Read A Very Good Man for Free Online

can give you a cute nickname like “hey you” or some such.”
  Lois, gray short hair and stained bland shirt over her well-worn work pants, a tan color that had probably once been nearly brown, blanched and tried to hush the girl, actually saying “hush”.
  “I'm sorry Jake, she didn't mean anything by it...” The woman said as if the suggestion would make him angry. Why that would be he didn't know at all. He never got mad over being asked to help out. Not since... Not since that day. The second day after the announcement.
  “Sure she did, she meant I should get off my lazy butt and help with the dishes. Fair enough. I'll be there. Ken's my boss. Got it.” Jake gave the girl a nod.
  Lois gave him a funny look, slightly baffled now instead of scared. That was an improvement. Had the woman always been scared of him? Jake wondered about that. Why? She never raised her voice and worked all the time, nearly from dawn to when she went to bed. Having a problem with her would be stupid. Maybe he really needed to be nicer to people? Work harder to pull his weight, like Burt and Lois did. Jose too. That man always worked.
  He sure as heck wanted to be more like them than Holsom. Except the getting laid all the time part. That he could deal with. That would be a really nice change in fact. Of course he hadn't gotten any before the man had come either, so just getting rid of him probably wouldn't fix that. On the good side it wouldn't make things worse that way either. Not even if all the women hated him for doing it.
  Dinner was good, fresh potatoes slow baked, and as he'd figured a deer meat stew. That had potatoes too. The servings weren't huge, but they were real enough, a full bowl of stew and two decent sized potatoes each and a slice of oat bread. During the end of the last winter they'd gotten by on less than that per day. The ones that survived at least. Of course that had mainly been scavenged food. This year it would all be about planning and farming. Everyone was doing it, all the other groups had some kind of farm going, except the police in their closed encampment. Morons.
  They probably thought that they'd just let the little people do the work then come and raid them. It would probably have worked before, but now everyone would fight to the death if they came. That made a much bigger difference than the likes of the cops were ready for, Jake bet. Back before they'd always had greater numbers to fall back on, or the people they faced were simply unarmed. If that didn't work, they could call in back-up and often did even if it hadn't been needed.
  The rules had changed.
  No one said much while they ate, just focusing on the food they had, enjoying it. The room was dark, except for a single candle. Everything was now at night, not that it was really that late, still dusk out. Even the candles were a luxury. The zombies didn't go toward the light or anything, but they'd need them for the winter, when it got dark at five each night. People could only sleep so much and they didn't functionally have entertainment.
  When the meal ended Holsom and his crew all glared at Jake, a few spending time looking hard at Nate too. Jake got it. They felt like he and Nate had shown them up or some macho bullshit like that. They had of course, but not in the way the men imagined.
  It wasn't some ego trip, or even that Jake was a better fighter than they were, which they should have gotten already. It just came down to the fact that they weren't nearly as important to everyone as they thought they should be and he'd pointed that out. Really, the only power they had as a group were their guns. Jake wondered if they should have them at all. The only other people that did were the cleaners.
  Ah. That was actually a good point. One he could use. If they wanted to be armed, they should earn the right. No one would argue that, would they?
  “So, Holsom,” Jake said firmly, but in a whisper, making it sound a