Ragnarok Rising: The Awakening (Book One of The Ragnarok Rising Saga) Read Online Free Page A

program that got out of control. Still others blamed it on the 2012, end of the world Mayan thing. I was hoping that it wasn’t Ragnarok. The only thing I knew for certain was that once rioting got going in a city, we lost all contact with it. No television, no radio, no internet, no nothing. Once contact was lost, the Government quarantined the area. Nothing was supposed to go in or out of there. CNN was using phrases like the “California Containment Zone” and the “New Mexico Buffer Zone.”
    To me, that truly was the end of the world. When our own government was sealing off parts of our country, it was the stuff of nightmares. Part of me wanted to go home, load up the family and head off into the woods. I knew I could feed my family off of what we could hunt and grow. The problem was where could we go that would be far enough away not to be found? If these things were truly what we were beginning to suspect, nothing would stop them. They would just keep coming until there was nothing left.



Chapter Three
Rude Awakening
     
    “Out of every one hundred men, ten shouldn't even be there,
    eighty are just targets, nine are the real fighters,
    and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle.
    Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back. ”
    - Heraclitus
     
    03 April
    I awoke to the sound of my phone ringing beside me. I glanced at the clock and grumbled about it only being 0300 hours and thought that it better damn well be important. Turns out, it was. The caller ID said “ County Government ”, so I knew it had to be someone from the department. They don’t call at three a.m. to ask me how I’m doing.
    “Mmmm, hello ?” I managed to croak, barely managing to hold the phone to my ear.
    “Grant?” said a familiar voice on the line.
    It took a second or two for me to remember that was actually my name and another second or so for me to recognize the voice of Sergeant Connors from C-Shift. I sat up and turned on the lamp on my bedside table.
    “Yeah, Sarge,” I replied, yawning and blinking the sleep from my eyes. “What’s going on?”
    “The Sheriff wants everyone here and in uniform by 0600.”
    “Why? We’re not due in for briefing until 0645.”
    “It’s not just your shift he’s calling in, Grant. It’s everyone. It’s all four shifts.”
    That thought struck me like a mallet. I’d never seen that happen in all the time I’d been with the department. Not even when tornadoes ripped a big chunk out of the county a few years back. This was big. The implications were not good, if they were calling all of us in at the same time.
    “It’s the riots. Isn’t it?”
    “Yeah, I’m pretty sure it ain’t a social call. We’ve lost contact with St. Louis and Kansas City. There’ve been riots reported as close as Rolla and Joplin. SPD is already responding to calls of looting on the north side of town.”
    “Oh, shit,” I groaned, rubbing the bridge of my nose.
    “Honey,” my wife said, sitting up in bed, “what’s going on?”
    “I gotta go, Sarge. I’ll see you at 0600.”
    Hanging up the phone, I turned to my wife and shook my head, not knowing what to say to her.
    “Better put on some coffee, babe,” I said. “I gotta go in early.”
    “What for?” she asked, tossing back the covers.
    “I don’t know for sure, but I think it has something to do with the riots.”
    She headed for the kitchen and I hit the shower. By the time I emerged from the bathroom with face and head freshly shaved, the coffee was ready and waiting for me. I was still buckling on my duty belt and fastening my belt-keepers as I slid into a chair. Then I slipped my Thor’s Hammer around my neck and tucked it beneath my shirt.
    While my wife poured the coffee, I closed my eyes and silently prayed a short prayer for the coming day. I knew from the early call that it couldn’t be good. So, I prayed the soldier’s prayer.
    “I am going to war, leaving loved ones behind. I am