Free Half Past Midnight by Jeff Brackett Page B

neck, and Debra, Zachary, and Megan watching her. When Debra broke down, Amber and Zach were busy comforting her. So when Megan slipped away, I was the only one to notice.
    I patted Amber on the arm and pointed toward the kitchen to let her know I was leaving for a moment, then went to follow Megan. I found her in the back yard sitting in the shadows. She didn’t move as I sat next to her, and we sat together in silence for a time before she spoke.
    “This isn’t what it’s going to be like from now on, is it? This is just the first day, Dad, and we’ve already had to kill people.”
    I started to reply, but she continued, “I know you told me just this morning that it could happen, but I didn’t really expect anything like that. Did you?”
    “No, I didn’t.”
    But she wasn’t listening to me. “Now Mom is crying because she had to do exactly what you told me I might have to do. So should I be crying, too? Is there something wrong with me?” She turned to me, her face completely devoid of tears, but no less anguished than her mother’s. “I’m not sorry I killed him; I know he would have killed us if he could have. So is there something wrong with me?”
    I reached to pull her close, draping my arm around her shoulders as I groped for an answer. “No, babe, there’s nothing wrong with you. Different people just react differently to stress.”
    Megan nodded. “I know, but she didn’t have any choice. She knows that, doesn’t she?”
    “Yeah, she knows. She knows it intellectually. But knowing something in your head isn’t the same as knowing it in your heart. I’ve taught you for the past six years that there may come a time when you’ll have to fight, and that you might even have to kill. You’ve had time to deal with the idea.
    “But your mother has always tried to live a peaceful life. She’s always thought people are basically good, deep down. Now she can’t think that way. She can’t afford to. Those guys would have killed me. They would have killed all of us to get our supplies, and your mom knows it. To her, it’s like life just reached out and slapped her in the face. That’s why she’s so mixed up right now. Give her a little time to put her head and her heart in sync.”
    Megan said nothing, and after a time she laid her head on my shoulder, and we watched the clear night sky that could only be seen far away from cities.

Chapter 6
* * June 13 / 11:34 p.m. * *
     
    La grande cité sera bien desolee,
Des habitans vn seul n’y demeurera
Mur, sexe, temple & vierge violee,
Par fer, feu, peste canon peuple mourra.
    The great city will be thoroughly desolated,
Of the inhabitants not a single one will remain there:
Wall, sex, temple and virgin violated,
Through sword, fire, plague, cannon people will die.
Nostradamus – Century 3, Quatrain 84
    Frank led me at gunpoint to the clearing, where Larry and the others stood laughing at my ineffective struggles against the rope that bound my hands behind my back.
    “Han! Don’t hold back this time,” Larry screamed, still laughing.
    Then came the beating I was powerless to prevent, but somehow it didn’t really hurt. Each time Han hit me, I jerked, expecting the terrible pain, and each time I felt nothing. It was amazing. I began to laugh with Larry and the others. Wasn’t this a grand joke? I was being beaten and couldn’t feel a thing.
    Larry quit laughing and screamed, as blood began to pour from his shoulder. He pulled my knife from its sheath on his belt. “Actually, Leeland, it appears that your usefulness is at an end.”
    Frantically struggling, I looked to my right and saw Edgar holding my arm with one hand. He used his free hand to rip a bloody shaft from his throat. To my left, Michael held my other arm while he bled profusely from a gaping hole in his chest. He gave me an eerie grin.
    Larry slowly hobbled up to me on one broken leg and brought the knife toward my neck. Sunlight reflected blindingly off of the knife’s