The Long Dark by Billy Farmer (best book club books for discussion .txt) 📗

neck was pulled up in tight furrows. Not knowing what else to do, I pulled him to his side, hoping to keep him from choking to death. The choking stopped, but for whatever reason, he still couldn’t breathe.

I let him fall to his back. His head pointed towards the ceiling, but his terrified eyes sought mine as he gasped for air that wouldn’t come. His face began to turn an odd shade of gray. Don’t die, I thought. I needed answers. And then he went still. His terrified eyes closed. His body seemed to relax.

“You can’t die, dammit,” I said aloud.

I moved closer, trying to hear any signs of breathing. My face was mere inches from his when his eyes jerked open. The lack of oxygen had also damaged his eyes. They were terrible to look at, gray and lifeless. I yelped as his hand grabbed my hood and pulled me so close I could feel (and smell) whiffs of breath carrying inaudible rasps of unformed words. I fought to get away from him, but his vice-like grip wouldn’t give. He was trying to tell me something. “Don’t drink… water… Ruuun,” he finally managed, before falling completely still and lifeless.

The Commons was completely still. I could hear and feel my heart beating out of my chest. For me, in that dreadful instant, there was a reckoning. That not only had my friends been brutally murdered for a reason I couldn’t explain, something else much more ominous loomed in the cold darkness of that night. I might not have known what it was, but I somehow knew it was out there. I shivered as I took one last look at the man who had created more questions than answers. I grabbed my things and began walking towards the lean-to.

When I entered, Aadesh was pacing feverishly. “Jesus Christ, man, I didn’t dink you were coming back.”

“Sorry.” I began trying to pour the kerosene into the heater, but my hands were shaking so badly most of it ended up in the floor.

“What is wrong,” Aadesh said, his teeth chattering.

I looked at him like, like dude, really. I then pushed the igniter button on the heater. There was a poof sound and then glorious heat filled the room, as I cranked the heater up to full blast. Something felt good, at least.

“Jack?”

I showed him my shaking hands. “It’s bad.”

Aadesh nodded. “Derrible.”

“One of the attackers was still alive.”

“Did you have to--?”

“No. I think they poisoned him. Apparently, he didn’t have the stomach for killing our people.”

“Too bad de others did.”

“We have to leave.”

“We do nod have a wehicle, Jack.”

I nodded. “The problem isn’t leaving. I have an idea for that. The problem is finding where we need to go.”

Aadesh walked over to one of the delivery bays and began to point. “We know in which direction Barrow lies. If we direct ourselves on the course in which I currently point, we will come upon Barrow or some close vicinity dereof.”

“Yeah, but how do we stay on the correct heading?”

“I don’t know ewerything. I know dat is,” again pointing with his index finger, “roughly da correct heading. Dat is all I know, okay.”

“We have no choice. After we warm up for a bit, we’ll go see if there’s any juice in the battery Avery used to fire up the heater. If there is, we’ll try to take the front-end loader.”

“Da one dat is used to clean the Patch of snow?”

“Yes.”

“I believe it only has seating for one, correct?”

“We’ll put you in the bucket.” He looked at me skeptically. “Do you know how to drive it?”

“No. But I’m not sure I want to ride in de bucket.”

“Well, there is always walking?”

“I’ll ride in de bucket.”

***

We went about the task of getting everything together we thought we needed, including the ten blankets Aadesh believed necessary for him to not freeze to death. Whatever, I thought. If that kept him from griping, and we could fit the other things in there, he could take whatever he thought he needed.

I had the battery in the loader and was ready to give it a try. The lights switched on. That was a good sign. I turned the key, and a plume of smoke came out of the stack as it came to life on the first try. "I'll be damned," I said out loud, “the damn thing runs!” Aadesh gave me the thumbs up, and he began to quickly load things into the bucket. I had the rifle and the bag I took from the man plus a few odds and ends in the cab with me. Everything else, including Aadesh’s rifle, was with him.

I oriented the bucket a few feet off the ground and in such a manner that he could lie down without worrying about rolling out. I did a quick check of my gear in the cab and was getting ready to put the front loader in gear when I saw someone moving towards the driver’s door. I was getting ready to let Aadesh know how stupid it was to get out of the bucket without letting me know when I noticed it wasn’t Aadesh.

Instead, it was the guy I found sick in the Commons, except he didn’t seem to be sick anymore... not exactly, anyway. His head moved in crazy directions as he came closer and closer to the cab. “Fuck this,” I said out loud while also closing the door. Without warning, the guy began trying to get to me in the cab. Luckily for me, he wasn't coordinated enough to climb the three steps necessary to access the door, or smart enough to reach for the door handle that was easily within reach of his grasping hands. All he could manage to do was pound with his fists on the bottom of the door.

I switched the loader into gear and goosed the gas. We lurched forward. I saw Aadesh now standing up in the bucket and pointing ahead of us. His eyes were wide with