Read The Day After Never - Blood Honor (Post-Apocalyptic Dystopian Thriller) for Free Online Page B

fragments. He’d injected the woman with another shot of morphine before operating and had used local anesthetic in the tissue around the chest wound as an additional measure.
    Duke and Lucas walked together to the door and stepped out into the morning sunshine.
    “What do you think?” Lucas asked.
    Duke inspected his nails and then met Lucas’s gaze. “Fifty-fifty. She’s lost a ton of blood. Next thing, we need to do a transfusion.”
    “How do you know what blood type she is?”
    “Doesn’t matter. Aaron’s O negative. Universal donor.”
    Lucas nodded. “That’s a lucky break. How much?”
    “Probably a pint or two. I’ll get a line going to start a bag in a second.”
    “No, I mean how much for him to do it?”
    Duke named a price in ammo, and Lucas whistled. “There goes my retirement.”
    “Unless you’ve got gold or silver. In that case, quarter ounce of gold should do the trick. Silver, fifty ounces.”
    “You still collecting, huh?”
    “Damn right I am.” Duke had once explained to Lucas that the reason he was stockpiling precious metals was because whenever trade with other nations was reestablished, the likelihood of trading partners accepting anything but gold was zero after the fiat currency nightmare. Even now, with the continent a wasteland, gold and silver were prized for the same reason – they had been money for thousands of years and would likely continue to be in demand as such for the foreseeable future. Lucas had twenty gold coins he’d ferreted away for emergencies that he’d carried with him since the collapse, but he’d part with just about anything else before resorting to using any of it.
    “Between the operation and the blood, you’ve pretty much wiped out half my stash of guns and ammo.”
    “Best things in life may be free, but here, no tickee, no laundry.”
    Lucas shrugged. “It is what it is.”
    “I’ll have Doug check out the weapons and ammo while I’m draining Aaron dry.”
    “Send him out. I want to check on Tango.”
    Duke studied Lucas’s face. “You look like you’ve been rode hard and put away wet, partner. Maybe take a nap.”
    “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”
    “That’s the spirit. If you change your mind, there’s a hammock over there in the shade. No charge.” Duke hesitated. “How much do you know about her?”
    “She never said a word.”
    Duke nodded. “You notice the tattoo on her upper arm?”
    “What, the Egyptian-looking eye? What about it?”
    Duke eyed a droplet of dried blood on his boot and scowled. “Probably nothing.”
    “Spit it out, Duke.”
    “Let’s see if she makes it.”
    “You have something to say, best to say it,” Lucas said.
    Duke shook his head and turned to go inside. “None of my business, buddy.”
    Lucas gave Duke an annoyed look and moved to Tango to unpack the saddlebags and the travois. Doug joined him a few minutes later, and they went through the rifles first. The younger man examined the Kalashnikovs with a practiced eye and nodded as he set each aside.
    “They’re beat but seem serviceable. We’ll test fire them later.”
    “Probably Mexican,” Lucas observed.
    “Now let’s look at the AR-15s.”
    The assault rifles had all been modified to full auto and, based on the work, by someone with skills. The AR-15 was the civilian version of the M16 rifle, sold as single-fire only, but with a full-auto sear, disconnector, and bolt carrier, they could be converted with considerable machine-shop time by cutting out the lower receiver to accommodate the full-auto sear.
    Doug smiled as he finished inspecting the last rifle. “Nice work. Where did you say you got these?”
    “In the desert.”
    “Duke will be happy. They look pretty clean compared to the AKs.”
    “So’s the ammo.”
    Half an hour later, Doug had counted the rounds and separated out the lots he wanted. He’d grown friendlier as he’d worked and, as with many of the people Lucas had met after the collapse, had been quite