The Last Town (Book 4): Fighting the Dead Read Online Free

who wants to learn will need instruction on how to handle and use firearms, as well as specific defensive tactics. It’s going to take a long time to get all the fortifications made, so folks will have to train up on what we have now, then be retrained with what we’ll have in the future.”
    “About some of those plans,” Booker said, speaking for the first time since the session had begun, “are you set on partitioning the town?”
    “I am. It’s the safest bet. If there’s a break-in, we’ll need to be able to shrink our perimeter and still keep everyone safe.”
    Hector snorted. “So not only do you want to put up walls around the town, you want to put them up inside. That’s simply ridiculous.”
    “I have to say, I’m not much of a fan of it either, Barry,” Booker added.
    Corbett smiled thinly. “No? You’ll think differently when a bunch of slobbering, flesh-hungry ghouls are chasing your ass down Main Street, Max.”
    That pissed Booker off. “Hey, I don’t deserve that attitude.”
    Corbett held his smile, then ran a hand through his salt and pepper hair as the two men in his security detail stirred, uneasy at the suddenly contentious tones. Corbett looked away from the table and took a few steps to his right, then turned back to the council. “Listen, by tomorrow all the trenching will be complete. We’ll reinforce the sewer and gas lines and the water mains, then we’ll begin erecting walls all around the town. It’ll take two or three weeks to complete. By then, we’ll probably start seeing the effects of what’s been happening in the larger cities. Everyone’s going to be fighting for resources. Things are going to get very, very hairy. Not just competitive, mind you—but outright dangerous. And that’s before the zombies get here. If you’ve been watching the news, New York is totally down for the count. The entire Tenth Mountain Division is trying to take northern Manhattan, and they’re getting shut down. Boston is starting to destabilize, and so is DC. Los Angeles is about to go the same way, and there’s activity in Vegas, and it’s not the usual high stakes game. All this means there’s going to be a mass migration of frightened, panic-stricken people. They won’t have any way to take care of themselves, not over the long term. Too many people have gotten used to all the modern conveniences. Right now, supermarkets are running out of food. There are no more food or fuel or water deliveries, outside of what the utility companies can keep pumping out. When a man’s family is starving, cold, sick, he’ll do anything to take care of them. Anything .
    “So we can’t leave the town open. Every day we do, we run the risk of something happening to us. To you. To your families. We’ve got to think about cutting ourselves off now, while we can still pick the time and manage things without having to fight off a panicking mob.”
    Booker didn’t like the sound of that. “So what’s your solution to this, Barry?”
    “Like I said in the plan, Max. We need to break the highway on either end of town. Make it so no one can get in.”
    Booker shook his head. “No. No way. We’re not doing that yet.”
    “The longer we wait, the more difficult it’s going to become,” Corbett said. “When we finally seal the town, we can’t have outsiders here. We don’t have the—”
    “Barry, no way,” Booker said, raising his voice. “We can’t close the town. Not yet. It’s not time.”
    Hector turned toward him. “What do you mean, ‘not yet’? You don’t plan on actually going through with his plans, do you?”
    “I thought that was decided,” Gemma said.
    “It was,” Booker said reluctantly. “It is.”
    Corbett raised his hands. “Then I don’t see a problem. Let’s get to it.”
    “No, Barry. It’s happening too fast,” Booker said. “We have obligations, to the town, to those who need to pass through, even to the state. We can’t start chopping up a highway