Free The Broken and the Dead (Book 1) by Jay Morris Page A

I thought to myself, ‘just wait till she’s 12 like me.’ The fire started slowly but it grew steadily, when it started to collapse onto the red hot coals it was time for the bigger sticks. Pretty soon it was really a nice fire and while it lit up our faces with a golden light the sides of the pit kept it from lighting much of the ground. Mrs. Driscol was opening cans and dumping them into a big pot that she set inside the pit near the fire. About that time Old Man Tucker re-appeared holding a bunch of long, thin, sticks that he had cut from a tree not far away.
    “Here you go Mrs. Driscol” he said handing them to her, she smiled and examined the sharp points he had made on the ends.
    “Perfect!” she said “and call me Amy.”
    Old Man Tucker looked uncomfortable and said
    “Sure thing Mrs. Driscol.”
    I had to stop myself from laughing, I was beginning to really like him but I had a feeling that he was not the kind of person that took kidding well.
    That was when Mom led Elaine over to the fire, Mrs. Driscol opened a cooler and took out a couple of packages then shutting the lid said
    “Here Elaine, sit here” and she patted the cooler.
    She didn’t respond but Mom led her over and got her to sit down. Mrs. Driscol said,
    “Well, for dinner we are having that old camping standard beans and weenies!”
    Lucy looked as if she would about to have a heart attack. If there was anything she loved more than Ronald Bear it was either mac-n-cheese or beans-n-weenies. I smiled remembering that Daddy always said she only liked food with the word “-n-” in them. Remembering that almost made me cry and I wondered where he was right then. If he was safe or if he was one of those crazies or if he was dead; I shook myself not wanting to think about that right then. She opened the hot dogs and cut them up dropping them right into the pot with the pork and beans. Billy asked “then what are the sticks for?” Mrs. Driscol laughed and held up a bag of giant marshmallows. Suddenly I was considering Mrs. Driscol’s cooking rank of #2, perhaps I should re-evaluate her I thought.
    I looked over at Mom, she was holding Elaine’s hand and whispering softly to her. I looked for Old Man Tucker, he was just out of the radius of light, that big Russian rifle slung over his shoulder, he was watching down the hill, watching the road, watching the forest. I prayed that he wouldn’t see anything, I had enough of shooting for now, enough of shooting people, and enough of watching them die. After a few minutes Mrs. Driscol started serving up dinner on thick paper plates; she took one to Old Man Tucker who ate his standing up and two plates over to Mom and Elaine. She started to take one to Lucy, be she insisted that Ronald Bear needed some as well so Mrs. Driscol obliged but told her to make sure that both plates came back empty.
    “Don’t worry Mrs. Driscol, they will.” Lucy answered a very wide grin on her face.
    After we ate Old Man Tucker asked me and Billy if we would keep watch, he wanted to
    “Stretch out and rest his eyes for a bit.”
    He thanked us profusely and walked over near the fire where he had rolled out a blanket or something and in about 10 minutes he was snoring. Billy and I took our assignment seriously we walked back and forth so that we were both scanning the same areas alternately. Mrs. Driscol spent time with Lucy and Mom kept trying to get Elaine to speak, eat, something, or well, anything at all. After a bit Lucy seemed to be fading fast; so Mom and Mrs. Driscol led Elaine into the tent followed by Lucy. It suddenly got very spooky, nothing but the softly crackling fire and its strange lights dancing in the trees around us. Around 10 or so, Old Man Tucker shook himself awake and with a shuddering groan rolled over and forced himself to his feet. He looked around for a moment then said to Billy,
    “About time they went to bed, I was getting tired just listening to them.”
    Billy put his rifle over his