Isolation , Jones, Nathan [top 20 books to read TXT] 📗

stay on our side is that we treat them with some respect and basic human decency.”

“Basic human decency as in giving them all our food?” a man at the front, Lenny as it turned out, called out. “You know what? I think we should talk about the camp too, but for the opposite reason! There are a lot of people out there, thousands, and they're all mouths to feed when we're struggling ourselves. And even if Darrel does treat them bad, that's not enough to explain how resentful they are of us in spite of everything we've done for them.”

Gen was so angry she spoke up before thinking about it. “What do you want to do?” she shouted down from the walkway. “Kick them all out to go starve or catch Zolos and die? In case you forgot, a lot of the food they're eating is food they got themselves from the Federal relief stockpile. Not to mention they scavenged a lot of the food the town is relying on to survive. ”

Lenny sneered up at her. “Some of us more than others . . . you've got plenty of meat on your bones for someone going through a disaster, just because Statton likes that junk in your trunk.”

She flinched as if slapped, wondering where that attack had even come from. Then her face flushed with embarrassment and renewed fury. “That has nothing to do with-”

“People!” Darby cut in. “This is a town meeting, not a barroom brawl. Let's try to discuss things calmly and reasonably, without petty squabbling or personal attacks.”

“Then you'd better put a muzzle on your out of control cousin!” a man at the back of the crowd shouted.

At Darby's side Darrel flushed. “Hey screw you, Barret! You think I don't recognize you back there?”

“See, this is exactly what I'm talking about!” Barret shouted back. “Not only is he an idiot who's going to get us all killed with his incompetence, but he's also an a-hole about it.”

Darrel's face darkened another shade. “You want to blame me? I've got a bunch of half-trained volunteers who mostly signed up at the beginning to make sure random people didn't wander into town and infect us! We don't have the training or resources to handle people who sneak around burning down houses in the night, attack us with improvised bombs, and can kill us all with Zolos if they get too close.”

“So you're saying you're not up to the task of defending us?” the woman who'd brought up the subject of the quarantine camp yelled, seeming happy with jumping in on this subject.

Darby scowled and thumped the mic of his bullhorn, making everyone wince at the deafening screech. Silence grudgingly settled, and he stared around sternly. “Let me stress, as I repeatedly have, that the threat presented by Jay Corey and his thugs has been completely overblown. It's a few dozen people, maybe a dozen at most actually fighters, who are making a nuisance of themselves. They've got some tricks up their sleeves, sure, but in any real fight they're no threat.”

Gen frowned. She could appreciate that the man wanted to prevent a panic, but that claim flew in the face of what had been happening recently.

She wasn't the only one who seemed to have a problem with that. “Are you joking, he just blew up half our barricades!” another woman in the crowd shouted. There was a rumble of agreement from the people behind her.

“And he's got us completely pinned down, so the scavengers can't go out and get food!” Lenny added to another rumble of agreement.

The Mayor lifted his bullhorn. “People, people!” he boomed through it until he had some semblance of silence again. “Anything he's managed to do to us has been due to the element of surprise, or the fact that his group can operate autonomously without fear of Zolos. But in the end it's a few dozen thugs against hundreds of volunteer fighters in Stanberry, and a hundred and fifty in the quarantine camp.”

“And they have Zolos!” Mr. Gerson called. Considering he was one of the few in town who'd lost a loved one to the virus, it was no surprise he'd be quick to bring it up. “It just takes one to spread the disease to us all!”

This rumble of agreement was loudest of all. “Especially since he's already used it!” Barret called. “They've already killed hundreds of people in the quarantine camp.”

There was a far louder rumble of alarm from the crowd at that reminder.

“That's why we have the town locked down behind a barricade!” Darrel bellowed over the commotion. “Believe me, they won't get close enough to us to do anything!”

Darby rested a calming hand on his cousin's shoulder, although he nodded in agreement as he raised his bullhorn again. “Jay and his thugs have only got this far because they're willing to do things we didn't think they'd stoop to. But now that we're prepared, we can easily stop any-”

Darrel abruptly lurched sideways, clutched at the Mayor's shoulder as he reeled, then started to fall. It was only then that the distant crack of a rifle reached Gen's ears.

The leader of the town's defenses dropped off the barricade to the ground below with a sickening thump and began to twitch, blood spreading across the front of his shirt. Dead silence settled as everyone stared in shock, Darby looking down at his cousin with an almost baffled expression.

Then his expression twisted in horror and he moved to dive down behind the cover of the barricade, in case another bullet was coming his way.

Too late. Midair he jerked with a strangled grunt, curling up in pain as he fell off the barricade. A few men nearby caught him before he could hit, gently laying him on the ground beside the wall as he clutched his shoulder and screamed in pain.

Gen dropped to her stomach on the walkway, heart thundering in her ears; in her panic she didn't even think of trying to use