Read In The End: a pre-apocalypse novel for Free Online Page B

insisted
that they both go in his truck. Angela felt that the biggest threat they faced
was boredom, but she didn’t argue.
    Terry didn’t say what he would be
doing while they were away, but they saw his handiwork upon their return four
hours later. He had sawn multiple bathroom doors into pieces that fit over all
of the lodge windows. When Jim saw what Terry had done, he just nodded. Made sense. Angela hated it.
    “Now it looks condemned!” she said.
    “Now it’s more secure,” Jim
replied.
    Angela continued to complain as
they went inside and got Terry to help them bring in their haul of supplies.
“What are we secured from – the sun?”
    “I’ll explain after we unload the
truck,” Terry said.
    A half hour later they were
standing inside the lodge looking at the massive pile of items they had brought
in. Now they had the task of separating and storing. Terry and Jim began making
separate piles of stuff while Angela cooked. A short time later, she came out
with a large serving plate loaded with hamburgers, toppings and a bag of potato
chips. They all sat down at the large dining table to rest, eat and talk.
    “I know I haven’t explained what
I’m thinking or why I’m doing what I’m doing, but to be perfectly honest, I’m
not entirely sure myself. I’m just wingin ’ it.”
    Angela said, “I understand going
for supplies. Jim had us do the same thing right after the bomb. It was good
thinking. I know I wouldn’t have thought of it. But I don’t understand the windows
being boarded up.”
    The amount of light coming in
through the two skylights was fading. Dusk outside meant dark inside.  “If
one of you will start a fire, I’ll tell you where my head is at – as soon as I
grab some coffee.”
    Jim got up and worked on starting a
fire, and then he and Angela sat on the floor near the fireplace and waited for
Terry to come back. After Terry boiled water for instant coffee, he returned,
dragging a chair behind him. He stopped a few feet from where the others were
sitting and sat down.
    “You may have noticed , I’ve been checking the radio for any kind of signal at
least once a day. So far, I ain’t got nothin’. That’s
a bad sign. Really bad.” He looked at Jim who looked
back at him, waiting for him to go on. He looked at Angela and she had a
question, as he suspected.
    “Why? We know the power is out, so
it makes sense that no one is broadcasting.”
    “How much do you know about
short-wave radio?”
    “Um… nothing.”
    “Here’s the thing – it ain’t just
local. It’s national, and when the conditions are good, which is most of the
time, it’s international.”
    “Oh. That’s bad,” she said. “Nothing from anyone, anywhere?”
    “Now you see where I’m comin ’ from. We should be hearing something, but we’re not.
And I’m no expert, but I can only think of two reasons why. First, and I don’t think this is likely, but it could mean that things are bad all
over. Second, and this is what I’m hoping – the signal just ain’t getting
through to us because of electro-magnetic interference, either here or
somewhere else. If that’s the case, it should clear soon and we’ll hear from
somebody. Maybe even find out what’s going on.”
    “Does this have anything to do with
the boards on the windows?” Angela asked, hoping it wasn’t a stupid question.
    “It does.”
    Jim struck a stick match on the
hearth and lit a cigarette. Terry thought of saying something about the
wastefulness of using an irreplaceable match while sitting next to a fire but
decided to wait until after he’d addressed the subject of their resources.
    “We don’t know what’s happened with
the rest of the country, or the world for that matter, but we do know what
happened in Denver. A lot of people were killed when the bomb went off. And
even more will have died from radiation since then.”
    “Like Josh and Hailey,” Angela
said, quietly.
    “Yes. Like them, and worse; slower,
with