After The Rising by T.D Jackson (free novel reading sites .txt) 📕

1 Week after the court house incident

"Please take a seat" Tom entered what used to be a hotel room in Hasting's, it had been taken over by the army during the dead rising from the grave much to the owners disgust. It was on the top floor and had awful floral wall paper that your Grandma would be embarassed by"Can I get you anything" "Can you get me out of this?" "I'm afraid not" The Doc took a seat and Tom sat down on the sofa "So your here because you want to be a Ghost?" "I never said that" "Then why are you here?" "I killed some guy's a few day's ago some army guy's came started building a wall and then told me they had to escort me back here and well I'm here" The Doc shuffled some paper's "I have a written request here that say's you applied signed amd authorised" "Does the signature say Jackson or Kane?" "Kane" "Not me" The Doc shuffled the glasses on his head "Yes well Mr Kane think's you would be an excellent candidate for.." Tom interrupted "Do I have to be here? "I'm sorry?" "Is anything keeping me here?" "No you can leave when you want" "Sweet see you in a whle crocodile" Tom wandered off to the door and opened it. The soldier that had escorted him to the room was still standing their "Argh! Oh there you are I have been looking every where for you" No reaction "Fine I'll sit down" Tom closed the door sat back down on the sofa and put his feet up "What can I do for you Doc?" "Yes er well Mr Kane think's that you are possible candidate for the Ghost's" "Are you asking or telling?" "We cant force you all though Mr Kane urges you to consider it" "To busy to ask me himself though" "He asked you once already" "Does he thik he will get a different answer the 2nd time around" "I dont know will he?" "Probably not" "You should reconsider your 1st mission was a great success" "2 of my friends died while I was doing that FAVOUR for you" "I'm sorry to hear that but you did save sevral thousand people" Tom waved his hand to aknowledge the point "Do you have any military or police training?" "No" "Ever killed someone?" Tom raised an eyebrow "Kind of blunt don't you think" "Have you?" "2" "How do you feel about it?" "I'm dancing on their graves they were right tosser's" "You don't regret it?" "Which is the non-craziest answer?" "Their are no crazy answers here" "Yes their are and you know it" The Doc smiled and removed his glasses and started wiping them with a cloth "Giving up already Doc?" "No... you feel no regret?" "Of course I do" "How do you feel?" "I dont have feeling's I'm not a girl" "Your deflecting with humour" "And your boring" "Will you take this seriously?" "Will you lighten up a little?" "I'm here to do a job" "I'm here cause they made me come here" "The sooner you talk the sooner you can go" "You are in for a long wait Doc"

It was 3 day's before they let Tom return home the whole time he was escorted where ever he went and even then only in the hotel. There was no contact from Kane all though on the day before he left Tom's Psych eval came through, he had passed Kane must be pulling string's. A badge arrived with a contract of 2 years the pay was good Tom turned it down and left Hasting's he kept the badge though. He had no contact with Kane until 2 years later.   

The door fell inwards into the library with a loud thud and Jon walked in "Did you have to kick it off it's hinges?" I asked walking in "I have wanted to do that since I was a kid would you take that away from me?" " Fine but I get to kick open the next one" "Like you could ever do that" "I could I just dont wanna" "Yeah yeah come on we got shit to do" We switched on their torches and walked further into the library it seemed deserted. They took an end of the small local library each and rummaged through the shelves. They were looking for anything to do with history and technology medicine so much had been lost in the last 2 years infomation that humans had collected over thousands of years. I removed a book from the shelf The very hungry catterpilar, I smiled my mum had read this to me when I was a kid. I put it in my bag and looked back at the shelf bared teeth snarled at me and a moan came from it's lips " Shhh quiet in the library" The monster took no notice of the rules and thrust it's arms through one of the shelves grabbed hold of me and pulled me towards the shelf, it was trying to bite but luckily couldnt get through the shelving. I pushed my weight against the shelf and it tipped over on to the creature and it was pulled off me by the weight. More moans echoed from around the library, time to go " Hey Jon" "I know grab what you can and let's go" Tom grabbed a couple of book's God know's what thet were but thet could probably trade them in for something, he headed for the door the moans of the activated dead came from behind him. He almost caved Jon's head in when he came dashing out of the shadow's, they headed for the car and got in and Jon started it up "What did you get?" Jon asked "Er Peppa Pig magical safari" Jon laughed "Anything we can sell?" "A few survival book's map book's and history should get us some good cash" Jon put the Fiesta in gear and they headed for home.

There is a narrow bridge that leads into Tunbridge Wells this was the only entrance in the wall that surronded part of the town. The checkpoint was relativley clear, Jon reached out of the car window and swiped a card a metal gate slid open they drove through and it closed behind them. There was a 20ft drop on to rail way lines below them and ahead another sliding gate but this would not open until they were checked over. A soldier politely ordered them from the car, they gave him their I.D's and were taken to a large green tent, they were checked thoroughly by doctors for any possible signs of infection and whilst this was happening the car would be hosed down searched hosed down and searched again. Tom Jon and the car passed the check their I.D's were returned and they drove through passing people on there assigned duties. Due to a shortage of military personal civilians were required to do more, Tom and Jon were scavengers scouring the area outside of town for anything benifical and took part in thedefense of the town. They pulled up outside of what used to be a car dealership got out and presenter there I.D's to the soldiers at the door and walked in. The former car dealership had been converted into a store house where all the towns supplies and weapons were stored. They walked up to the former reception desk that now was surronded by bullett proof glass a civillian worker smiled inside as they approached "Good afternoon gentleman how can I assist you?" "We got book's" "O.K please place them in the hatch" A drawer similar to those you would find in banks slid opened and they placed the book's inside,In the drawer the book's would be lightly steamed to kill any possible infectious agents on them "Thank you your names please?" They gave the man their details and recieved £100 in £20 notes. This trip had put them over their quota for the month this was a bonus they were required to turn over anything that could be useful for the fightback against the undead this basicaly meant anything the soldier felt like taking Tom and Jon found this out the hard way when they had bottles of whiskey that they intended to sell confiscated as essential supplies for the local guard.

They left the car dealership and headed for the shopping centre. This place was nothing like it was before it now ressembled an indoor market trader area people selling what you would genrally find in a 2nd hand shop before the dead rose. They moved past the various clothing stalls home made weapons that would probably fall apart in your hand when you needed it most there was only one man they would trust for their weapons. They moved into the foodcourt this was the very high end area of the market bars and glass protected the stores it was not as crowded as upstairs due to the fact that so few people could afford to buy here. Essential things was ironocally named most of the things sold here would not help you in todays world focusing on home made sweets tea coffee alcohol and fine hand made clothes. The man behind the counter dressed immaculateley in a three piece suit looked down his nose at them "Yes gentleman can I help you?" Tom smiled "Yeah is Bob in?" "Do you mean owner Robert?" "Yeah Bob is he in? Tell him Tom has some things he might be interested in" The man sighed "One moment please Sir" He walked back behind the counter. After the 1st time Tom and Jon had lost their bottles of drink to a greedy guard they had approached Jack about installing a compartment under the back seat so they could store anything they wanted with out sticky fingered guards taking it, they would often give a free bottle to the local guard any way so them taking all of the items they were not required to turn over but to help there survival was infuriating, Jon had three bottles of Malibu tucked under his coat Tom had 2 bottles of wine and a bottle of Jack Daniels. A short fat man wearing a white shirt and black tieappeared from behind the counter and waved at them "It's open" They made their way through a door to the right of the shop and Bob greeted them shaking their hands "Boys boys how are you what have you got for me today? Tom and Jon produced the bottles and Bob's eyes almost bulged out of his head "Oh very nice lets see JD well that we can sell Malibu yes I will take that oh and wine wine my God and it's not that cheap tacky shit good work boy's how much do you want for them?" Tom and Jon emerged from the shopping centre they had got a good deal on the bottles £60 for the jack £20 each for the malibu and £30 each for the wine plus a 200 cigarettes in total £280 for an afternoons work they were the modern day version of premier league footballers.

They picked up their weekly rations a couple of beer's and headed back to the car "It's weird how the end of the world financialy made us better off isn't it?" Tom said as they lit up they stopped to enjoy the mils April spring day sitting down on a bench "Mmm nicer if they were still making videogames though" "Yeah but at least with the electric back on we can play the old stuff and the internet is back up sort of" "Yeah" The outside of the shopping centre was deserted apart from a three suspicious looking guys