Reaper (25 page)

The kid stood there for a second, looked back over his shoulder once, made a hand motion as if he was flagging someone back, hesitated, shook his head like he just lost an argument, and said, “Okay, I guess so, only, well, there’s only me and Helen.  I kinda just said there were more cuz …..”  He shrugged his shoulders. 

At that, a girl about the same age, wearing blue coveralls and a baseball cap, stepped into view.  “I told you it would be okay.  They’re the police.”

“And I told you it’s different now,” the kid said.  “You can’t trust someone just because of who they were.  It’ll get us killed or worse for you.”

“That’s stupid, Troy.  Why should anyone want to hurt us?  We’re all in the same boat.  We need to help one another.”

She walked past Troy and straight for Max.

Max held out his hand to stop her.  “We have a medic.  Mind if we have her check you out first?”

Helen showed a hint of annoyance.  “I guess not, but there’s nothing wrong with us.  We’ve been hiding since it started.”

Max signaled Raha forward.  She was already putting on gloves, glasses, and a mask.  Steve slung his carbine and walked along with her but stopped next to Max.

“If there are two, well, three counting the kid with the bat, there’re going to be more,” Steve said.  “You got a plan on how we’re going to work this?”

“I’m getting one.”

From The Author

First, thanks for reading my story.  I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it.  It’s not just me sitting for hours in front of a computer, though.  Christina Ewing, my very good friend, spends a lot of her time reading and re-reading my drafts.  I really don’t know how she does it.  I like the writing part.  I absolutely hate the editing part.  I owe her a lot for helping me with it.    

As you can tell from the last chapter, I’m preparing to turn Reaper into a series …that is as long as my readers are interested in buying it.  So please let me know if you liked the story, and I’ll keep writing.  Leaving a comment on Amazon only takes a few seconds, and I read every one of them within a day or two of their posting.

Okay, now for a couple of other quick things; Reaper, of course, is fiction.  However, it’s loosely based on some real events, expert opinions, and actual locations.  For instance, the City of San Jose really did spend millions of dollars on a police substation that sat empty for years and may still be at the time of this writing.  The city has also decimated the police ranks to the point that apparently some reported crimes are no longer investigated.  There also is, in fact, such a thing as Hemorrhagic Smallpox, and it has a nearly one hundred percent fatality rate.  So deadly is the smallpox virus in general that the former Soviet Union actually developed it as a bio-weapon in the 1980s, and it is rumored that Russia still retains samples of the virus that could be used to produce a weapon.  And as far as “dirty bombs” go, they are a real enough possibility that the Department of Homeland Security has posted information about them on the net.  Not only that, but in 2013, 2014, and 2015 there were thefts of radioactive material in Mexico.  Fortunately, most, if not all of the material taken in these street heists, has been recovered.  As far as terrorists crossing the Mexico/United States border, well, there was a story published in August of 2014 about a film maker who dressed up as Osama Bin Laden, mask, bonnet, clothes, the works, and walked unchallenged across the border.  Though this was obviously a stunt to prove a point, there have been many, many articles written about how unsecure our southern border is and how easy it would be for terrorists to infiltrate the United States.  It was all these little bits and pieces of information, and more, that led me to conceive the story you just read.   

Now for a final comment I guess I’m obligated to make.  Even though this story is loosely based on some real events, opinions, etc., any similarities between the fictional characters in Reaper and real live, air breathing, walking talking people, is merely coincidental.  That’s it.   

Thanks again, Craig.