Day One (Book 1): Alive by Michael Mcdonald Page A

I was coming up behind you?”
    “You spend enough time alone; you acquire certain abilities that aid you when you need them most.”
    “Certain abilities?” I asked, growing closer to her. “And yeah, she fell asleep on me.”
    She smiled. “I could feel a set of eyes looking at me, and since you and I are the only two here… that kind of narrows it down, don’t you think? Not only that, but I could hear your footsteps.”
    “Yeah, I guess so,” I said and took a look at what she was doing. “So, what are you doing, if you don’t mind me asking?”
    She pulled a Remington 870 shotgun into view that had been cut down in barrel length. “The barrel length was a bit too long on this thing, so I cut the bad boy down and did a few modifications to it.” She let me get a good look at it before placing it back on the work bench.
    “I’m not a gun expert or anything, but isn’t altering a factory weapon against the law… especially when you chop the barrel and make it shorter than a certain length?” I asked, unsure if I was right or wrong.
    “You bet your ass it’s against the law. It’s against the National Firearms Acts, which makes it a major felony with a punishment of twenty-five years in a federal prison.”
    I was shocked at her words. “Then why the hell are you doing it?”
    The Young Woman looked at me and smiled. Apparently I was as clueless as she thought I was. “The world as we know it is no more. You do whatever you have to do to survive and those weapons were too long and bulky to actually be of any real use… besides, who is going to come and arrest me for it? Or try to anyway?” There was a look that formed on her face that told me she was not to be played with. If anyone crossed her or tried to take from her, it would be their last mistake. She was beautiful… but just as dangerous.
    I knew a little about shotguns and reached out for it and she handed it to me. I shouldered the weapon and spun it a few different directions, feeling that most of the weight had been stripped off and that it was far more maneuverable in its current form than it had been. “Feels a lot better like that, but it’s going to knock the hell out of you when you pull the trigger, especially if you’ve got buckshot in it.”
    She handed me a single round to which I took and looked at carefully. “That’s a law enforcement round. Low recoil for smoking bad guys with great ease, so it’s very manageable.”
    “Fair enough,” I replied and took a quick look at the ghost ring sights. “What about these sight on it though? You don’t really have to aim with a shotgun; just get in the general area and boom.”
    “Actually, you do. Depending upon the distance you are from your target, if your pushing the ranges and you don’t aim, you could easily just wound or simply miss the target altogether,” She stated. “And that has a twelve and a half inch barrel on it, so aiming would be wise unless they are right on top of you.”
    I was impressed with her knowledge of firearms and nodded my head. “I guess you could be right about that.” I handed it back to her.
    “I’m still alive aren’t I?” she commented, as she took the weapon.
    I leaned against the wall and threw my eyes over the other pile of weapons she had nearby. I could see handguns of different sizes and shapes on a small worn out couch, several more shotguns against the wall next to the couch, an open trunk full of what looked like assault rifles and two bolt action rifles with larges scopes were on the table before her.
    “Where did you get all of this stuff?” I asked eagerly.
    “Everywhere,” she replied. “In case you haven’t noticed or heard a word I’ve said, the world has gone to hell on an express elevator. These things are just randomly lying about.”
    I took a moment to think about all those people I’d known and grown up with. I never attempted to call or text any of them about the possible danger. I thought about my wife