Free Survival: After It Happened Book 1 by Devon C Ford Page A

your head”
    Callum changed tactic and started to slash wildly at Dan, who retreated one pace at a time until Callum went to cut down at him from height. He stepped in, blocking his arm with both hands and seizing his wrist painfully, forcing the hand to bend and stretching the ligaments tight. The pain and the loss of power in his grip made Callum drop the useless knife from his limp fingers.
    He drove his left knee hard under Callum’s diaphragm, taking his legs out from under him. Dan kept hold of the wrist and hand and stepped into Callum spinning him over his back and slamming him to the floor. As he went down Dan turned and went to his knees with him, folding Callum’s left arm over his own arm and locking it off. He readjusted his position and leaned back, causing a crack to sound from Callum’s joints almost as loud as his scream. Callum went pale, and fainted from the pain.
    Chloe was still in the doorway, open mouthed at what she had witnessed. She seemed unsure what to do, and as Dan stood and brushed his hands off he fixed her with a look.
    “Take one of the cars from the car park and leave. Now.” She hesitated, looking between the writhing Callum and Dan.
    “Believe me I have a problem hitting a woman, but when it comes to the safety of these people I will make an exception for you.” He said coldly.
    Chloe snapped out of her trance and ran over to Callum. He had come around and was crying. She helped him up and half dragged him over to the car park. Neil, ever reliable, threw her a set of keys to an old Peugeot they had found on an unfortunate member of former shop staff and the group watched as they left.
    A stunned silence still reigned over the group, and Dan realised they were all looking at him. He saw a mixture of smiles and looks of relief and gratitude, but also some shock and fear too. He was still fired up and didn’t think that now was the time for a speech, but he had to address the fears he saw before they grew into doubts about being part of the group.
    “I’m sorry you had to see that” he lied “but I will go to any lengths to protect you all from people like that” he gestured towards the fading sound of the Peugeot’s engine. “It had to be done that way. If they knew we had guns, they would be back to take them. We can’t afford to trust our safety and our future to people like that; they were nothing to society last week and trust me, they are more of a drain now.”
    He walked away, hopeful that he hadn’t gone too far in proving his point and removing a problem. He caught a look from Leah as he passed, and swore that she was hiding a grin.
    Neil jogged and caught up with him, and he turned to see Penny walking briskly towards him. She had too much decorum to run. Neil was smiling, clearly impressed with the demonstration, but he could not be sure that Penny would be amused.
    She stopped short of him, and straightened herself to imply formality
    “You have my thanks for doing that. I agree that those people had no place here but, but I must insist that you do not repeat such behaviour in front of Leah. She must not think that violence is the answer to problems.”
    Dan was inclined to agree with her, but his heart was still beating fast. He rounded on her and drew himself up similarly
    “Make no mistake, Penny, there are times when violence is the ONLY solution. Without people here willing to put themselves out, we will all be dead within the year.” He softened, realising from her look that he had upset her.
    “I am sorry, genuinely. Not that I did it, but that some of the group would be scared by it. But don’t you see it also proves what I am willing to do to people who will try and hurt us?”
    Penny swallowed, unwilling to provoke an argument to make her point any more clearly.
    “Yes, I understand. Dinner will be in thirty minutes and I have Leah keeping an eye on it. Please, tell us how your trip went.”
    Dan gestured for them to follow towards his new trailer