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.Then another man appeared.This one wasn’t quite as old, maybe only seventy-five or eighty.The newcomer quickly passed the man struggling with his cane.Jeffrey smiled at this new man walking toward him.“How are you doing? Nice day out.”But this man also walked toward the tank without responding.And when he got to the tank, instead of reaching up to shake Jeffrey’s hand, he simply tried to climb up the tread.“What are you doing?” Jeffrey said, still not understanding what was going on.“You’re going to hurt yourself.”The man started to pull himself up in an attempt to stand on top of the tank’s tread.His grip wasn’t strong enough, though.Right as he tried to lift his first foot up, his fingers slipped away and he fell backwards with a loud grunt.“Sir, are you all right?”The man got back to his hands and knees.The original man was still twenty feet away, making a shameful amount of progress toward the tank.He was gasping for air so heavily that it was doubtful he would ever make it to where Jeffrey was.But the second man was now successfully pulling himself up onto the tank, and once there, was trying to push Jeffrey aside in order to descend into the machine’s core.“What are you doing?” Jeffrey said, but would never get a response.He pushed back at the man just enough to stop his progress.This seemed to puzzle the grizzled, old man, who was still singularly focused on getting inside the tank.Finally Jeffrey could understand what the other man was mumbling: “Take me with you.Please, take me with you.Need to leave.Please.”Two more people, both exceedingly ancient, appeared at the same intersection.They too began making their way toward the tank.The old man standing next to Jeffrey put a hand over Jeffrey’s mouth in an attempt to push him away.Jeffrey pushed back.The man lost his footing and fell off the side of the vehicle before disappearing out of view.But by this time, two of the other men, both walking with the assistance of canes, were at the tank as well.All three men were clambering up now.Six hands strained to pull their owners closer to the tank’s hatch.Each man begged Jeffrey to save them.None of them were listening, none of them even realized Jeffrey was heading north instead of toward the remains of civilization.He pulled the hatch shut, then motored the tank toward the other side of the street.One of the men immediately fell off the tank and remained motionless on the ground.Another of the old men hung on to the back of the tank for twenty feet as it dragged him across the intersection before he too finally let go.A third man tried to jump on the tank as it passed.Maybe, as a spry young man he could have made the leap, but in his old age, hobbling just to get close to the tank, he managed only a slight stumble forward.The tank ran over his foot, crushing every bone in it.The man howled in pain.Jeffrey drove the tank three blocks away, enough distance to be sure he was out of their elderly range.At a city park, he stopped and popped the hatch again.There was no trace of the crazed senior citizens.One of them was probably crying, another was likely still begging for Jeffrey to take him away.None of them could be heard, though.The park he stopped at wasn’t unlike parks where he and Katherine and Galen had gone back home.Couples had likely come here, back before the end was signaled, had laughed together, their dogs chasing Frisbees.The harbor would be full of boats coming and going.All of that was gone now.Another man appeared.This man was slightly younger than the others, wasn’t walking with a limp yet.His hand dangled by his side, a pistol held gingerly, no intent to use it.The sight of it made Jeffrey reseal the tank’s hatch, but on his way inside he thought he saw the man wave his arms as if to mock Jeffrey’s panic.From inside the tank, Jeffrey yelled out, “Don’t shoot, I won’t hurt you.”“That’s good to know, friend.I’m no match for a tank.”But when Jeffrey peeked back out again, the man was still approaching, still carrying the gun.“Don’t come any closer,” Jeffrey warned.The man chuckled.“Why not? I only want to talk.”“You have a gun.”“My friend, you have a tank.”“Put the gun down and we can talk.”“Put the tank down and we can talk.”When Jeffrey looked over the top of the hatch, he saw the other man had put the gun down on a wooden bench before starting toward him again.The man stopped ten feet from the tank.Without the threat of bullets, Jeffrey pulled himself out of the machine and lowered himself to the ground.“What are you all doing here?” Jeffrey asked, even though it was this man who had sought him out.“Someone had to stick around and see our fair city off.” The man looked around for effect.“The park is deserted.As is the harbor.Sadly, even the bars.” This last part made the old man give a pained smile, made him wipe away an invisible tear.“The name is Garth.Nice to meet you.”“What about everyone back there, Garth?” Jeffrey said, motioning to the other side of the highway.“Are any of them seriously hurt?”“We have all been seriously hurt, my friend,” the other man said.“At one time or another.”“But are they hurt, now?”“I won’t lie: probably they are.Even a minor injury is serious these days.We are old, and there are no doctors.A broken bone won’t get set.A cut will get infected.You know how it goes.But that’s life.C’est la vie.It’s not a sad thing, it’s just part of life.Speaking of which, what brings you here, my friend? You still haven’t introduced yourself.”“I was just traveling through.Jeffrey.My name is Jeffrey
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Tematy
IndexCidney Swanson [Saving Mars Saving Mars (epub)
Christine Wood [Life Plan 01] A Life Plan Without You (epub)
Cheryl McIntyre [Infinitely Infinitely (epub)
Clair Delaney [Coral 01] Coral (epub)
Christine Cody [Bloodlands 01 Bloodlands (epub)
Christina Ross [Unleash Me, A Unleash Me, Vol 3 (epub)
Christine Flynn [The Hunt for Once Upon a Christmas Eve (epub
Christian Fletcher [The Left Left on the Brink (epub)
Christopher G Nuttall [Royal The Royal Sorceress (epub)
Erikson Steven Malazańska Księga Poległych Tom 4.2 Dom Łańcuchów. Konwergencja