Read Bones: The Complete Apocalypse Saga for Free Online

being followed. Even though they appeared to be well in the clear, it was obvious he wasn’t going to feel safe any time soon. Jesse seemed to be similarly nervous but drew a lot of confidence from the rifle clutched tightly in his right hand and the shotgun clutched in his left. Ryan, for his part, gained the same feeling from his proximity to Bones.
    “That looks like it hurts,” Ryan said, eyeing Bones’s beaten-up face. Bones glanced at Ryan but then looked back ahead, whiskers twirling a little in the breeze. “They killed my dog. She was just trying to keep them from getting in our house, but they got her. It was one the neighbors. After they came in through the door, the lady-one bit her in the neck. Then they got in the kitchen and then the bathroom and they got my mom and my sister…”
    By the time Ryan said this last part, his voice was quivering. Jesse saw this and walked over, giving him a kind of half-hug, half-nudge.
    “Enough of that,” said Jesse. “You know who got out?
You.
Now, you’ve got a reason to revenge yourself on these assholes. Keep that anger in you. It’ll keep you alive, man.”
    Ryan nodded, but half-heartedly. Bones looked back at Ryan again, but halfway through the motion he noticed Mr. Arthur stopping in his tracks.
    “Boys.”
    Jesse and Ryan followed Mr. Arthur’s gaze and saw a large farmhouse appearing up on the left. Very quickly, everything got quiet.
    “Think they’d have come this way?” asked Jesse.
    “No telling,” replied Mr. Arthur, seeing no sign of life at the farm. “If they’d come through the woods…”
    Mr. Arthur looked over at Bones, who had also gone completely still. His nose pointed dead ahead. It was obvious that the shepherd had picked up on at least something from the farmhouse, though what was unclear. Bones took a tentative step forward, as if stalking some newly detected prey, his ears straight up and down, his shoulders rigidly upright and squared towards the house.
    “What is it, boy?” Mr. Arthur whispered, tightening his grip on his gun.
    Suddenly, the woods just beyond the farmhouse erupted with muzzle flash. Leaves were clipped, branches snapped, and bullets began splashing against the gravel and asphalt around Mr. Arthur and the boys.
    “Shit!” cried Mr. Arthur as a bullet winged his left tricep. “Get down, boys!!”
    Jesse tried to hit the deck but immediately caught two bullets, one in the calf, one in the elbow, and screamed as he was thrown back.
    Ryan managed to flatten himself on the ground as Bones bounced around, barking like mad at the incoming fire. Amazingly, he wasn’t hit.
    “What the fuck?
“
screamed Mr. Arthur from his prone position on the road. “We’re human, you assholes!!”
    The fusillade kept coming, though, and it was a full ten seconds before it finally abated. As the trio stayed on the ground, trying to catch their breaths, a voice came booming out of the woods, amplified by a bullhorn.
    “Toss your weapons away and stay on the ground! Move an inch, and we won’t hesitate to shoot.”
    Mr. Arthur did as he was told, pushing his rifle away from him. Ryan did the same, but a quick glance back at Jesse suggested he was already halfway into shock and couldn’t be made to do a thing. Luckily, his rifle had been thrown a few feet away after the first bullet hit, and the shotgun was momentarily obscured behind his body.
    “All right! We’re unarmed!” yelled Mr. Arthur. “You’ve got an injured child over here. Maybe two.”
    A group of black-clad, helmet-and-gas-mask-wearing SWAT team members emerged from the woods, guns aimed at the little group of survivors. Bones continued barking at the approaching officers, standing his ground between them and Ryan. The team leader nodded at a man with an oddly-shaped gun.
    “Knock him down.”
    The gunman nodded, stared down the sights at Bones, and
fired
.
    “
No!!”
cried Ryan, but the rubber bullet was already in flight, smashing Bones in the shoulder