Crisis Event: Jagged White Line Read Online Free

Titman said as he walked out of the room. “Come on.”
    Twenty minutes later Sadie was in her boots and parka, the ankle monitor secured around her leg. Her backpack was zipped and ready to go—minus her spare clothes, her pistol, rifle, combat knife, and the loose ammo she’d had in the bottom of the bag. She’d inventoried her possessions and discovered they’d let her keep her chemicals and her respirator. Blakely told her that when they’d recovered the Geiger counter and the hidden information inside it, she’d get her weapons back—along with twelve MREs.
    “Don’t promise what you can’t deliver, Sergeant Shitstain,” she sneered at Blakely. “Those psychos will kill us both when they get what they want.”
    “I can promise you they’re not going to kill you,” Blakely said, buttoning up the denim shirt he’d taken from someone’s closet upstairs. “Someone else might, but those three...nope.”
    He was wearing thick canvas cargo pants with deep pockets over thermal underwear, along with a pair of Adidas running shoes. A heavy black windbreaker hung to the middle of his thighs. The last touch was the black knit ski cap he pulled down over his ears. This wasn’t exactly the best tactical gear, but it would look like what he wanted it to look like—a civilian playing at being tactical.
    “Whether you believe it or not doesn’t matter,” he said. “My men and I will keep you safe, and when you get us the Geiger counter I’ll turn you loose myself.”
    “Give me my guns,” Sadie said.
    Blakely only stared at her.
    Sadie scowled.
    “You want it to look like I’m travelling with you by choice you have to give me guns. The people in the square saw me ride out with my rifle.”
    Blakely thought for a few seconds, then nodded.
    “All right,” he said. He unloaded her pistol and handed it to her. He did the same to her rifle, which was leaning against the wall.
    “Asshole,” she said, and Blakely smiled.
    Sadie suppressed her desire to kill him. It was time to turn cagey. To play along with these military meatheads and rapists. She stood impassively while Blakely pulled Duck aside and whispered to him. When Blakely asked if she was ready a few minutes later, she said “Let’s get this over with,” and walked out through the living room, where Titman sat smoking on the couch. Without a backward glance she stepped out into the dusty gray outdoors.
    Blakely followed her, turning to give the general a half-hearted salute as he stepped  through the door. He watched Sadie trudge slowly forward, limping slightly on her left foot, and heard her sharp intakes of breath when she stepped wrong.
    He pushed his guilty thoughts away and tried to focus on keeping the girl safe.
    Sadie maintained silence during the twenty minute walk to the town square. She half-hoped the snipers watching their approach would put a slug through Blakely’s head. But no one fired.
    Blakely, seemingly oblivious to the danger he was in, walked along beside her in silence, scanning the streets around them.
    When they reached the place where the biker had crashed into the back of a car, Sadie slowed. The man’s body was still there, crushed between the bumper of the car he’d crashed into and the heavy motorcycle that had squashed him like an insect. Flies covered what was left of his face, and maggots were already deconstructing his body.
    “I thought the insects would’ve died off by now,” Blakely said.
    “Insects will inherit the earth,” she said. “Except for this human cockroach.”
    When they were thirty yards from the car maze someone shouted “Hands up!”
    Sadie stopped and put her hands up.
    Blakely did the same.
    “Hello!” she shouted,”It’s Sadie Halloman. I was here last night.”
    Seconds later the chief of police strode forward through the car maze. She threw out her arms and hugged Sadie.
    “Glad to see you,” May said. “We thought you were dead.”
    “I nearly was,” Sadie said.
    “We