I am going to read Jeri Smith Ready's crow trilogy and when I found the short story prequel on Amazon for free I downloaded it. The story is good, of course.  Smith-Ready has turned into one of my favorite authors due mostly to her vampire series that starts with "Wicked Game".  I enjoyed her first book in her young adult series as well so its only natural for me to want to start on her back catalog.  The story is very quick, but entertaining.  The collapse of modern civilization is very unique and exciting.  The characters also have potential but the story's format is so constricting that the never get a chance to really develop. I enjoyed this short enough that I was bummed to realize that these characters don't continue into the rest of the series.  Still the short story was well worth the read, especially as it was free.