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

my visits there would be in the form of telling the guy who picked me up where to take me. I never once drove myself in Barrow, but because I had been there a few times, I knew the basic layout. I also knew that if we turned right from where we then were, we could follow Stevenson Street all the way to the airport. From there, we would just take whatever road or street that ran parallel with the airport straight to Miley’s, but that was a long way around. I just didn’t think Aadesh could hold out. He was too cold. Hell, I wasn’t even sure I could.

We could cut off a mile or so by trying to walk as the crow flies. That meant first finding the Top of the World Hotel, which wouldn’t be hard because it was the tallest building in Barrow. And then heading east on a diagonal line, over one of the many frozen lagoons, to the rear of Miley’s office building. That was the plan, anyway, or one of the plans.

I thought way too long about what to do, running scenario after scenario in my head until I’d lost track of what I was debating to begin with. Honestly, I didn’t want to make any of those decisions. I wished William was there. Hell, even Titouan. Aadesh rarely went to Barrow, so I knew he didn’t have much of a clue about anything. The call was going to be mine to make.

“We’re going to head in the direction of the hotel, okay?”

“I am nod even caring. I am ready do be moving.”

There were a few ramshackle houses just ahead. I was about to ask Aadesh if he wanted to see if we might knock on doors until we found someone who would help. With all the shit that was going on, I doubted we would get anything except a gun barrel pointed at us. I did have a few hundred dollars in my wallet. I was more than willing to part with some of it if they would just let us get warm. I’d give them all of it for some good news.

The notion of getting help quickly disappeared as we walked near the first shack. The door was wide open. Another house’s door looked to have been completely broken out of instead of broken in. Aadesh and I hurried our pace.

The glowing beacon that had saved our ass came into view. A truck looked to have collided into the side of a house and caught fire. The adjacent structure was also ablaze. There were three other buildings close enough that they weren’t safe. The whole goddamn town was probably going to burn, and I didn’t much care. At least we could see where in the hell we were going.

We were maybe fifteen feet away from the fire when I heard Aadesh Gasp. We had focused so hard on the burning structures that neither of us had seen the figures standing on the opposite side of the building until we were within a stone’s throw away.

“Easy…. Easy,” I whispered.

One of the Sniffers turned our way. She seemed perplexed, even to the point of turning back to the fire for a moment. I was hopeful the fire was too much of a distraction for her. But after a second or two, her head whipped back in our direction for a second look. Without warning, she raised her face to the sky, sniffed long and hard, and screamed a terrible high-pitched scream. “Fucking run!” I yelled.

Aadesh let out a whimper of pain as he fell into a semi-sprint behind me. “Come on,” I urged.

The woman was quick. She was on Aadesh. He turned around to slap her, grasping hands away from him. Howls came from back at the burning building. “Fuck!”

I wheeled around and slammed the butt of my rifle into the lady’s face, instantly stopping her head’s momentum. Her legs were another matter. They continued on their original path. The result was a wrestling dropkick that only landed when she smacked the ground with a thud. I smashed the butt of my rifle into her face multiple times.

“The hotel,” I said. “If we can make it there, we might have a chance.”

Aadesh grunted something in Hindi. Didn’t have a clue what he said, but it didn’t sound positive. Whether it was him just being so cold or whatever the reason, he was having a difficult time running.

We had one or two runners and several fast-walkers on our tail. One of the runners was going to have to be dealt with. I thought we could beat the other dude to the hotel, which was maybe a block away. I turned and was about to aim my rifle when Aadesh pushed the barrel down. “You cannod be fucking serious aboud doing dad action. All of dem will all be chasing us. Nod jusd dese.”

He was right. We needed an ax or knife or just something that was a little quieter than the rifles but more deadly and quicker to kill than the butt-end of a gun.

The man was in melee distance. I swung my rifle at him baseball style and missed so hard I spun in the slippery snow. Aadesh swung and connected just enough that the man fell to the ground.

A vehicle could be heard off in the distance. Several of the slow-walkers peeled off and headed towards the sound of the loud engine. The second runner was in play by that point because of our ineptness at killing the first one. He would also have to be dealt with and damn soon.

I was back on my feet in a couple quick moves. I slung a downward arcing blow at the first Sniffer’s face but hit him in the shoulder instead. The glancing strike did little to stop him from coming to his feet. He juddered his head back and forth between Aadesh and Me. I apparently pulled the short straw, both with that