Free 2nd Earth: Shortfall by Edward Vought

all extremely proud when we have all the vehicles we think we will need sitting in front of our home. While we have been getting the vehicles ready, others have been visiting the stores farther out from where we live, bringing home truck loads of food to take with us. Billy and his new bride, are very proud to show us what they found today while they were out. They found a hardware store and loaded up on shovels, hoes, picks, rakes, hammers, and all kinds of tools that we will definitely need. They also found thousands of bags of seeds that may or may not be any good. Since they are dry, they may work, all we can do is try. Billy says there are at least four large generators in the storeroom of the store he was at today. We will need another truck to haul them in, but it could be well worth it. We look for another large truck with the box on the back. Billy says he saw another dealership, so we go there and find exactly what we are looking for. It takes us a day and a half to get it ready to go, but it is a very nice truck. We stop at the hardware store for the generators on the way home.
    It is all we can do to get them loaded on the truck and we still have room for more supplies. A stop at the store fills the remaining room and gives us a bigger cushion than we thought we would have. We are all getting excited about the journey we are going to take. We are all surprised that the predators haven’t bothered us at all in the past couple of weeks. That in itself should be a tip off that we can expect something to happen. We decide that we will rest tomorrow, since it’s Sunday, and then load the trucks on Monday, to leave on Tuesday for our destination. Naturally we are all a little afraid of what we will or will not find when we finally leave, but we know that life cannot continue the way it is for much longer here. On Sunday, we read the scriptures together and then talk more about the move we are making. The women that are expecting are getting closer and we feel that it will be better to be in our new home when the babies are born. We get everything packed and ready to go except for loading the trucks with all the food, and other supplies, and belongings that we are taking with us.
    In the morning we start loading the trucks and making sure everything is packed that we will need for at least the next six months. Most of our family has gone without so much they feel that living on what we have will be very easy, as long as we have each other. While we are loading we get a surprise in the form of another woman and two children coming out of the building across the street and ask if they can go with us. We can’t see why they shouldn’t be able to so naturally they become part of our family. We find we still have some room in the big truck for food so Tim and I leave Billy at home to take care of the family and we head to one of the stores to get as much canned goods as we can fit in the truck. When we get home we finish loading the truck and make sure we are ready to leave first thing in the morning. I am making sure that everything is ready in the big truck cab and when I start to climb down I hear the whack of something hitting the door of the truck right beside my head.
    A split second later I hear the report of a gun and the screams of many of our family members who are outside watching me. I yell for them to get into the house, which is where they are going anyway, and I hit the ground next to the truck as fast as I can. Tim yells from the doorway asking if I am alright. I tell him I am, but I don’t know where the shot came from. Just as I say that another shot is fired that hits the door again very close to my head. No matter which way I start to move the shooter seems to be able to see me. Tim says he will find the shooter and runs back into the building. I am lying almost under the truck to avoid being hit. I have my pistol, but I can’t see anything or anyone to shoot at. Dayna wants to come and help me, I