Free Hell's Children: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller by John L. Monk

department at the university. Other hunter-gather societies were the same, she’d said.
    Pete made a face. “That’s disgusting. You’re full of it.”
    Jack just shrugged and continued to the next thing: shelter.
    The problem with the Welcome Center was it had eight different entrances, huge windows front and back, and it was sitting in the middle of a large number of other apartment complexes and housing communities. Worse, the smoke from the pit out back was a beacon to the food gangs. They needed to relocate to a more remote location with a fireplace—preferably with a stove, like he’d seen at a cabin with his parents a few years ago. The stove sat inside the fireplace and kept the whole cabin toasty, and there was even a cooking surface on top. Way more efficient use of fuel.
    “Is the gas out everywhere, or just here?” he said to Greg at one point. His own house was all electric, and he had no idea if gas was still a viable heating option this long after the Sickness.
    “I don’t know about everywhere,” Greg said. “It turned off here the same time as the water and electricity. Lots of freezing kids out there right now.”
    Pete grunted. “Most of them are probably dead. I mean, how’s a baby gonna feed itself?”
    “We can’t think about that,” Jack said quietly. “Not if we’re going to keep going.” He turned to Lisa. “How many people our age do you still see around here? Minus the ones who attacked you.”
    She rubbed her chin. “There’s still one or two I know hiding in their apartments that I couldn’t get to join us. They’re pretty far-gone. The rest float between the supermarkets, restaurants, and houses scrounging for anything they can find. I found a dead cat the other day that looked like it’d been skinned. Messy and wasteful.”
    Jack nodded slowly to himself.
    “He’s got that look in his eye,” Greg said to his sister. “He’s gonna say something Chosen One-ish.”
    Jack ignored that and said, “Let’s do a final sweep of the complex and surrounding neighborhoods—see if we can get more recruits. We’ll go in armed groups of two.” He recalled that nut with the bat, smashing out car windows. “Nobody crazy, and no troublemakers. And try not to get anyone younger than about ten.”
    “How do we get them to come?” Greg said.
    “If they still have food, offer them security in exchange for sharing. If they don’t have anything, offer security, food, medicine, that kind of thing. The basics.”
    Greg looked at him like he was crazy. “We don't have medicine. Nobody’s gotten sick. And if they did, how would you know what to give them?”
    “Usually it says on the bottles,” Jack said impatiently. “If it doesn’t, we find a book on it later and figure it out. Next topic: what do we need that you guys haven’t scrounged already?”
    Tony said, “Gold and silver. Coins and chains and stuff like that. And diamonds. One day, may have to use that as money.”
    Jack wasn’t so sure about that, considering the world’s supply of precious metals and jewels was now available for a tiny population to easily grab. Not wanting to stifle anyone’s creativity, he smiled and nodded.
    “Good idea,” he said. “What else?”
    Pete said, “Backpacks? For the children. So they can carry stuff.”
    “Excellent idea, Pete. Everyone gets their own pack. What else?”
    More time passed while they brainstormed ideas, none of them coming up with anything the twins and Tony hadn’t scavenged already.
    Jack said, “How about fishing tackle? Rods, reels, lures, that kind of thing. I brought a little with me, but we could use more.”
    Lisa quirked an eyebrow. “You know some place to fish around here that I don’t?”
    “Not around here,” he said, smiling mysteriously. “Later on, who knows?”
    Pete started saying how fish had mercury in them, and that’s why they couldn’t eat them, and they didn’t taste good anyway.
    With a teasing twinkle in his eye, Tony