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

If I had a watch, I could tell you the exact time, but I am not sure you would care about that.”

“That’s like five hours ago. What were you thinking?”

I was reaching for the doorknob when Sam asked, “What you goin ta do?”

“I’m going to make us safe.”

“You cannot--”

“Watch me.”

“She looks like a Gray, but I do not believe she is. She is different --”

“It’s a trap, Avery.”

“If ‘at’s the case, maybe you don’t wanna go out ‘ere just yet. Maybe we thank on ‘is a little,” Sam said, scratching his thinning red hair.

I hesitated. I then walked back towards the window and watched the girl. She lifted her head and her dead eyes fell on us. It was near pitch dark in the room, but I felt her gaze on me. Like a rubber band stretched too far, I snapped. I took off out of the room with a primal vigor, Avery and Sam on my heels, and had my gun on her before I had time to think about what the hell I was going to do once I got outside.

“Son, she a baby.”

“Yeah, well, Tish was your lover.” Fuck, I thought. That was bad. “Sorry.”

Sam shook his head in disgust.

“Who are you?” I asked.

The girl turned her attention to me. Her big, dark eyes sized me up before finally moving on to Avery and Sam. She didn’t seem scared. More like confused and resigned to whatever fate might befall her, if she could even comprehend those types of things.

She was a diminutive five-foot-nothing and maybe a hundred pounds. She looked to be Japanese. Her face was oddly tinted. Not gray. Instead, more of a light peach color, which I thought was maybe normal. Her eyes, though, were anything but. They looked exactly like Lunch Lady’s.

Looking at me again, she said, “I…, I’m not sure.”

“Put your gun down, son,” Sam said, calmly but with conviction.

I hadn’t realized I had it pointed at her. Coming to my senses slightly, I did as Sam asked.

“Are you well?” Avery asked.

“Where am I?”

Sam and I gave each other startled glances. “Sweetie,” Sam said, “you in Prudhoe Bay.”

She looked down at the snow, then at her bony fingers, and said, “I don’t know where that is.”

“She is cold. She needs to be inside,” Avery snapped.

“Wait,” I said.

Avery began saying something. I don’t remember exactly what. Sam, on the other hand, was more forceful. “What ya gonna do, leave her out here?”

“I know it’s a trap,” I said.

“Come on now--”

“Tish--”

Before I could finish whatever dumb ass thing, I was going to say, Sam interrupted. “I know all ‘bout, Tish, son. ‘Is is different. She’s a baby, and we ain’t leavin her out here.”

Avery already had her up and moving to our hotel room before Sam was finished trying to talk some sense into me. Once inside, he covered her up with blankets, but she let him know she wasn’t cold. He asked her if she wanted something to drink or eat. She didn’t want either.

I walked closer to her, wanting to get a better look at what we’d brought inside, and she instantly began to wretch. “What’s wrong?”

“Are you sick?” she asked.

Sam flicked his chin towards a patch of the repellent gel that stubbornly clung to my coat, even though I had tried to clean at least three times by that point. Holy shit, I thought. I walked over to the sink and washed my sleeve off as best I could with the small bar of hotel soap. After wiping my coat dry, I moved closer to her. “Do you still smell it?”

“You still smell… smell like death.”

“How in the world you know what ‘at smells like?”

She looked at Sam. “I just know, I guess.”

She turned her attention to me. “I don’t want to make you feel bad. I’m sorry.”

I didn’t know how to respond, so I didn’t.

The girl remembered next to nothing. When I asked what had happened to her parents, she looked puzzled for a moment, like maybe she had forgotten about them. She didn’t seem to have a clue. I asked her what her name was. She shrugged. The only memories she had was what had happened after she had woken up from her hiding spot in the closet.

“When I first woke up, my eyes burned so much I could barely see, and my stomach hurt so bad I cried until I fell back asleep. I woke up again when I heard a loud noise – your car. I dreaded opening my eyes because they hurt so badly last time, but I didn’t… I didn’t want to be left alone,” she said, before beginning to cry.

“We here, sweetie,” Sam said. He gave me a quick glance before continuing, “We ain’t gonna let anythang happen ta you.”

I didn’t want to be a bad person. But I also didn’t want my friends dying because they refused to realize that we were living by a different set of rules, either. Sam or Avery couldn’t see that. And that was after Sam had been burned by the very people who I thought probably was controlling this girl. Somehow, Sam was able to separate his feelings on the issue, whereas I wasn’t. Call me William Tecumseh Sherman, because I was going to burn the shit out of anything that got in our way.

“’Is ‘at gonna be weird?” Sam asked, flicking his chin towards Avery and the girl.

Taken aback, I didn’t know how to respond, especially with Avery so close. “It’s complicated.” Shit, that sounded weird, too. “It’s not like that, man. We’ll talk about it later,” I whispered.

I started to speak but stopped. “Huh?” The distressed look on Sam’s face confirmed what I had hoped he hadn’t meant. “It’s not like that.” Avery and Quill were close enough to hear every word we were saying. “Let’s take this up later.”

Avery hovered a long, blank stare at most Sam and me, before returning his attention to his notebook.

Sam grimaced. “Yeah.”

We ate the fresh food we had looted