Free 2nd Earth: Shortfall by Edward Vought Page B

happens here today, these three are going to die. I have always hated men, or should I say animals like this. Tim whispers that there are no more than this three, we have been looking and by now someone would have showed themselves. The guys in front of us ask us what we are talking about, and I tell them I am going to the truck to see if any of the girls would like to stay with them. They start to smile as I turn to walk back, what they don’t see is my hand gripping the butt of the 9mm Sig I have behind my belt under my shirt. Tim is turning the other way and he has his gun in his hand as well. We spin back facing them and open fire as we do. My first shot takes the first one who spoke in the face. The second is just a split second ahead of Tim’s in the middle ones chest. He got the other one with his first shot. We hear some gunfire back at the trucks and run to see what is happening. We see two dead men beside the second van, which is loaded with our family members.
    Tom says these two tried to sneak up while the others kept us busy. We figure we better get out of here before any more show up. We make it to Maryland before dark and find another place similar to the one we found last night. Everyone is in high spirits, although I think we are all a little scared now that we are getting so close to our destination. My fear is not getting there, but of being able to keep this family of ours alive and safe in a world that is so uncertain. Again we take turns standing guard to make sure our vehicles are safe all night. Morning comes, and with it much anticipation, because we all feel that we will find our new home today. We find another gas station where we can fill the trucks just before we cross into the state of Virginia. We are driving through mostly farm land, and since we know we will probably not find what we are looking for on the main road, we get off onto some smaller roads that we can find on the map. It is early afternoon when we see what we are looking for.
    The place has the look of total desolation about it, which tells us no one has been here in quite a while. The mountains are visible in the background, but here it is at least twenty or thirty degrees warmer than it was up in New York. What we have found is a farm, with what looks like eight houses, along with several barns in what looks like a small town, right here on the farm. Gunny and Ma Horton explained to me that it wasn’t uncommon in rural communities to have an entire family of several generations living on a single farm. Often, they would just build another house when the children grew up and got married, so they could stay on and help farm the land. Everyone is excited as we get out of the vehicles and go exploring to see if this is somewhere we can stop and live.
    We go through the houses one at a time, checking for any signs of recent life, and there is nothing to indicate that anyone had ever lived here before, except for the skeletons we have to remove from them. The houses are in various stages of decay, but are actually much better than the places most of these people lived in where we just came from. We find out there are actually nine houses in the little community. One was kind of blocked by two others. Either way, there is plenty of room for all of us to live here. Once we determine that we can stay here if we want to, we put it to a vote. The newest members don’t feel that they have a right to vote, but we assure them they are part of the family now, and have as much say as any of us do. Not that it matters, because it is unanimous to stay. We get to work in crews cleaning the houses to make them livable. We men go to work putting doors back in place where hinges had broken, and we open stuck windows to air out rooms that have been sitting closed in for decades.
    By dark, although not as good as we would like, the houses are ready for us to spend our first night in our new home. We are so used to staying together that everyone wants