Read Rise From The Ashes: The Rebirth of San Antonio (Countdown to Armageddon Book 3) for Free Online Page B

ready, he tried again. More slowly this time.
         The second time was the charm. He’d been able to stand, and as far as he could tell the wound hadn’t started bleeding again.
         He knew his body would be trying to replenish his blood supply, and it would need plenty of water to do so.
         His balance appeared to be good. So he slowly walked, one step at a time, back to the kitchen sink, and to the half filled water glass he’d left there before.
         He drank two full glasses, before his stomach started to rebel. He felt nauseous. Almost like he wanted to throw the water back up again.
         Then he felt confused. Why would his body want to throw up water?
         Maybe it wanted food instead.
         But that wasn’t going to happen. He knew instinctively that every bit of food that had once been in the house had already been looted. And even if it hadn’t been , he had no strength to go looking for it.
         Then it occurred to him that maybe he was delusional. Maybe he wasn’t nauseated at all. Maybe his mind was just trying to tell him to slow down. To stop guzzling his water. To give hi s body time to process what he already drank.
         He drank most of a third glass, more slowly this time.
         The nausea went away. But the lightheadedness returned.
         He held onto the kitchen island for support. He stood there for what was only a minute or so, but it seemed like hours. He could see the couch, a mere fifteen feet away. If he could make it there, he could rest once again, while he decided what to do next.
         He had to leave the house. He knew that. Help wouldn’t come to him, not here. He had to go to them. Get to a hospital. Or to someone who could take him to one.
         He took a couple of deep breaths and let go of the island. He put his left food in front of his right and struggled to retain his balance.
         That was as far as he got before he passed out and fell to the floor once again.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    -8 -
     
         Robbie had been calling in the early afternoons with his status updates. He was working twelve hour shifts because the SAPD was so undermanned now. On their extended shift schedule, day shift officers took their lunch around two p.m.
         It was an odd time of the afternoon to stop for chow, but for some reason that always seemed to be the quietist time of day.
         Before John checked himself into the hospital, he and Robbie usually managed to meet somewhere in North District 2 and had lunch together. With his best friend in the hospital, lunch wasn’t nearly as much fun for Robbie. Half the time he just worked right through. The days he didn’t were the days that he used his lunch hour to go to John’s house to update Hannah on his condition.
         Everyone in the compound knew that Robbie generally called between two and three p.m. on even numbered days.
         And on this even numbered day, most of them huddled behind Hannah at the security desk, waiting for his call.
         At two fifty, the call finally came.
         “ Hannah, this is Robbie. Got your ears on?”
         “I’m here, Robbie . Go ahead.”
         “Just wanted to give you John’s status. I delivered the meds to his hospital room as soon as I got them. I went by there this morning to check up on him. There’s no change so far, but the doctors are optimistic. They say that now that he’s getting his full course, chances are very good the infection will start to clear and he’ll come out of his coma.”
         “Thank you, Robbie, for that. And God bless you for keeping me informed. I have to ask another big favor of you.”
         “I’ll try. What do you need?”
         “Scott, the man who brought you the amoxicillin, is missing. He never came back home two nights ago. We’re worried sick that something may have happened to