Read The Effacing (Book 1.5): Valley's End for Free Online

rescue squad.” Jim shot back.
       “The rest of us are close by. A larger group should be on their way from cross city now. This’ll work a lot better if you would open the door. A fire is burning below us. We need to get out of here! And yourself as well!”
       Ann inserted, “We have a convoy close by waiting on us. My cousin’s a nurse, if you’re hurt she can help. Please…”
       There was a brief moment of silence.
       Jim’s voice broke out closer to the door.
       “Are you sick?”
       Ann replied, “We’re all healthy. And you?”
       “We’re fine. Are you armed?”
       Ann looked to Rebekah.
       Rebekah looked at Ann, then back to the doors crack. “What do you think? Of course we are. I’m pretty sure you are too.”
       “Where’s Rain?”
       If for any reason the hoods behind the door suspected the girls had anything to do with Rain’s death, they’d for sure blast right through that fucking door with no hesitation.
       Rebekah took a few seconds to answer, not knowing if what she would have said would have started conflict. How was she to know if Jim was from Centre City? He may have been one of Rain’s rivals since they were camped out in rival territory. How could she configure a way to determine exactly what side of the field Jim was really on?
       “ Billy Rain!” she said, with a crafted delivery. You wouldn’t know if they were friends or enemies. “He helped to assemble the resistance for the city, not just for his own people. He’s a hero to us all… lost his life defending the ones he cared about.” She looked to Ann. “In the end, he was a brave and fearless leader that won’t be forgotten, no matter who hated or loved him.”
       There was a long pause.
       CLICK!
       The door unlocked, the knob twisted, and the door cracked open.
       “Step in… slow… hands first.” Jim instructed.

CHAPTER 11
     
     
       The light drizzle turned into a well necessitated shower. The dense smoke from Sworn’s explosion lingered across the deserted land. It had been more than an hour since Rebekah took Ann and Trivo on an expedition through the destroyed projects. The three of them still hadn’t returned, but Maria worried about just one in particular. Her cousin… Ann.
       Neshia kept an open eye on her mother and brother through the rear view, holding a tight grip on Rebekah’s .40 caliber semi-automatic. She was more concerned of her father at this point. He’d stayed back with the resistance, attempting a heroic mission in which he might not return, against Sworn’s fortified group of elite scum.
       But Baker, what nobody knew, he went back to the 4x4, rummaged through the compartments and found a fully loaded .9mm in the dash. He’d shoved it in his pants and quickly calmed. Relaxed, he thought of a way he could prove his worthiness to the group, seeming the resistance demanded he travel to safety with the women and other children. He still had his thoughts fixed on vengeance.
       “We should get everyone off the streets for a while. I’ll go through the apartments, find Rebekah and the others.” Maria finished.
       A stone thunder shook the pained streets. The lightning struck, revealing its blood redness through the unsympathetic night. The frightened passengers of the small convoy were dampened and cold. The children, their whimpers rattled Neshia’s concerns.
       “Where are we supposed to go?”              
       “Come with me!” Maria exclaimed, opening the door of the white pick-up.
       They were in another business section of the city, surrounded by boarded breakfast shops, a row of brick duplexes across the deserted streets, a few lone vehicles, clothing stores and other small company buildings ten blocks away from Maison. Locked and boarded, abandoned or destroyed, in their desperate time of need, breaking into one of the establishments or bugging out in a few vehicles for shelter and