Free Zero Hour: A Post-Apocalyptic EMP Survival Fiction Series (The Blackout Series Book 2) by Bobby Akart Page B

Tennessee
     
    Alex followed Jimmy through the open garage and directly inside. The garage was full of plastic storage bins. She tried her best to inventory the contents, but she didn’t want Jimmy to catch her snooping. The big prize was inside.
    “Sorry for the mess,” started Jimmy as he led her into the house. “My mom is the only one who cleans up around here, and she sucks at it. Our house is so messy they won’t even hire a cleaning service to come in. Look around. What’s the point?”
    “It’s not that bad,” Alex lied. The place was a pigsty. Empty pizza boxes and beer cans were strewn about. His stepdad, a smoker, must not have been interested in emptying his ashtrays. The stale air coupled with the stench of beer and cigarettes almost caused Alex to retch, but she contained herself.
    Jimmy showed Alex his room and revealed his Walking Dead comic book collection. He had a duplicate of issue 100 in which Negan killed Glenn, so he gave it to Alex as a gift. She thought that it was sweet and thanked him. She did plan to read it later. First things first .
    She engaged in some small talk with Jimmy but was very much aware of the time. After the HPA meeting broke up, his stepdad might come home. Her new friendship with Jimmy needed to be kept under wraps.
    Alex saw a slightly open door under the stairwell. It appeared to be the stairs that led into the basement. She nonchalantly bumped into the doorknob as she walked past, causing it to open further.
    “Ouch,” she exclaimed, pretending to get bruised by the collision. As the door swung open, she asked, “What’s down there?”
    “Oh, yeah,” started Jimmy as he reached down and picked up a battery-operated Coleman lantern. “You wanna see my stepdad’s gun vault?”
    “I guess,” she tried to appear aloof. “I’ve never seen a gun before.”
    “Never?”
    “Nope,” she replied, twisting a strand of her long blonde hair. “Do you mind showing me?”
    Jimmy shrugged and turned on the light. The two reached the bottom of the stairs, which opened to a large unfinished basement. Once downstairs, he turned on three other Coleman lanterns, revealing a series of workbenches and pegboards. There were several gun safes, but two of them were open. Several dozen green military-issue ammo cans were stacked neatly under the benches.
    Alex was genuinely amazed. “Wow,” she uttered. “He’s ready for a war.”
    “I guess,” said Jimmy. “He’s always going to gun shows. He buys and sells, then brags about the great deals he made. I’ve been with him when he buys guns from online sellers.”
    Alex walked through the room and nonchalantly picked up some of the weapons. This was a gold mine!
    “I didn’t know you could buy guns on the Internet,” said Alex, appearing to be interested while she took a mental inventory. She didn’t know what these guns were called, but she knew how to count. There were two dozen pistols, more than a dozen rifles, and several that looked like machine guns.
    “He went on these two websites several times a day looking for new listings,” said Jimmy. “One is called Armslist and the other is called Tennessee Gun Owners. He was obsessed with buying and selling. But as you can see, he mostly bought.”
    “Do you know how to shoot?” asked Alex.
    “Of course.”
    “Would you teach me?” Alex was going to appear weak and vulnerable in order to appeal to Jimmy’s man-as-protector side if he was old enough to have one. “Because, well, I’m kinda afraid of everything. Do you know what I mean?”
    “Sure,” he replied.
    Alex glanced back at him and noticed that he was studying her long legs. He was just fourteen years old, but he was still a boy. She’d have to keep an eye on him. For the moment, he aimed to please, and she intended to take advantage.
    That was when she saw it. A real Taurus PT111 like the replica her mother had purchased at Phillips Toy Mart. It was stuck in a  holster that would slide into the