World of Ashes II Read Free Page B

air travel impossible, air rescue a pipe dream. What escape did they have now? Was stealing someone’s car even an option? Stay on task. Situational Awareness. Basic training wasn’t that long ago, damnit.
                  “We need to get back inside.” Daniel said, looking around suspiciously.
                  “I know… I just… couldn’t… I didn’t think I’d ever see my home burn.” Mark said, turning his head to look at Daniel briefly. “I was in high school when they hit the Twin Towers. I enlisted the next week. I thought it would make us safe again but we failed.”
                  “You think its terrorists?”
                  “How could it not be?”
                  “I have to get back home and get to my unit. They’ll be calling us up by now.”
                  Mark laughed. “You’re kidding yourself, Dannyboy. Yesterday this was just race rioting in a couple different cities, but now?” Mark gestured wildly at the horizon. “Where else is this? Don’t go near the Army, Dan. You have the perfect excuse to lay low until this blows over. Nobody will blame you.”
                  “I’m not a deserter.” Daniel protested, possibly a little more insulted than he should have been. Mark didn’t know him or his story, why would he assume Daniel was simply too patriotic to quit, that despite his reserved outward appearance Daniel was the kind of man to be the last man on the last gun for the last fight. Then again, what kind of guy was Mark if he would encourage a soldier to go or stay AWOL? Was this his version of caring?
                  There was a sound in the bushes behind Mark. He turned around and fired a shot at it, which didn’t hide his most unmanly shriek of terror. From the bushes there was a loud yelping sound and a fat looking mop of a dog came running from the darkness, its hind leg dragging uselessly behind it. The dog fell and laid down whimpering before Daniel’s feet. He rushed up to it and tried to see where the plump old boy was hit, but the dog was dead before he found the wound.
    “…fuck you, Mark… What the hell are you doing, man?” Daniel turned to face Mark, maybe even to hit him, but instead saw his first plague victim up close and personal. It had come from the shadows toward the sound of the gun, now the grayish colored woman in her finest trailer park evening attire, complete with heat-curlers and bunny slippers, was in the process of swallowing Mark’s throat.
    Panicking as he was dragged down, Mark fired several shots through her stomach, but the ghoul continued to eat him even after he’d stopped struggling. Daniel shot her once in the head, possibly by luck because he couldn’t see very well in the dark with so much panic sweat burning his eyes and adrenaline coursing through his veins. The plague victim dropped to the ground with a thud. Mark was still twitching when Daniel rushed over to check him for a pulse. It was a futile effort, the wound to his neck irreparable even under the best of conditions. Lea was standing over them, watching with unabashed horror as Daniel stood up and tried to wipe the blood and freshly cut grass off his pants. He succeeded only in making a more gruesome mess and stopped to pick up the second M9 before he made things worse. Daniel handed Lea Mark’s gun with a look that said I think you’re going to need this .
                  Now just two, they spent the rest of the night and most of the early morning hiding in the tool shed. This time with everything that wasn’t bolted down up against the doors and windows, they felt a little safer. Several people, some running, others shambling, passed through the yard none the wiser that there was anyone watching them. The slow ones Daniel surmised must be infected with whatever was making people crazy. They looked like corpses, sometimes grievous and certainly mortal