Breakout (Final Dawn) Read Online Free

Martinez had crawled into every car and truck on Buena Vista Drive in north San Antonio, trying to find one that would start after six and a half long years. But they were out of luck. Time had taken its toll on the batteries, and every single one of them was shot.
         They were hoping to find just one that still worked. If they’d found one, they could have used it to jump start the others, so they could determi ne which batteries could be tossed and which ones could still be used.
         But there was another way.
         Frank said, “My generator has battery terminals built into the side. We’ll have to lug it out here, but it should do the trick.”
         “Won’t Eva miss it while it’s gone?”
         “Hell, you know Eva. She’s a trooper, not a complainer. She volunteered to come out here and help us, remember?”
         “I know, Frank. Don’t be so damn touchy. I was just teasin’.”
         “Sorry. I expected to get several of these cars running by now. I’m just irritated, that’s all.
         “Oh, I forgot, have you checked on Joe yet today? ”
         “Yeah, I was over there a little bit ago. He also wanted to come and help, but I told him to give that back of his another day or two. He’s no good to us with a bad back. Besides, he’s in so much pain it hurt me just to look at him.”
         “Well, it hurts me to look at you but I still do it.”
         “ Ha, ha. Let’s go get your generator and get this done.”
         Jesse had two sons, eighteen and nineteen years old. B oth of them were athletes before the meteorite hit the earth and turned the world cold for six and a half years. They weren’t in the best shape any more, though. None of them were, after having to minimize their food intake for all those years.
        But the sons were still the strongest men on the block, because of their youth.
         Normally, Jesse would have asked Bobby and Mike to lug the heavy generator out of Frank’s garage. But what they were doing was equally important. Maybe more so. So Jesse let them be, even as he and Frank struggled getting the generator from the garage to the street.
         “Damn, Frank. You should have bought a generator with wheels.”
         “Yeah. Well, I’ll try to remember that the next time I stroll into Walmart to order one. Let me know if you need to stop and rest, you big sissy, and we’ll put it down for a minute.”
         Jesse laughed. He couldn’t think of a suitable comeback, so he just let it go.
         Jesse and Frank were just casual friends when the disaster hit. But they’d been through a lot together in recent years. Gathering food, burying bodies, protecting the houses on their block from predators. They’d discovered a food distribution warehouse not far from the block that was somehow left unscathed when the rioting and pillaging took place, and made hundreds of trips there and back, lugging a few cases of food at a time to keep the families fed.
         Counting the two of them, there were only fourteen people alive on the block now. One couple came over to join them from the adjacent block. They were the only survivors, and were scared and vulnerable. So they were invited to move into one of the houses left vacant when many of the others evacuated the city. Evacuated the city headed for warmer climates and never were heard from again.
         Frank hoped that some of them made it, although he doubted so.
         News reports just before and after the meteorite hit told of traffic jams two hundred miles long on every highway headed out of the country. Mexico had closed its borders, because it couldn’t deal with its own people. Much less millions of refugees. Most of the refugees lived their last days in their cars because they had no place else to go.
         First they ran out of food and water. Then hope. Most ended their own lives, and would be entombed in their cars