Free Adrian's Undead Diary (Book 5): Wrath by Chris Philbrook

something to drink (iced tea from the looks of it), got some sun, and then they were escorted back in. Blake has pictures of all of it, and honestly, it looks shady as fuck. The girl’s expressions are clearly odd. They don’t look like prisoners, but they don’t look happy either. Not like there’s a shitload to be happy about in general, but you’d think they’d show some kind of positivity, and not one of those pictures reflects any of that.
    Blake was tweaking when he was pointing everything out on the little camera screen to me, and finally I’d had it with his bullshit. All of us were gathered around, listening to him, and looking at the small camera, and I called him out. It went something like this;
    “Blake dude, enough. You seem like a good kid but you gotta own up brother. You’ve been shady as hell about this farm, and it’s obvious to me that there’s something up you are not telling us about. What’s the story?”
    He went blank, and after a few too many seconds it was clear to me that he was thinking of an answer. Gilbert pressed the issue. “Blake, son, the longer you think of what to say to us, the less likely we are to believe it. The truth comes out naturally, lies take time to think up. Speak now, or we’ll drop you and this farm bullshit like a hot potato.”
    Blake swallowed hard and looked at Gilbert. Gilbert’s words were harsh, but he said them in a pretty friendly way. It was a threat, there’s no doubt about that, but it was delivered with honey, not vinegar.
    “Go back a few pictures.” Blake pointed at the camera, so I flipped back a few frames until we got to a close up picture of the women gathered. Blake pointed out a younger woman. She looked his age, maybe a year younger, short reddish brown hair, kinda pretty, and she was really pregnant. About to pop pregnant. Blake choked up instantly. “That’s my girlfriend. Kimberly.”
    Everyone went silent. I asked the awkward question, “Blake is she carrying your baby?”
    Blake’s floodgates were wide open by that point. Patty handed him a tissue, and after he got done blowing his nose, and wiping his eyes, he gave me a huge shrug. Patty slid in like a professional mother, and put her arm around him. Also, while I’m on the subject, does every fucking mom have tissues on her? We’re like, ten or eleven months into the fucking apocalypse and Patty has a tissue on her. It is seriously like a super power. Befuddles me how that shit is even possible. Nice tangent, eh?
    That’s when Blake filled in the rest of the story. He said that back in August he and Kim were doing okay, hiding and moving around just like he’s been doing all along. The two of them had been hunting in the woods, and every time they bagged a deer, the two of them would take some of it to the farm to trade for fresh milk, or eggs, or canned food, or whatever. Blake said he got a few boxes of .303 off of them too, which explains some of how he’s survived this long using just the one rifle.
    Anyway in August during one of their trades, the old man of the farm (who Blake identified as Thomas Adams) presented them an offer. They had room for one more person in the farm, and if that person was willing to work on the crops, and with the animals, they’d be protected, fed, and would have a good life.  
    After a few days of talking it over, they decided Kim would move into the farm. After all, Blake could visit the farm anytime…
    But that changed. After a few visits over the course of a couple weeks, Thomas told Blake that Kim didn’t want to see him anymore, and that they were broke up, and he should go his own way. Thomas produced a handwritten note from Kim saying as much. Blake says he has the letter still back at the garage, and it’s definitely her writing, but he says it’s bullshit. He claims it’s a fraud, and that they forced her to write it.
    He hasn’t seen her since the first week of September. If you do the math, that baby has a very high