"David L. Robbins - Endworld 08 - Denver Run" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robbins David L)

do?" he asked nervously.

Mitchell dropped the lug wrench on the ground and walked to the
driver's door. He opened it and removed a pair of M-16's from the jeep.
"Here." He tossed one of the weapons to Telford.

The three of them, the lanky Brandon, the cranky Telford, and Mitchell
moved behind the vehicle and spread out along the highway. Mitchell took
the center of the road, Brandon stood to his right, and Telford edged to his
left.

"Maybe it's one of ours," Telford said hopefully.

"It probably is," Mitchell stated.

"Nobody else uses these roads," Brandon mentioned.

The noise of the approaching truck grew louder and louder. A black
speck appeared on the horizon, then grew larger and took on a distinct
form as the vehicle drew nearer.

Brandon recognized it first. "It's a troop transport!" he exclaimed in
relief. "It's one of ours!"
 "I wonder what it's doing way out here," Mitchell speculated aloud. He
knew the troop transport wasn't part of the special force sent to eliminate
the detested Family. Their jeep had been the only vehicle to suffer a
breakdown, and the remainder of the convoy would be miles ahead of
them by now. Maybe the transport had been sent to join the expedition.
Then again, it really didn't matter. At least the occupants would be
friendly, fellow members of the Army of the Civilized Zone.

Soon, Mitchell mentally told himself, the Family would learn an
important lesson: it wasn't smart to mess with the Civilized Zone. One
hundred years after the horror of World War III, the Civilized Zone
embraced what was left of the former United States of America. During
and after the nuclear conflict, the Government had evacuated thousands
upon thousands of citizens into the Midwest and the Rocky Mountain
region. Martial law had been declared, and the once-proud people of the
United States had found themselves living under a military dictatorship.
The former states of Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico, most of
Wyoming, eastern Arizona, and Oklahoma, the northern half of Texas, and
most of Montana had been incorporated into the Civilized Zone and were
currently ruled with an iron fist by Samuel II. His father, a man named
Samuel Hyde, had been the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare at
the outbreak of the war. He was attending a speaking engagement in
Denver when the war broke out, and assumed the reins of government
after the President, the rest of the Cabinet, Congress, and the Supreme
Court had been obliterated in a preemptive strike on Washington, D.C.

The troop transport was barreling toward the jeep.