The Long Dark by Billy Farmer (best books to read non fiction .TXT) 📕

last out of the room. He nearly walked into a chair because he couldn’t take his eyes off the phone. He closed the door behind him. I waited a few moments before I began talking to Bob and Kelley. Once I thought we had our privacy, I didn’t waste any time. “If I’m even a percent as good as I think I am at reading people, Kelley is pregnant. Let me help you guys, please.”

Kelley began to shake her head no, but couldn’t hold back the torrent of emotions that had crippled her will. “I’m sorry for not telling you, Bob. I knew none of this was supposed to happen – we weren’t supposed to happen.”

Even hard-assed Bob was broken by this point. “Do you believe him?” Bob asked Kelley, nearly crying himself.

“I am a man of my word. I just want my friends to be safe. I know you guys aren’t the planners of all this crap. I don’t care about you. I just want to live through this, and I know you two do too. So live, dammit. Allow your baby to live.”

Bob had one more foray of insults in him. “We were taught that you are all liars and cheats. I don’t believe a word you say.”

"Dammit, Bob, we’re running out of time. My friends are all I got right now, and I’ll do everything in my power to protect them. If you love Kelley like it seems she loves you, you’re responsible for her, and you’re certainly responsible for the damn baby she’s carrying. Tell me what you fucking know. Now!”

“I just can’t,” Bob said, sobbing. “My family’s honor is at stake here. I’m sorry, Kelley.”

Kelley looked at me and then at Bob, and then asked, “What do you need me to tell you?”

“Everything you know.”

***

“William!” Someone screamed my name. I was in shock, which wasn’t uncommon during those early days, but that time was different. My view of the world was completely upended in the short time it took Kelley to tell me what she knew. It was shattering. Things were never going to be the same. Not in my lifetime, anyway. Maybe never.

“Are you alright?” I felt a light pressure on my shoulder.

Pictures flashed through my mind. Put together they produced the effect of a flip book. A great many were of good times I had growing up. There were pictures of birthday parties at Avery’s, which were always great. The one that kept popping up the most was a picture of mom. She was sad, but she was almost always sad in pictures. I wanted to hug her one last time, but I couldn’t. All my anger towards her was gone, dissipated like the heat off the pistol that suddenly felt heavy in my hand.

“You have to get up, William. Please,” Titouan said.

I remember holding the pistol. I don’t remember how it got in my hands, though.

“Shit. There’s vehicles outside, and hundreds – maybe thousands of Grays. We gotta go, son,” Sam said.

I told them the Grays couldn’t get in, and not to worry… I then remembered feeling pain across my face. Somebody slapped me.

“It ain’t just damn Grays. There’s a bunch of people like those two,” someone said.

Like Kelley and Bob, I thought. Yeah. Then I remembered. “No,” I whimpered. “I shouldn’t have done that…”

I think I was standing at that point. I didn’t want to look, but I knew I had to. There was blood everywhere. There was blood on me, and even in my mouth, which was becoming too damn common. The metallic taste made me want to vomit again, but I somehow managed not to.

“Last time! They’re on the second floor right now. Get your shit together, or they’re going to kill us! We’re going to have to fight,” I remember Titouan saying.

There was gunfire outside and glass breaking somewhere. I had to get my shit together. I wasn’t going to let my friends down again, and I needed to be a man about what I did. I needed to see it. It would be closure, of sorts. It was just a snapshot of the coming brutality – the remorseless world we woke up to. If I was going to keep my humanity, I needed to own up to my own brutality. It hurt to see what I did… but that meant I still felt remorse. That separated me from those who meant to do me and my friends harm.

Kelley’s face was gone. Bob’s face was mostly intact. I must have been about out of bullets by the time I got to him. I made one count to the forehead, though. He wasn’t going to walk away, that much was sure. They sure as fuck weren’t going to live out their goddamn love story with all the pain they had help cause. I made sure of that. It felt wrong, though, but everything was wrong.

Kelley was pregnant, though… Dammit.

Avery patted me on the shoulder. I remember that as well as what he said. "We have to go, bud."

“Alright,” I said.

“We’re going to have to fight our way out,” Titouan said, in a voice I almost didn’t recognize. He was changing. I wasn’t sure for the good or not, but he was changing.

“No more fighting. At least for now, anyway,” I said.

“William,” Sam said, trying to be as patient as possible given the current situation. “Grab the rifle. We goin ta have ta fight our way down to the first floor. Come on now, son. We need ya.”

“Follow me,” I said. Everyone jumped as a loud noise came from one of the floors below us. “I know another way. Miley showed me another way. Come on.”

Sam paused, unsure whether to trust my crazy ass. “You better know what you’re doin or we screwed.”

“I’m good. I’m okay,” I said.

As the others grabbed as much as they could carry, I remembered the backpack Miley had given me. I reached under the desk and grabbed it. I then opened the large cabinet door