Michael Talbot — Journal Entry 13
After a few moments of sitting in silence, we both know that we should to be moving on. The day wasn’t getting any younger, and we still hadn’t found a place to hole up when night came around. Without a word, we both rose and walked down to the road.
“What are these fucking things?” I could barely look at them to formulate the question.
“I’m not sure, but I can’t help believing that they’re the reason this place is screwed up.”
Jack was kneeling by the one I was looking at. He had pulled off a glove and its jacket. Skinny wasn’t even the word that I would have used to describe the thing I was looking at. Its forearm wasn’t much more than two of my fingers wide. I knew immediately what Jack had been looking for; we were both looking at the weapon strapped to its arm. It appeared that the triggering mechanism was activated when the wrist bent upwards. Kind of like Spider-Man. There was a black box about the size and shape of a pack of cigarettes attached right below its wrist. Protruding from one end, and running up the length of its arm, was a piece of what looked like aluminum shaped exactly like the staple that had been yanked from my back.
“Is that a rail gun?” I asked him.
He surprised me when he picked up the whistler’s arm. Personally I wouldn’t have touched it. He aimed it to the far side of the bridge and then moved its wrist. We could hear the whine of the ricochet as the round struck concrete.
“I have got to have me one of those!” Trip was heading towards another whistler.
It took twenty minutes of cajoling and promising that we would get him one once we could eventually figure out a safer way to use them.
“You’ll send shots down range every time you make a toking action.” He seemed alright with that explanation.
There were four motorcycles that were still serviceable. I had not ridden anything with two wheels since I was twelve and rode my friend’s mini-bike — which I had blown the engine of not a half mile into my tour. I had two options. Ride double-bitch (Trip did not know how to ride) or take a crash course, I hope the ‘crash’ part was just a saying. I put it on the ground a couple of times until I felt more comfortable.
“We should get going,” Jack said, looking up to the sky and the dipping sun.
Trip was directly behind him blowing smoke from a joint past his face.
“Do you mind?” Jack asked him.
“I don’t, man, I don’t.” Trip was all smiles. “Giddy-up!”
“This ought to be fun,” Jack said, rolling his eyes.
“Where should we go?” I asked him.
“Atlantis, of course.”
“Of course,” I echoed.
# # #
About the Authors
Mark Tufo was born in Boston Massachusetts. He attended UMASS Amherst where he obtained a BA (and an advanced degree in partyology) and later joined the US Marine Corps. He was stationed in Parris Island SC, Twenty Nine Palms CA and Kaneohe Bay Hawaii. After his tour he went into the Human Resources field with a worldwide financial institution, after beginning his climb up the corporate ladder he found himself laid off. His wife, Tracy, who was desperate to keep him out of her hair, dared him to write a book, and the Zombie Fallout series was born.
He wrote the first installment of the Indian Hill trilogy in college, it sat in his garage until July 2009 when he published it on Kindle. Mark is currently working on the continuation of the ZF series and a new book due out in August of 2014. He lives in Maine with his wife, three kids and two English bulldogs, Henry and Riley.
John O'Brien is a former Air Force fighter instructor pilot who transitioned to Special Operations for the latter part of his career gathering his campaign ribbon for Desert Storm. Immediately following his military service, John became a firefighter/EMT with a local department. Along with becoming a firefighter, he fell into the Information Technology industry in corporate management. Currently, John is writing full-time on the series, A New World.
As a former marathon runner, John lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest and can now be found kayaking out in the waters of Puget Sound, mountain biking in the Capital Forest, hiking in the Olympic Peninsula, or pedaling his road bike along the many scenic roads.
Connect with the Authors Online
I love hearing from readers, you can reach me at:
website
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@zombiefallout
All books are available in audio version at Audible.com or itunes.
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Other books by Mark Tufo
Zombie Fallout 1
Zombie Fallout 2: A Plague Upon Your Family
Zombie Fallout 3: The End…
Zombie Fallout 3.5: Dr. Hugh Mann
Zombie Fallout 4: The End Has Come and Gone
Zombie Fallout 5: Alive in a Dead World
Zombie Fallout 6: ’Til Death Do Us Part
Zombie Fallout 7: For the Fallen
Zombie Fallout 8: An Old Beginning
Lycan Fallout 1: Rise of the Werewolf
Lycan Fallout 2 (Fall 2014)
Indian Hill 1: Encounters
Indian Hill 2: Reckoning
Indian Hill 3: Conquest
Indian Hill 4: From the Ashes