Eden's Hammer - By Lloyd Tackitt Page 0,4

gotten along since I saw you last?”

“Pretty darned good, I’d say. We’ve had enough to eat, and good Lord willing, we’ll have a record crop this year. Knock on wood that Mother Nature doesn’t do something to it. This lifestyle has gotten me into better shape than I was in before the grid went down. Back then I sat at a desk all day, or was driving the hour and a half to work and then back. I was soft, really soft, but not now. Not an ounce of fat on me, and I can run like I was a child—well, almost that good. Sarah has leaned down, too, and she’s always busy taking care of this place and me. She works hard. She’s often in the field, weeding or harvesting. Chores that used to be easy, like washing clothes, take a lot more work and time now. I’d say she’s in better shape now than she was in her twenties. Not bad for people in their mid-sixties; we’re way healthier than we used to be. We’re always busy and there is always work to be done, but we don’t mind it because it’s our work for our benefit. It takes hard work to survive, but every drop of sweat is for us, no taxes rob us of our hard work for the benefit of lazy people somewhere else. We share with others, but it’s our choice what we share and who it goes to.

“All that prepping I had been doing in the grid years paid off. Those antique tools I collected have been lifesaving, literally. The guns and ammunition I collected have been worth their weight ten times over in what gold used to be worth. My library of survival books really did the trick for us in so many ways, it’s hard to describe. The Foxfire books weren’t especially helpful in the very beginning, when we were hiding and living by the skin of our teeth, but now that we are settling into a village lifestyle, they are precious beyond words.”

Adrian said, “Now, tell me about this threat before I strangle you.”

“Well, I can tell you a little. There’s a lot we don’t know, but what we do know is bad. There’s a large band of raiders heading this way. Real barbarians—vicious. They’re looting, killing, and raping as they come. It’s a big band, don’t know how many exactly, but from the accounts we’ve heard so far, it could be upwards of two hundred or more of them. Well armed and utterly ruthless. I’ve been plotting the reports of the raids we’ve heard about on a map and they are on a beeline right at us. One refugee even said that he overheard the raiders talking about Fort Brazos. That might not mean anything, but all information so far indicates they will be coming through here. Linda knows the most about them—I’ll get her over here soon so you can ask her questions. Best guess is that we have five or six weeks before they’re here.”

CHAPTER 2

JANUARY 8

REX SHUDDERED INWARDLY WITH INTENSE pleasure as he watched the man thrashing out of the last of his life. Rex’s outward appearance was of a handsome yet stone cold killer with no emotions; the wide, toothy smile on his face didn’t signal anything recognizable as pleasure. He was a tall, blond man with pale gray eyes, almost albino looking. His face was always serenely still and cold. When he smiled, which he did frequently, it was a large, toothy smile that on an ordinary person would have been both charming and engaging, but on his face, paired with his dead eyes, it sent a primordial chill down one’s spine.

Blood pumped from the man’s throat, slowing quickly to a stop, pooling and sinking into the dry clay. Rex had few discipline problems with his men, but when he did, a lightning fast slash across the offender’s throat with his large knife stopped the problem and made a crystal clear example for the other men. His discipline was so thorough that sometimes, such as in this instance, Rex had to create a perceived infraction so that he could release the tension that built up when he had gone too long without a kill.

Rex was asexual. He viewed sex as an unhygienic bit of business that entirely repulsed him. He’d tried it once in his teens, and then killed the girl afterwards in pure disgust, stabbing her repeatedly until he was exhausted. It had