Dead America: Lowcountry | Book 5 | Lowcountry [Part 5]

money—she just thought he was doing it because she liked it.
Her heart clenched at the thought of him scraping pennies together to take care of her, so young. She couldn’t help but wish for a world where he didn’t have to take care of her anymore. Where he could just move on and live his own life, a happy life.
“So, where’d you learn to shred the guitar like that?” Hawk finally asked, regarding Eddie.
The smaller man laughed, shaking his head. “Used to play in a punk band when I was a teenager,” he said. “Twisted Carnage, we called ourselves. We were fucking terrible.”
The others laughed, even Grace, who couldn’t suppress a chuckle.
“It was me and five guys, and all of us still lived with our parents,” Eddie continued. “Thing was, none of our parents wanted to listen to us making noise, so practicing in anyone’s garage was out. We worked shitty fast-food jobs and pooled our cash to rent out a storage container where we’d go to shred. Though I use the term ‘practice’ loosely… really we just got stoned and made a ton of noise.”
“Did you play gigs?” Troy asked.
“There was one bar that used to hire us, and it was grungy as all hell,” Eddie replied, chuckling and shaking his head. “They had all the random shitty punk bands all the time, and the place was always full of a bunch of teens and early twenty-somethings slamming into each other and busting the place up. I can’t believe that place didn’t get shut down for selling to minors.”
“How long has it been since you’ve played?” Hawk asked. “If it’s been that long, your hands must be killing you shredding for so long in that store.”
“Oh, I still play,” Eddie said, and then lowered his gaze. “At least, I did, before the world went to shit. Had a nice setup in my basement at home. Just to jam out after a hard day’s work.”
“What did you do?” Grace asked, finding her voice. It felt good to talk about normal things, instead of strategizing how to not die.
“Factory dog,” Eddie declared proudly. “Camshafts.” He waggled his eyebrows, and she rolled her eyes. “What about you?” he asked.
“Crossfit instructor,” she replied, smirking.
“Well that explains a lot,” Hawk said, cocking a smile.
“And what about you?” Grace asked, motioning to him. “You a firefighter or something?”
He barked a laugh, shaking his head. “No, little lady, I am most definitely not a firefighter,” he replied. “I was between jobs when this all went down, but before that I was doing some carpentry work.”
“Nothing like the apocalypse to save us from unemployment,” Eddie quipped as he polished off the rest of his food. “What about you, Troy? You look like you were a stockbroker or something.”
Grace laughed, shaking her head.
“Investment banker, thank you,” Troy replied haughtily.
Eddie blinked at him. “Isn’t that… that’s the same thing, right?” he asked, looking between the other two.
“Not the same thing at all,” Troy said, stabbing at his pasta with more force than was necessary.
“Okay, fancy pants,” Eddie drawled, and set his bowl by the cell door, for whoever was going to pick it up later.
Grace did the same, and soon all of them were finished, thoughtfully sipping on their water bottles.
“What do you think they’ll have us doing tomorrow?” Eddie asked as he stretched out on his bed. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and get to clear out a strip club.”
“Zombie strippers, man?” Hawk asked, shaking his head. “You are damaged.”
Eddie shrugged. “Just want to see all there is to see in this new world,” he replied. “Might as well take in all the local flavor.”
Grace shook her head as quiet fell over the group, and curled up under her blankets, picking up the fluffy romance novel she’d grabbed from the basket in the corner. It was a ridiculous tale of a damsel in distress and the handsome duke that saved her, but it was escapism, and that was what she needed, now more than ever.
END
Up Next:  When a squad of QXR mercenaries stumble across their location, Dante and Ace must take drastic measures to protect the others in Lowcountry - Pt. 6
Pick up Part 6 here.  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08R6LMDCP
The main Dead America Series can be found here.  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RWMXVNJ
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