The Long Dark by B.J. Farmer (reading women .TXT) 📕

up and tried to put it back on, but because the headband had become twisted, he was having a difficult time making it fit his head. Finally, after cursing and hollering and a lot of twisting and untwisting, he managed to get it to fit his big noggin again, over his shaggy hair and all. Shaking his head in resignation, he said, “There are other foreign language books in this section. Why are there no Korean ones? Stupid library. I should have known.”

Rummaging around in the books he had tossed, I saw something interesting. “Huh,” I said, “Korean Language 101. What about Learn Korean in Ten Days?” I laughed. “Will either of these work?”

Avery walked over to where I stood, glanced at them, and quickly grabbed one of them out of my hands. “I did not see these.” He then turned and left the building.

“You’re welcome.”

By the time I got to the Ripsaw, Avery was already inside. I would’ve gotten in too had Sam and Titouan not been acting like idiots outside. “Do you guys really think this is a good time for this?”

“There ain’t no more damn room in the truck for all the shit we took. This thang has a rack on the roof, but Tit won’t listen.”

“Just throw me the damn bungee cord, Sam. Jesus, this isn’t nearly as hard as treeing a coon back in the hollow.”

“It’s holler, ya damn moron, and I don’t coon hunt.”

“Come on, guys. Leave what we can’t carry. We don’t have time for this.”

There was a rustling in the truck. Avery wasn’t happy about something. “What did you do to it?” I hopped up on the tread and peeked in the passenger door to see what was going on. Avery flipped his hood back for the second time in as many minutes, his face twisted in anger. “You killed the phone. Why -- how did you do that, Tish?”

Avery elbowed the windshield and slung the phone. It bounced up and hit the front dash, and I picked it up.

“Try to turn it on,” Avery said, his face flushed with anger.

Just like he said, it didn’t work. The word “shit” escaped my lips as I looked towards Tish.

“You need to calm down, son,” Sam said as he got situated in the driver’s seat.

“You say that…” Avery struggled for words. “… but I heard Tish push several buttons… maybe she was texting someone. It vibrated… I tried to grab it from her, but she would not give it to me. Now it will not turn on.”

“Tish?”

“I accidentally pushed some buttons. It just turned off. I didn’t do anything to the phone on purpose.”

I motioned for Titouan to grab her rifle. She flinched but didn’t try to stop him. “Did you get one of the pistols, Tish?”

She looked straight ahead, not bothering to make eye contact. “No,” she said, tersely.

Sam grabbed my arm as I opened my door to get out. “What ya doin?”

“Playing things safe.” I waited for Sam to unclench my arm. He didn’t. Ignoring his probing eyes, I jerked away from his bruising grip.

“I love you, Tish, but we can’t take any chances.” I pointed my rifle at her. “Get out of the truck.”

“You can’t be serious, William?”

“I’m dead serious. Please, get out.”

“Come on now, dammit, William…”

I turned to face Sam. “We’re not taking any chances.”

Sam sent a string of curse words my way. Ignoring him, I waved my rifle towards her door. Tish’s hard demeanor ebbed softer as she looked towards Sam before settling in a much more ominous scowl towards me. “William, this is wrong…”

“Just please get out.”

She did as I instructed. I frisked her and no other weapons. “Did you kill it, Tish?”

“I don’t know what Avery’s talking about.”

Avery stuck his head outside the Ripsaw long enough to say, “She wanted to look at it, so I let her. The next thing I know, she is in the interface, which would have been impossible unless she knew the access key, and you and I are the only ones who know it.”

“You know what he’s talking about. The phone doesn’t just suddenly stop working,” I said, my voice echoed through the dead streets. My head was on a swivel, looking and hoping no Grays were within earshot.

Avery was right. Kelley gave me the code after everyone else was out of the room. I gave Avery the code and told him to tell no one, and it’s not like he would’ve even if I hadn’t told him not to. That’s just how he was. “What do you have to say to that?”

Sam was out of the Ripsaw and standing noticeably closer to Tish than he was me. “What you goin ta do, William?”

Before Tish was forced to answer the question, the sounds of vehicles could be heard in the distance. “Was that you, Tish?”

Sam’s face turned sickly pale. He turned to Tish. “Dammit, girl… tell me ‘at wasn’t you.”

“Well, Tish?” I asked.

She stood up a little straighter – proud of her actions, maybe -- and stone-faced. We didn’t have time for a showdown. Not yet, anyway. “Get in the damn truck.” I made sure Tish was in before I finally climbed into the cab.

In a matter of a few seconds, we were speeding eastward. I wasn’t sure what street we were on at that moment because the GPS was charging, and it didn’t really matter. The only thing I needed to know was that we were headed roughly east and that we were getting the fuck out of Barrow.

“Shit, son, they on our ass.”

I just realized there was extra light in the cab. The beams of at least two trucks illuminated the cab of the Ripsaw. “If we get out of Barrow, they won’t have a chance of catching us,” I said.

The roads in Barrow were bad enough. The rough permafrost outside town was going to be too much for the regular trucks that followed us, especially with the amount of snowfall that had recently fallen. The downside was going