The World's End Series Book One: Dymond's World Read Online Free Page A

your Mom."
    Vic took Mary’s hand and led her to the porch and opened the door.  It wasn't locked - there was no reason to lock a secluded cabin.  If someone wanted to enter they could simply break the glass in a window.
    The cabin had grown over the last four years.  Initially, it was a single open area with a sleeping loft, built around a large stone fireplace.  But gradually Victor had expanded it until it was almost eight hundred square feet.  Their bedroom was a corner area separated by a couple of folding room dividers.  The kids kept the loft.
    Today, there was another room that had appeared.  What had formally been an empty corner now had actual permanent walls that made it into a room.  There was a door.
    He led her to the door, "Go ahead, Mary.  Open it."
    She obviously had no idea what to expect.  She slowly opened the door.  The kids crowded in to see.
    Before them was something totally unexpected.  There was a toilet.  A real honest-to-God, porcelain crapper.  Beside it was a sink and, in the corner, a small enclosed shower.
    Mary didn't mind their occasional bug out dress rehearsals; and she didn't mind roughing it in the woods - they had everything they needed up here anyway.
    But she hated using the outhouse.  As outhouses go, it was a nice one, but it was still a seat over a hole.  There were still insects that got in.  The bag of lime and scoop kept the smells at bay, but she swore she could still smell them.
    "Vic, it's wonderful!  I can't believe it!  How did you . . ."
    "I tapped into a spring a bit uphill.  As long as it's putting out water, we'll have some running down here.  Another pipe connects to the outhouse for the . . . ah . . . output."
    "Yew!" said Zack as he wrinkled his nose.
    "I want to go potty," said Zoe.
    ***
    Later, Victor sat on the porch and watched the kids play in the tree house he'd built.  It was one of their favorite things, but it was also at just the right position to allow him to see their home, down in the valley below.  He could also see a few of the places where the trail switched back on itself.  In the distance, a stretch of highway 93 was visible.  He could see it quite well if he used binoculars.  Today, when he'd checked to make sure the structure was safe for the kids, there had been a group of motorcycles passing by.
    He had his portable AOR 8200 radio and was checking reception.  He had a hundred fifty foot wire antenna strung through the trees.  Even though it was still morning, he easily received stations in Spokane and Billings.  He tried a station in Calgary; it was there, but almost too weak to copy.  It would boom in after sunset.
    He settled on a station in Salt Lake City.  The news was on.
    "Sporadic trading halts continue on the New York Stock Exchange.  A spokesman says that the problems are 'technical' and not the result of a terrorist attack.
    "The President today traveled to make a speech at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.  In it, he defended his policy of resettlement.  When asked if the country could afford to take another five million poor people, he stated that the 'USA has the strength, and yes the generosity, to do whatever we want in this regard.'  He added, 'These new Americans will simply make us stronger.'  A group of several hundred protesters were kept well away from the event.
    "The investigation into the riots caused by an elderly woman in Cleveland took a new turn today as investigators learned that the driver, Miss Ellen Richardson, may have had contacts with people involved in the white supremacist movement.  Department of Justice spokesperson, Cloe Sisborne, stated that they 'were making sure all leads were followed as we try to understand this senseless tragedy.  We have Miss Richardson's computers and phones and they are being analyzed.'  Reports of bikers groups converging on the scene remain unconfirmed.
    "Now in sports, the USA women's soccer team was dealt a . . ."
    Mary sat beside