Home Fires Burning (Walking in the Rain Book 2) Read Online Free

and several other senior family members I’d yet to formally meet.  I deduced these were siblings to Darwin and Hazel and I turned out to be partially correct.  Quick introductions were made and I made myself comfortable in an old overstuffed armchair before the questions started.
    First, no I didn’t know why the power went out.  I explained my money was on either EMP or CME, but I also added it could have been something else entirely, like the blastwave from a supernova hundreds of light years away.
    That most of these folks knew what an Electromagnetic Pulse or a Coronal Mass Ejection was confirmed my belief that these folks belonged to the Prepper subculture.  My third suggestion got me some confused looks but I saw Nick at least nod his understanding.
    “Can you tell us how you came to meet up with Ruth and Stan, Luke?”
    This was from Darwin, but the others in the room seemed to sit forward in rapt attention as I related the bare bones of the story, from Amy’s insistence that we do something right down to Stan taking out the last of the raiders with a well timed shot.  As I was finishing up my description, I saw Stan slipping in the door and gave him a nod of appreciation once again.  The guy really had saved my life, after all.
    “From the reaction I’m seeing, things haven’t gotten that bad around here, I take it?”
    Mrs. Keller shook her head, but I caught a hint of something else on Nick Keller’s face.  If the world was splitting at the seams in the neighborhood, chances were her boys wanted to shield her as much as possible.   This made perfect sense to me, but maybe she needed to know some of the ugly out there.
    “We’ve had some folks trying to steal food, but nothing really organized.  This community has a lot of farms and ranches and we’ve tried to share and trade with people we know,” Mrs. Keller said.  “Nick and Mark made a run into town last week but they said most of the stores had been looted and the streets looked deserted.”
    “Was that in Gentry?  We didn’t come that way but that’s about the same as we saw in Lowell.  What folks left in town seem to be hunkered down.”
    “Is it true you walked all this way from Chicago?” Mrs. Keller asked. 
    I figured word had already gotten out so I nodded, then added, “except for the use of the truck these last two days, and a ride I got from the Illinois National Guard early on.”
    That got some discussions going and everyone wanted to know what the National Guard was up to and if they had some kind of plan.  Mrs. Keller asked about FEMA and behind her back, Mr. Keller just shook his head.
    “We have a HAM radio,” Mrs. Keller continued, “and we try to listen every night but all we get is the same message from FEMA and Homeland Security that has been playing for weeks.”
    “That’s something I hadn’t heard.  I’ve seen isolated pockets here and there where aid camps were set up and places the National Guard was trying to patrol, but these were just isolated deals.  They tried to put me in a camp one time.  I didn’t stick around.  If you’ve got a map I can try to point out what I saw where, but really I tried to steer clear of cities and towns.  Interstates, too. ”
    “So, just what all have you seen out there, boy?”
    This came from one of the older men, one of Darwin’s brothers I thought, and he seemed to be intentionally trying to provoke a response.  I gave him my best dead eyed stare before replying.
    “I’ve seen the looting and burning.  Fighting and killing.  Lots of hungry, angry confused people out there.”
    That brought the conversation to halt and I wondered if I’d gone too far.
    “So how are you still alive?”  Mark asked.  “Stan told me you’re only sixteen years old.”
    From Mrs. Keller’s sharp intake of breath, this was news to her.
    “And where did you get those weapons, boy?  You one of them looters?”  This was from Mr. Personality.  Great.
    I turned to