”
    Beth’s stomach dropped when she heard Niz say the numbers but what Niz said after made her think of things in a whole different way...
    “By the looks of the few up there, they look like bikers and the majority of them just think that ‘big and bad’ is the way to win anything and everything. This is never true, Beth. That is the biggest problem of the white man. They think with mass and numbers; not in ways and means. That is the downfall of their kind and has been for several years.”
    Niz could tell that her words were soothing to Beth. Placing her hand on top of Beth’s, “Beth, think with your head, listen to the things around you. When you feel that feeling inside of you that comes right before something is going to happen.... listen to it. Don’t ignore it. That feeling will take you farther in life than anything else will.”
    A tear streamed down Beth’s face and she took a drink of her tea. Niz tilted her head to the side, “What is it, Beth? Please don’t hold whatever is bothering you in or it will affect your decision making when the time comes.”
    “Niz, you don’t know that much about me, but before all of this, I worked for the biggest organization in the world that was supposed to protect everyone from this kind of thing and that place was the Center for Disease Control. I knew things were not right when our President of the United States got elected. Those changes he made to the budgets that he thought would be in the best interest of the world caused all of this and I saw this coming down the pike before it happened. I even was told on the day of the containment outbreak by a very close friend and colleague of mine to ‘Get out while I could and that it was too late for him.’ My closest friend and her husband I know are dead as well,” Beth held her head straight up and wiped the tears from her face, “I had to put each member of my family out of their misery while two of them were being eaten alive by my dad. I had those feelings Niz, long before and tried hard to tell people about it. My boss Aaron, saw the very same thing coming and he was only being told what to do by his superior and I don’t know if he even made it.”
    Niz squeezed Beth’s hand and softly spoke, “Beth... you did absolutely nothing wrong. You don’t see that you did everything that you could do to let those who were above you know that what was