The Long Dark by B.J. Farmer (important books to read .TXT) 📗

man’s phone from the radar base into my pack when no one was looking. It was time to see what side Tish was on. Enough of the bullshit.

“Help Titouan now. I’m finished playing games,” I said.

“Are you going to shoot me if I don’t?”

“Maybe.”

“Come on, son…”

I held my hand up and let Sam know that I needed him to be quiet.

“It’s time to come clean one way or another.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about!”

Tish looked at Sam, her eyes suddenly swelled with tears. “I don’t know what he means, Sam…”

Sam began to walk towards Tish, but I told him to get away from her. He shot me a gaze that was reserved for people he was getting knock the shit out of. I’d been in enough bars with him to know. I raised my index finger in the air, letting him know he should reserve judgment. He stopped, but his face was etched in a scowl. He was willing to give me the benefit of the doubt, but not much more.

“Avery, come stand by me.” Puzzled, but nonetheless compliant, he walked to where I stood. “Here, turn this on. Show Tish it works.”

“Fuck you, William!” She said as she lunged towards me.

Sam caught her and then turned her towards him. “Come on, girl… Please – no.”

Her face twisted in a way I didn’t think possible. Her once beautiful brown skin furrowed in loathing and hate. Like a damn that suddenly broke, a torrent of anger was released in an instant, hurting the one person who would’ve defended her with his life. “Shut up, you bumpkin bastard. I’ve had enough of you hovering over me, with your stinking breath and stupid mustache.”

“Tish…” he released his grip on her. She lunged again, but this time Avery tripped her. He calmly aimed his shotgun at her chest before saying, “Stay down.”

“Give me the phone!” she yelled.

I pushed Avery away before he accidentally pulled the trigger. “Help Titouan, and I’ll destroy the phone.”

“You can’t do that,” Titouan and Avery said in near unison.

“Yes, I can. We take care of one another, at all costs, Titouan.” I looked back at Tish. “Deal?”

Her face remained lit in rage. “How do I know you’ll keep your word?”

“You’ll have to trust me. That’s your only hope.”

“Put it where I can see it and away from Avery.”

“Deal.”

***

Titouan cried out on multiple occasions as she worked on his arm. During that time, I couldn’t help wondering why she didn’t give him some of the pain medicine we took from Miley’s cabinet. As much as it sounded like she was torturing him, I hoped she wasn’t. After she finished, she tried to move to the back of the Ripsaw. Avery blocked her from doing so. She turned towards me and said, “I need pain meds and antibiotics.” I nodded. She grabbed a bottle of water and told Titouan to take the pills she gave him. “These are for pain and infection.”

“Now for your part of the deal,” she said.

“I think I’ll wait on that for a few minutes until we make sure he’s okay.”

She looked at me with hate in her eyes. “Very well.”

I looked at Sam. “Let’s get going.” We packed up and were on our way in a matter of minutes.

“Somethin’s wrong, son. We already down almost a half tank since we stopped,” Sam said.

“Dammit… and I smell diesel like crazy.”

“I’m gonna need ta take a look.”

“Let’s do it. I don’t want to be stuck out here without fuel,” I said, aggravated about having to stop again so soon after our last stop.

“You and me both.”

I tied Tish’s hands together with duct tape and told Avery to keep his shotgun aimed at her while we were outside. He nodded. “Keep your finger off the trigger,” I told him as I closed her door.

“I need some light down here,” Sam said, already under the truck.

I popped the back hatch to get a lantern for Sam and check our fuel cans. “Fuck!” One of the cans had taken a bullet and was now completely empty. I pulled down the back hatch, and I saw several bullet holes. After further inspection, I found that two of our rifles had taken rounds. The one that hit the gas jug was probably the same bullet that slammed into the dash. More luck.

I grabbed one of the lamps and slid it under the truck. “Gotta nicked line. Get me some of your duct tape, and I’ll try ta fix it.”

Once the line was jerry-rigged, Sam scooted out from under the truck. He shook his head and sighed as he used a handful of snow to try to clean the grease and diesel off his hands.

“I’m sorry, Sam.”

Without any warning, he grabbed the lamp and began bashing it against the ground. Having not got enough of his anger out, he then gave it a toss, nearly falling in the snow in the process. “Fuck ‘is shit, son.”

After his outburst, we stood in a long silence. I wanted him to talk on his terms. “Sorry – I just feel like such a damn fool right now. I told a damn woman who aimed ta kill us ’at I loved her. Can you believe ‘at?” He said, through pinched lips.

“We were all fooled by her, man.”

“Ain’t the same.”

“I know,” I said. “You need me to drive?”

He put his hand on my shoulder. “I ‘preciate it… I need somethin ta do.”

I nodded. “I’m going to check on Titouan, and then we’ll get going.”

Titouan’s head hung in a manner you automatically knew something was wrong. I checked for a pulse but knew the moment I touched his cold, blue skin he was gone. “Goddamn it, Tish!”

I backed away from the Ripsaw, never averting my eyes from his lifeless body. I’d like to say I felt grief or something akin to grief, but I didn’t. Instead, I felt a deep cold settling over me – maybe even settling into me.  It was the hard cold you