End of the Line (Book 2): Stuck in the Middle Read Online Free

fear.
                  “What do you think, Mike?”
                  “I’m not sure,” he said. “Like Annemarie said. He doesn’t seem violent, only scared.”
                  “And what about you, Annemarie.”
                  “I think he’s in shock. He didn’t attack us. He looked like a wounded animal.”
                  “Wounded animals attack.” This came from Dave. “Tanya, you better check him out. I don’t want a fucking nut job here. Remember that woman who infected that kid? This is a small space. We don’t got a place to keep him secure.”
                  “What does Jim think?”
                  “Jim’s an optimist,” Mike said. “On one hand Dave could be right, on the other hand it’s going on winter and he looks like he’s at wits end.”
                  “I’ll take him only if he gets an escort,” Tanya said. “And we can set him up in that big storeroom downstairs for now. It locks from the outside.”
                  “I’ll do it,” Dave volunteered.
                  “No,” I couldn’t believe what I was saying. “I’ll do it. He seems more open to talking to me.”
                  “Settled, then,” Dave looked relieved. He liked to act as security chief but I don’t think he really wanted the job. “Annemarie. You keep an eye on him. He start really acting crazy, you let me know. You don’t pretend you don’t hear it. Okay?”
                  “We don’t want any trouble,” Dave added even though Tanya was clear.
                               
                  Keith was quiet on the ride to the boat. It took two trips to get all the supplies aboard. I don’t know about Mike, but I felt like a Popsicle.
                  Mike had already dropped off Jim, Grace and most of the supplies. Now we were bringing Keith and the last bag. This time Mike turned on the motor. It was getting colder as evening started to settle in. I don’t know how we were going to survive the winter. I imagined someone in the future finding our frozen corpses. It’s only early December. What’s it going to be like in the dead of winter?
                  We reached the boat and I saw Dave looking over wearing one of the ski jackets we liberated. He frowned either because of Keith and for using the motor but he had the luxury of going inside where it was practically balmy.
                  He threw down the ladder when we got there. Mike tied up the dinghy and tossed the last bag up to Dave. He motioned for me to climb. I grabbed the ladder and put my foot in the bottom rung when I slipped. I held on to the ladder for dear life.
                  “Shit,” I said holding up to the ladder. My boot and the bottom of my jeans dipped into ice water. I attempted to pull it up but was having trouble finding the rung.
                  I felt Mike grab my leg and right it.
                  “Thanks.”
                  “Just climb up,” he said, his voice annoyed.
                  I did what he asked. This time with no slipping. I got to the deck and inspected my boot. It felt cold at the edge and saw my pants bottoms were soaked. I was cold and wet and wanted a hot shower. We were allowed either a 2 minute shower 3 times a week or 5 minute shower two times a week. Hot showers don’t happen, only lukewarm, but it would have to do. The boat had two water tanks. One filled with rainwater for bathing, the other we filled with bottled water for drinking. The rainwater had a filter but it sometimes had a strange smell. I didn’t care. God knows what chemicals got released, what nuclear power plants melted down. The lack of cars made the air cleaner but the fires no one could put out just made it worse. We couldn’t