TEXAS FALL 2 (In The October Fall World)

Texas Fall 2 Created by Boyd Craven III Presented by Raventhorne Books Written by: Boyd Craven III with Boyd Craven Jr., LA Bayles The characters and circumstances in this story are a product of the authors’ imaginations, and represent no real person, living or dead. Any real public places or names are used only to build atmosphere in the reader’s mind. Copyright © 2023 Raventhorne Books All Rights Reserved No part of this story may be reproduced in any way without prior written consent of the authors. Table Of Contents Table Of Contents Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 About The Author Prologue The country had been attacked. In the ensuing chaos, things had fallen apart much, much faster than anybody had anticipated. With the loss of the grid, and most modern transportation, people had panicked early on. Around the country, some things were collapsing faster than others. At the Garcia’s, they’d watched as a US jet had chased down and fired on a foreign cruise missile. It appeared to have come from east of them in Louisiana, but there hadn’t been any official word. During a call with an aide to the president, Emma Garcia had heard lots of gunfire, screaming, and explosions. The state of the country was in flux. In all but select portions of the military, no one knew what was truly going on, and everyone had struggled to survive the first week. Ethan’s actions had had consequences far beyond what he’d ever anticipated. The wife of one of the men he’d been forced to kill had ambushed them at their farm. The Redmond ranch hands had thought she was Luna’s mother when they’d taken her to find him, but that hadn’t been the case. They thought they were doing the right thing. In the end, the lady had been run down by Emory, and Ethan had been shot and bruised during the encounter. Sore, and badly needing a break, Ashley and Harry had got him patched up, and put him on light work detail. King and Lia had taken a large portion of the worry from him, so he could heal and recover in the aftermath. Chapter 1 Ethan Garcia Rice Texas November 3rd Day 7 “This sucks,” Ethan said to himself as he got up. His entire side was one big bruise. He wasn’t sure what hurt worse, where the bullet had torn through him, or the surrounding bruising. In the end, Ashley had left it open to drain, and he was taking antibiotics to keep the infection at bay. “You complaining already?” King asked, walking by him. “Pain is weakness leaving the body,” Ethan snarked back. “Hey, I like that. You should write that down and use it someday,” Brandon King snapped back with a smile. “Let’s see.” Ethan knew what he wanted. King had a lot of first aid training, but had nothing on Ashley or Harry from the commune down the road. He did know enough to look for the signs of infection though, and had helped get Ethan settled after being shot the day before. “Yeah. Hey, I have a question about the pills,” he said. “You should ask Ash girl. She knows that stuff better,” King said. “Mostly it’s about the pain pills. Can I take something regular like Tylenol during the daytime? I don’t want to walk around all fuzzy feeling.” King peeled back both bandages and took a look. “She gonna change this soon. You should ask her.” “Alright man, I just figured I’d ask you. You’ve got some scars…” “Yeah,” King said with a sigh. “Forgot you saw them. It sucks, and they hurt. But when you’re healing, what’s more important? To be in less pain but able to move and fight, or to be in more pain and not able to do as much?” “Honestly, I think we’ve got a lot more people around throwing in. I figured with that security system you and my sis got going, I could spend extra time on the monitors. For that, I need to stay sharp. When I’m good to do regular stuff and lifting things, I’ll take more for the pain if I need to?” Ethan finished the statement with an upturned voice, as if he was questioning it himself. “I get that, we’ll see what Ash girl says,” King said. “Did I hear my name?” Ashley asked. “He don’t want to take the heavy meds during the daytime. Wants Tylenol,” King told her. “That’s not a horrible idea,” Ashley told Ethan, “but you’re not going to be doing anything the next few days so we can make sure your wound is draining and you don’t get an infection. I don’t want you to tear yourself up. So for two or three more days, heavier meds, then we’ll talk.” “Fine,” Ethan said with a whine. “Good. This doesn’t mean you are off omelet duty though, so get in the kitchen and start cooking!” Ashley told him with a smirk. “You hear how they treat me, right?” Ethan asked King as the big man was backing out of the room. “I hear nothing, I see nothing,” King replied, grinning. Ethan waited while Ashley cleaned him up and changed his bandages. He couldn’t use the shower yet, although Emma and Ashley had fired up the well and the water heater. They’d both had hot showers late last night while he’d drifted in and out of a pain and drug-induced haze. He felt lucky to be alive, though. He suspected that the lady who had shot him had been related to one of the men he had killed when he’d been dropping off Luna to her mother. They had gotten a little bit