Endless Night Read Free Page A

her breath.
    Bat in one hand, machete in the other, she turned toward the bedroom door. She felt as if her heart and lungs were being squeezed by fists. She gasped for air.
    Behind her, Andy coughed and sniffed. “Where’re Mom and Dad and Evelyn?” he asked.
    “I don’t know.”
    “You said about another guy. A fat guy.”
    “Yeah.”
    He’ll smash through the door right now and pick me up with his spear.
    She wished that the door had a lock.
    Bedroom doors always have locks. In the movies.
    Some bedroom doors in real life probably had locks, too, but she’d never seen one.
    “Do you think ... Do you think they’re all right? Mom and Dad and Evelyn?”
    “No.”
    “Oh, God. Oh, Jesus.”
    Jody turned around. Andy stepped to the floor and sat on a comer of his bed and hunched over, hugging the pillow, head down: “We’ve gotta get out of here,” Jody told him.
    He looked up at her. His face was red, eyes squeezed almost shut, teeth bared.
    “The other’s gonna come,” she said.
    Lowering his head again, he muttered, “I don’t care.”
    “He’ll kill us.”
    “So?”
    Jody went to him. She stepped between his knees. The hanging front of her nightshirt enfolded the top of his head. She moved forward until his head pushed against her. It pressed her lower than she had expected.
    An odd bit of her mind thought how embarrassing this would be under other circumstances.
    But she didn’t feel embarrassed at all.
    With the knuckles of the hand that held the machete, she gently caressed the back of his head. His hair was dripping wet.
    “We’re gonna get out of this,” she whispered.
    “Is everybody dead?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “I’m so scared.”
    “Me, too. It’ll be all right, though.”
    Andy lifted his head, but didn’t move it away. She felt the rub of his hair through the thin jersey fabric, then the pressure of his face. His face was so low that she couldn’t feel the push of his chin. “What’ll we do?” he asked. She felt his lips move. His breath was like hot steam against her skin.
    Can’t believe I’m letting him, she thought. If Rob had ever tried to put his face there, much less his hand ...
    This isn’t Rob. This is Andy and he’s just a kid and his family’s been wiped out and we’re probably gonna die ...
    How do we not die?
    There has to be a way.
    Standing here with Andy’s face buried in her wasn’t accomplishing a thing.
    Yes, she realized. It calms him down. Calms me down, too.
    Her heart was no longer slamming. She could breathe almost normally.
    “We’ll be okay,” she whispered.
    He didn’t speak. His face moved from side to side. Maybe he was telling her no. Maybe he was just doing it to feel her.
    “I sure wish you had a phone in your room,” she whispered.
    “Mom and Dad have one.” His voice was muffled, his breath very hot.
    “I know. But it’s in their bedroom. I’m pretty sure that’s where the fat guy is.”
    If he isn’t about to crash through the door .
    “Maybe we’d better jump out a window,” she said.
    “They don’t open.”
    “I know. We’d have to break one.”
    His head shook again. This time, Jody was sure he meant no. “It’s awful far down. And it’s cement. We’d bust our brains out.”
    That might be better than meeting up with the fat guy, she thought. Anything might be better than that.
    “I wonder what he’s doing,” she said.
    “The other one?”
    “Funny he hasn’t come to check on this one.”
    “Maybe he’s busy ... stealing stuff.”
    “If he is,” Jody said, “maybe we can sneak right by him. All we’ve gotta do is get downstairs and outside, then we’ll be okay.”
    “That’d be better than trying to jump.”
    “Let’s do it.”
    “Okay.” He nodded, his head rubbing up and down against her. And then he kissed her through the nightshirt.
    The kiss made her squirm. “Hey!” she gasped, and back-stepped away from him. “Jeez!” Then she saw the look on his face. “Never mind. It’s