Rise From The Ashes: The Rebirth of San Antonio (Countdown to Armageddon Book 3) by Darrell Maloney Page B

“That’s my boy.”
         “Mom?”
         “Yes?”
         “I wish you wouldn’t call me that. Especially in front of my girlfriend.”
         She smiled.
         “Oh? Why not? Last I checked, you weren’t a man yet. But you’re right. You’ve grown up a lot over the last few months. We all have.
         “But even more important than that is the ‘girlfriend’ thing. When did that happen? I thought you two hated each other. If that changed, I didn’t get the memo.”
         “We never hated each other. It just took us awhile to get to know each other is all. And yes, we’re boyfriend and girlfriend now.”
         Zachary looked at Rachel, needing her support.
         “Right?”
         She shyly nodded her head.
         Linda helped take her off the hot seat.
         “Well, okay, then. I guess if you are officially boyfriend and girlfriend I’ll have to start treating you a bit differently. Rachel, does your mom know?”
         “I don’t know. I mean, I think she suspects, but she’s never really asked me.”
         “Would you like for me to tell her?”
         “Sure. I mean, would you?”
         “No problem. I need to talk to her about our new surveillance schedule anyway.”
         Zachary asked, “What surveillance schedule?”
         “Watching you two. Constantly. Rachel’s mom and I will have to decide how to break the day into shifts. So one of us can be with you two for twelve hours a day and the other can take the other twelve hours. I hope Hannah doesn’t mind working the night shift. I hate working nights.”
         Then she seemed to get a great idea.
         “Hey, we can ask Joyce for her help. I’ll bet she’d follow you for eight hours a day. That would give us three watchers instead of two.”
         “Mom…”
         He was halfway sure his mother was kidding. But only halfway. Rachel, for her part, looked horrified.
         “What, son?”
         “We know all out sex and abstinence and all of that stuff. We learned it all in sex ed class. And we’ve already talked about it. The whole concept of it kind of creeps us both out, to be honest.”
         Rachel offered her own terminology.
         “Yes. It’s all icky!”
         “Trust us, Mom. We’re a long way from even thinking about that kind of stuff.”
         “That’s what I thought about your brother, Zach, and he and Sara let us down. Now they’re going to be parents.”
         “Yeah, well, my brother’s a moron. Just because he’s older than me doesn’t make him more mature. We won’t do anything, Mom. We haven’t even kissed yet. You don’t have to worry about us.”
         Linda walked away actually believing him. She’d still talk to Hannah, but she’d tell Hannah that the pair seem to be mature enough to handle a relationship without intimacy.
        But she’d watch them like a hawk anyway.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

 
     
    -12 -
     
         Scott woke up in the hospital and looked around. He was slightly shocked to find himself there, with tubes stuck in his left arm and upper shoulder. His mouth was painfully dry and his throat was incredibly sore. But he was alive.
         At least he assumed he was. Death, he suspected, didn’t hurt this much.
         His whole body was stiff and sore. It hurt to move his head, but his vision was still cloudy. His peripheral wouldn’t take in everything. So he fought through the pain and moved his head to scope out the surroundings.
         The last thing he remembered was walking from the kitchen to the couch. Had he made it to the couch and taken a nap? And then had he flagged down a patrol car and hitched a ride to the hospital? Had the loss of blood caused him to have amnesia and forget all of that?
         Or was this the most realistic dream he’d ever had?
         He looked above his head and saw several bags of fluids. The big bags