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

noticing how the new arrivals were the only ones who were dressed the same. Everyone else we had seen up until that point wore regular clothing. These new people were dressed much more like you would expect soldiers to dress. It was a worrisome development.

The woman, who looked weirdly familiar, addressed the crowd. It was impossible to read the moods of the other people gathered, but the dude with the pistol wasn’t happy at all. He shook his head and waved his hand, dismissively at her.

Ignoring his gesticulations, she walked towards him confidently. The four-armed dudes following closely behind her no-doubt bolstered that confidence. Still, the man stood his ground, pointing at the people behind him as he spoke.

The woman did some pointing of her own, back in the direction of the gagged woman, who had been stripped down to thermal shirt and panties, was being tied to an electric pole. She would freeze to death in a matter of minutes, I thought.

I saw Aadesh shaking his head out of the corner of my eye.

All hell broke loose below. My attention was on the woman being tied to the pole, so I didn’t see who shot first. Most of the fire seemed to be coming from the new arrivals’ trucks. At least three or four gunmen fired relentlessly towards the crowd. The woman and her four protectors added plenty of their own lead as they retreated towards the tracked vehicle. One of them was killed during their retreat.

I saw a woman crawling towards the entrance of the hotel, trying to get away. The unformed woman saw her and pointed her out. Two of her goons opened fire, shooting many more times necessary to get the job done. It was a massacre. A massacre that was not yet over. The woman waved over her accomplices. Before they could take more than a few steps in their direction, they were also mowed down.

The horror painted on Aadesh’s face said it all. We were dealing with some bad people. Bad people that had it out for one another as much as they apparently had for us.

The woman conspicuously eyed the woman tied to the pole. She then got into the tracked vehicle, followed by her goons, before speeding off towards the east side of town. Before I had time to process all the things I’d just seen, Aadesh was getting his things ready.  “What are you doing, bro?”

“I am going do help de person died do de pole.”

“How about waiting for me before you go out there and get yourself killed.”

Aadesh’s thick eyebrows furrowed. “Okay.”

The woman only had minutes to live, assuming she was still alive. We quickly gathered our weapons and were standing in the lobby in less than five minutes.

The wind howled through the then shot-out windows of the lobby. The smell of smoke and death was thick in the air. The sounds of it could also be heard. They would either die from their wounds or from the elements. We couldn’t do anything for them, and I’m not sure we would have even if we could. This was of their own making. I guess it made me sad. Death wasn’t something you just got used to, even if the dead were the ass bags who wanted to kill you.

“How – what?” I couldn’t believe my eyes. My hands worked that much faster, trying to untie her. “It’s going to be okay, Tish. We’re going to get you inside.”

I scolded myself. We had so many damn blankets we almost died because of them, but we didn’t bother bringing one of them with us to cover her up.

Aadesh was in the process of untying her. She was barely responsive. Her usually dark skin had gone pale. She was clearly dying. She tried to say something. It was very faint. I moved closer to her. “Miley…” her voice trailed off to a wisp of air that carried no words.

A truck sat idling behind us. They weren’t going to need it, I thought. I helped put her into the cab of the truck. I told Aadesh to crank up the heater. There was nothing for us at the hotel. There was a spark of hope within me that William and the others were at Miley’s.

***

Tish was out of her mind. She kept muttering, “I… I’m sorry. My family. My family.” She also kept saying something about an Order. She wasn’t making any sense at all. We were almost to Miley’s. I hoped we would find the answers there.

The first obstacle was clear. The tracked vehicle that the murderous bitch took off in wasn’t there, but neither was a front door. No matter what, everything had to have a little bad sprinkled in it. I told Aadesh to get in the driver’s seat and be prepared to get the hell out of there if things went wrong.

The lamp was nearly dead back at the hotel. At Miley’s, it provided just enough light to make me an easy target inside the dark building. I called out to anyone who might be inside. No answer, but after I did it, I realized they probably wouldn’t, especially if they meant to do me harm. It’d be like a pig ringing a buzzer at a slaughterhouse. I took a heavy breath and entered the first-floor opening.

I knew where the stairs to the second floor were, but I had never been anywhere else in the building. We lowly people never made it to the second floor, much less the third. That was for people like William and Titouan. I only met Miley once or twice. I would recognize him in the crowd, but only barely.

Bodies littered the entrance to the building. There was no room to step over, so I did the next easiest thing. I used them as stepping stones as I moved inside. The first floor was completely dark. A metallic copper smell filled the air. It was too cold for decomposition, so there was that positive bit.

I