Defending Against Affliction Read online

  Defending Against Affliction

  Surviving The Shock Book 3

  Connor McCoy

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Copyright © 2017 by Connor McCoy

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Chapter One

  Thomas Criver clenched the steering wheel as if his own iron will was making the car move down the road. In reality, the vehicle was nursing the last bits of gasoline churning in its tank to get to their destination. It didn’t help that every last bit of free space was packed with supplies, except for the three human beings in the car—Tom, his wife Cheryl, and their “bodyguard,” Theo Park. Once again, the vehicle lived up to Tom’s nickname for it, the “U.S.S. Sardine.”

  What’s worse, Theo started singing “Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall” again. “Theo,” Tom said, “We talked. I don’t want to hear about any more bottles unless they’re in my hand, full and nice and cold.”

  “What else is there to do in here? We’ve been on the road for God knows how many hours. And you don’t want to chat.”

  “Then just read something. We brought back some books.”

  “But I get carsick. I can’t read in a moving vehicle.”

  Tom Criver glanced at the rear-view mirror. Theo was almost eighteen, eager to take on manly duties. Yet with his thin frame and shock of long black hair, he still didn’t appear as one ready to race over the finish line to adulthood.

  “You know, we didn’t need a bodyguard. We would’ve been fine on our own, even if the good people of Adelson had turned out to be space aliens in disguise.”

  Theo grinned. “It’s because the gangs saw me coming and they ran their asses out of town.” He pumped his fists. “The gangs and the terrorists all ran away.”

  Tom turned to Cheryl, who was in the passenger seat. The redhead, as usual, sat there with her own serene look, her years of experience as a soldier burning into her a kind of peacefulness that allowed her to sit for long periods without fidgeting.

  “Do you think there’s something off about him?” he whispered.

  “Yes,” Cheryl whispered back. “He’s a teenager. It’s a very horrible condition. You may have to stop off and put him down in the woods.”

  Tom smirked. He barely held in his laughter as he tried to speak seriously. “You know, we have nine boys. They all could mutate into horrible creatures like him someday.”

  Cheryl smiled, showing off her teeth. “Sorry. I don’t have a cure for that.”

  “I think he just came along so he wouldn’t have to do any farming while we’re gone.”

  “Be glad we only got stuck with him. Nadia was on my case. ‘You should have a small army with you.’ I told her, the news coming out of Adelson was good. No soldiers, no warlords, no anarchy, and they’ve become a great trading hub. They got a killer warehouse. A lot of people streamed in from the north.”

  Cheryl glanced at the back. Theo sat in the back, pressed against a load of boxes and packages, which was only part of their massive load. The rest lay in a small trailer being dragged along by their car.

  “And look how the trip turned out. We traded for far more than I thought we’d get!”

  “I say it was the freeze-dried food. That guy who helped run the supplies into the warehouse, he was looking at those ribeye steaks like you brought him gold. I think he would have picked up a car and carried it on his back just to get a bite.” Tom said.

  His mood then dampened as thick gray clouds crossed into view. “Oh no, no. Get the hell out of here. The last thing I need is rain.”

  “We’re almost in town.” Cheryl pointed out the window. “See? That’s one of the houses that we saw coming in last time.”

  Cheryl was right. When they first had arrived into their new hometown in this car, they had passed by a few homes that had burned, perhaps from the aftermath of the apocalypse. Without water or fire trucks, some houses could not be saved from the flames.

  Tom soon reached an intersection. He made a turn right. More and more houses came into view, but the clouds overhead grew thicker, blotting out the sunlight.

  “Figures. We have clear skies all the way from Adelson, and now the sky gets ready to pour its ass off,” he said.

  “Don’t mention water,” Theo moaned, “I have to go.”

  “Just hold it until we get to the library,” Tom said.

  Unfortunately for Theo, the library was on the other side of town. Once the U.S.S. Sardine finally arrived at the small library, rain already had begun falling. As Tom put the car into park and then turned off the ignition, the raindrops sped up. But Theo didn’t seem to care. He flung open the door and jumped right out.

  “Thank God!” He then dropped his pants and his boxers and started peeing. “Yes, oh that’s great!” The fact that he was being drenched didn’t seem to matter to him.

  Tom smacked his palm into his face. “Couldn’t he—doesn’t he know how to—” At the very least Theo could have unzipped his fly to pee and not blessed them with the view of his ass. At least Tom could thank the rain for obscuring the view.

  Cheryl unbuckled her seatbelt, then reached around and crawled through the gap between driver’s and passenger’s seats. She grabbed the door and slammed it shut. “He’s not our problem anymore.”

  Tom coughed. “I am going to put him on display in front of my boys and point out all the ways they shouldn’t be like him.”

  Cheryl pulled back so she now was on her knees, leaning over him. “Well, I guess we can call this a mission accomplished.” She then leaned down and kissed him on the lips.

  “You know—” Tom stroked Cheryl’s right leg. “Two adults inside one car, tons of rain outside, it’s enough to give someone some great ideas.”

  Cheryl smiled wickedly. “Definitely.”

  And to think, the fact they had a working car at all was a minor miracle. They had happened upon it by chance, when two thieves had accosted them while they were camped out in the woods. Fortunately, they came in this old car, so after subduing their attackers, Tom and Cheryl took it for their own.

  It was a true blessing. Some time ago, the world was engulfed in a nuclear conflagration, only instead of mushroom clouds and vaporized cities, the missiles detonated massive electromagnetic pulses that seared the electric grids of the world’s developed nations, frying microchips and anything electronic that wasn’t sufficiently shielded. The amenities of modern life were stripped from the United States and other nations, forcing the survivors to rebuild. Thomas Criver and his wife Cheryl were two such survivors. But there were more.

  Cheryl kissed her husband’s forehead. “But first, I want to see my babies.”

  Tom nodded. She was right. They had a lot of young ones eagerly waiting for their return. He reached into the back seat and pulled out a bag. Besides, Tom had some special gifts he was eager to pass out…

  Cheryl and Tom flung open the library doors and quickly filed in, pus
hing their umbrellas inside. “Hail the returning heroes!” Tom shouted.

  “Daddy! Mommy!” Those voices belonged to Jackie and Kristin, a pair of young girls who never were seen apart, and right now was no exception. The two girls leaped and hugged both of them.

  Tom quickly flung aside his umbrella so he could hold his girls. Cheryl smothered each girl in kisses. More kids quickly swarmed in from the book shelves, all of them boys—Terry, Sam, Charlie, Amir, Fred, Rinaldo, Dominick, Michael, and Irvin. The pack was a smorgasbord of personalities, with Terry, Dominick and Fred among the loudest; Michael, Irvin and Sam being the quietest; and the rest in-between. Yet, there was no question that all of them wanted to greet their beloved father.

  Finally, an adult form walked into view. Nadia Daniels, a former policewoman and someone Cheryl had become close to as a friend, showed up. While Nadia usually came in with a no-nonsense, unflappable demeanor, now her eyes seemed heavy and she walked more slowly than usual.

  “Hey!” Cheryl grabbed Nadia and hugged her tight.

  Nadia pulled back, and showed a tired smile. “You are insane to handle this many kids.”

  “Were they good?” Cheryl asked.

  “Dominick wasn’t!” Kristin blurted.

  “Was too!” Dominick shouted from the other side of the room.

  Cheryl narrowed her eyes. “Remind me to ask when none of the kids can hear us.”

  “All right fellas, look what I brought!” Tom raised his hand, showing off the bag he had been clutching the whole time.

  “The best invention since fire.” He dug in and pulled out a football. “Balls. Lots of balls.”

  The boys closed in on their dad with great interest. “We got plenty to go around!” He then spied Sam near the back. “C’mon Sam, here’s a fresh one.”

  Sam was the tallest, most muscular of the group, a classic jock, though not very expressive. When he took the ball, he smiled. “Thanks,” he said.

  “Yep, we got small balls.” Tom emptied out a few baseballs and bouncy rubber balls.

  “We got big balls.” He produced a few more footballs and then a couple of soccer balls. He then picked up one of the soccer balls. “Baseballs, soccer balls—”

  “Football!” Everyone turned to an isle between bookshelves. A brown-skinned boy pointed at the white and black orb Tom was holding.

  “No, soccer ball!” Tom then tossed it to Amir. The young boy laughed.

  Irvin turned to Rinaldo. “Why does Amir keep calling soccer balls footballs?”

  “Because where Amir used to live, a soccer ball is a football,” Rinaldo replied.

  Amir playfully tossed the ball up and down. The soccer-football bit had remained a joke between him and Tom since they first had met. Amir loved to make that joke whenever he had the chance.

  The balls got passed out to interested boys. As Terry took his, a bouncy blue rubber ball, he asked his father, “Did you get to kill any bad guys?”

  Tom playfully rubbed Terry’s head. “No. It was a pretty G-rated adventure. No blood, no gore, no swearing, no adult content of any kind. The locals were friendly, and we brought back a ton of goodies, including more gasoline. That means we can fuel up the car again and trade for another big load.”

  Jackie rushed past three kids to get to Tom. “Did you bring back a horse?”

  “A horse?” Tom never recalled mentioning getting a horse.

  “I’m afraid not.” He then turned to Nadia, who quickly hurried over to Jackie and Tom.

  “What I said was, your parents were looking to see if anyone had livestock they could trade for and bring back.” Nadia knelt by Jackie. “Then I said they were thinking about finding horses because almost no one has any working cars.”

  Tom snapped his fingers. “That’s right! Yeah, it was just an idea. If we could breed as many horses as we could, we could give them to people so they could ride to stores and other places. They don’t go as fast as cars, but riding a horse still can help.”

  “And then she got excited because she thought you’d be bringing a horse back.” Nadia patted Jackie on the back. The girl bowed her head.

  Tom quickly squatted down next to her. “I’m sorry you got the wrong idea. We’re still mostly worried about stocking up on animals that can give us food, like cows and chickens. Besides, horses are a little harder to find right now.”

  Jackie looked up. “But someday we’ll find one, right?”

  “Somewhere in this big country is a horse with your name on it.” Tom then kissed Jackie on the forehead. The girl smiled.

  There wasn’t more than a patch of thin white clouds the next day. Tom inhaled the fresh air as he took his first steps outside the library today. The rain had made it impossible to unload the trailer, but the tarp plus the boxes and crates kept the supplies well shielded, plus they weren’t highly perishable.

  The boys plus Annie gathered beside him. “Okay, today is ‘mission kind of impossible but we got to do it anyway.’ A lot of our neighbors and friends are going to show up and take a lot of this stuff, so we need to unpack it and sort it out. But if it’s real heavy, leave it.”

  He pulled the blue tarp off the load. “And it figures that Theo didn’t show up to help,” he muttered.

  Tom and the kids worked into the first hour. By the second hour, some of their friends and neighbors made their appearance, only it wasn’t housewives and school kids. Instead it was five men, led by a sixth, approaching from the direction of the woods. Their leader, upon seeing Tom and the kids, waved his hand.

  “Hey, Squirrel. Glad to see you made it back!”

  Tom broke away from the trailer and dashed across the parking lot. “And look at you, Obie!” The man, Obadiah Stone, was leading five men who were clutching a cache of dead ducks and deer. “You made quite a haul!”

  Stone came to a halt and grabbed Tom’s arm in greeting. “Well, I have to teach these youngsters the proper methods of concealment and waiting until the food comes to you.” He then nodded to a twenty-ish man holding part of a deer with another hunter. “In fact, I swear Jared here shot the deer by accident.”

  Jared laughed. “I was aiming for the other deer.”

  “Oh, I’m just giving you a hard time. You all did a fine job. Now comes the fun part.” He pointed to one of the ducks. “Cleaning those suckers. Go get our catch to the diner. I’ll catch up.”

  The men obeyed. Tom took special notice of the ducks. “I had duck meat at my grandmother’s for several years. It was great.”

  Stone started toward the parking lot. “Ever hunted?”

  “Not a one.” Tom followed the older man closely. “Closest I came was playing ‘Duck Hunt’ when I was a kid.”

  Stone undid part of his flannel shirt, revealing his black T-shirt underneath. “So, I guess it really went down without a hitch.”

  “Adelson was fantastic. It’s not as far long as we are, but the trick is they stored a lot. It used to be a port town. They made munitions for World War II, so there’s a lot of warehouses. So, it’s perfect for a trading hub, and we were the first to find it.”

  Stone slowed his pace. Cheryl now was outside, speaking to the first round of neighbors who had gathered to start taking some of the traded goods back with them. “Squirrel, can I bend your ear for a moment?”

  “Go ahead.”

  “We got this election coming up. We’re putting in a new town council. You think this is a good idea?”

  “Why isn’t it?”

  Stone rubbed his shoulder. Tom paid close attention, for that was the shoulder that was wounded during the military occupation of their community.

  “I’m not an anarchist. I get that you need authority, you need law and order, but after the hell we’ve been through, I’m not sure I’m okay with sticking ourselves under someone else’s thumb.”

  Tom looked out at the library, then at the street. Not long ago, this town was under the iron fist of an occupying army. The group of NATO soldiers, led by Major Gerard Volhein, had com
e like a Trojan horse, bearing gifts. In this case, it was aid that the town desperately needed. But then the soldiers took over. They demanded the town surrender its firearms. When the town refused, a fierce battle broke out. Tom and Stone were taken prisoner, as were the rest of the men. Sadly, many men, including their good friends, were killed in the uprising.

  Tom watched Cheryl talk with a neighbor. Thanks to Cheryl and the women of this town, Tom and the men were free. They had retaken their community, killing most of the soldiers and exiling the survivors. In the past two months, no one had returned in their place.

  “I understand how you feel, but the council will be nothing like Volhein’s army. They’re not even going to have much power. They don’t have an army, a police force, any of that. Everything’s still in our hands. The council’s just there to organize us, pull us together if things really get bad.” Tom pointed down the street. “We’ve got ten houses that we’re building in this part of town, and we didn’t have to get any permission from any government to do it. No zoning, no building codes, it’s all on us. That’s the way it’s going to be.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Stone said.

  Tom hoped so, too. The funny thing about mankind is it had a tendency to abuse power before long. The brutality of Volhein’s regime had rammed that point home with the subtlety of a hammer to the head. It almost destroyed the idea of any town government at all. But inevitably, the town would grow. It might even get as big as a city. The other funny thing about mankind is that if it had no glue to hold it together, it could devolve into petty rivalries and factions. The newly drawn-up compact that governed what the council could do was seen as a compromise. It would set in place a very basic government of five elected council members, but no chief executive and no courts. If the circumstances required it, they would add courts or a police force. But Tom hoped it wouldn’t be necessary. The idea of starting over again in a life of self-reliance was increasingly appealing to him.

  Stone then started chuckling. “I noticed that little glimmer in your eye when you talked about building houses. What’s all that about?”