Read Pestilence: A Medical Thriller Online
Authors: Victor Methos
Tags: #Thrillers, #Medical, #Retail, #Suspense, #Fiction
Pestilence: A Medical Thriller (22 page)
67
Tommy
Metheny stood in line outside for his portion of the rations. The San Antonio heat pounded down on his head so fiercely that he kept having to mop his face with the back of his arm. The grocery stores had been wiped clean. He’d gone that morning, and nothing was left, not even batteries. The employees had abandoned the store, and the big chains had given up, too. The only ones still left were the mom-and-pop stores, and the owners guarded their inventory with shotguns and pistols.
O
ne of his neighbors had been robbed overnight. He called the police, but no one came. The police, he’d heard, couldn’t go out on calls anymore. Tommy didn’t understand why some fucking terrorist attack in Manhattan and LA had to affect him. Those places were in different worlds. Let them worry about it. Wasn’t that what he paid his taxes for? Instead, he was out there in hundred-degree heat just to get a few military rations so he could feed his wife and kids.
The soldiers had taken over an old rec center
, and he stood by the entrance. Four hours, he’d waited, and as he approached, a woman in a uniform stepped out of the building. She had a cold, determined look on her face. The kind that was meant to deliver bad news and give the impression that she didn’t give a shit that she was the one delivering it.
“We’re sorry,” she bellowed, “but that’s all the rations we will be handing out today.”
She continued to speak, but no one heard her. The crowd was in an uproar. Tommy was yelling, too.
“This what I pay my fucking taxes for, huh? This what I paid
’em for twenty years for?”
The shouting grew more intense and someone Tommy couldn’t see tried to push the woman out of the way of the entrance and go inside. The woman was young, probably inexperienced
, and not well trained. She should have locked the doors and gone for help. But she went for the pistol holstered at her side. One of the men in line swung at her, a wide haymaker that connected to her jaw. The blow was so hard, Tommy heard the pop of her jaw as she fell back and hit her head on the cement.
The crowd rushed in through the doors, ripping the remaining rations from the arms of
the young soldiers. Only three of them had been stationed there. Tommy was unclear which one did it first, but at some point, they removed their semi-automatic rifles, and opened fire on the crowd.
Tommy ran out of the rec center, holding four ration containers. The pop of gunfire
followed him, and off in the distance, a military truck was speeding toward them. He had no plans on sticking around for that.
As he turned to go to his car, a rumbling tore through the air.
The sound was so deep and forceful that he felt the vibration in his bones, as if he’d been holding a powerful jackhammer that hit something unbreakable.
The crowds were quieted and stood still. E
ven the military vehicle had stopped. Tommy saw that everyone’s faces were turned to the sky. An eerie feeling gave him shivers. People had been ready to tear each other’s throats out one second, and the next, they stopped and gazed up. He almost didn’t want to know what would make them do that.
A shadow moved over him
, and he turned, looked up to the blue sky… and screamed.
Scourge
, Book III in the Plague Trilogy, coming Spring 2014
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BY VICTOR METHOS
Plague Trilogy
Pestilence
Scourge (Coming February 2014)
Thrillers
Black Sky (A Mystery-Thriller)
Murder Corporation (A Crime Thriller)
Superhero Thrillers
Superhero (An Action Thriller)
Jon Stanton Thrillers
Creature-Feature
Novels
Paranormal Thrillers
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Star Dreamer: The Early Science Fiction of Victor Methos
Humo
r
Earl Lindquist: Accountant and Zombie Killer
Philosophical Fiction
Existentialism and Death on a Paris Afternoon
To contact the author, learn about his latest adventures, get tips on starting your own adventures, or learn about upcoming releases, please visit the author’s blog at
http://methosreview.blogspot.com/
Copyright 2013
Victor Methos
Kindle Edition
License Statement
This
ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy.
Please note that this is a work of fiction. Any similarity
to persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. All events in this work are purely from the imagination of the author and are not intended to signify, represent, or reenact any event in actual fact.