Among the Living by Timothy Long Read Free Book Online Page B

The lack of electricity casts the room in midday shadows from the wide slats in the blinds. The window above their bed is wide open, but she doesn’t care if one of their pervy neighbors wants to watch. Not that she has seen anyone else today except the deaders, and they don’t really count. Some people walked by the other day, cautiously creeping by the house as if escaping from jail or something. Bags and boxes in hand like a bunch of refugees.
    Soldiers stood on either side as they left the cul-de-sac. The same soldiers who pounded on the doors earlier in the day, then walked around the house like they owned the place. She had to hold on to Lester, because he was pissed and he had that big machine gun in hand, and she knew nothing ever went down like it did in the movies. If he tried to kick them off the lawn, she was pretty sure things would have gone downhill fast.
    Putting the nasty thought out of her mind, she starts humming a song out loud, puts her hands above her head, and sways back and forth. The room spins, but she moves with it as if she were a dancer in front of a crowd.
    She can see them in her mind: a big Las Vegas show where everyone’s eyes are on her body. The women stare, jealous; men watch in lust. She waves her hands at them and then steps over Lester so her legs are spread over his face.
    He smiles and claps his hands in appreciation, takes a pull on the rum bottle and hands it to her.
    “Like what you see, baby?” she teases.
    “Look down.”
    She does and is pleased to see he is hard again. She settles down slowly on his lap. Then she rides him for the audience. She drinks from the bottle and lets some dribble between her lips to splash down her chest. He struggles upright and laps at her breasts, trying to clean them of the alcohol.
    Her moans grow louder. “That’s it, right there, do it! Fuck me!”
    He thrusts up into her, hard, and she rides him, hips flexing back and forth. Much sooner than she wants, he unleashes a stream inside her with a long and loud moan. But that’s okay. She knows where the Viagra is, and within a half hour, he’ll be ready to go again.
    She collapses against his chest and bites at his neck. She wants to stay in the bedroom for the rest of the day, smoke, drink and fuck. The world is going to shit, so it seems like a great way to give it the middle finger.
     
     

Kate
     
     
    She walks to the elevator with a cool, confident step. High heels click clack as she strides with purpose across the lobby. She ignores the sign advertising continental breakfast in front of the elevator door, steers around the tiny restaurant tables with their assortment of muffins, breads, carafes and bowls of sugar and creamer laid out in perfect symmetry. It strikes her that an employee must have good discipline to line up little packets so perfectly. It smells good, like a combination fresh bakery and coffee shop.
    She drops her bag on the floor and extends the sliding handle with a click. Then she tilts the combination overnight bag and laptop case back on its wheels and pulls it behind her. There are only a few people in the lobby, and the men turn to check out the chick in heels. What would they think if they knew her ‘other side’?
    It’s not a classy hotel by any stretch of the imagination, nor is it a complete dump. It rides that area between the two in which she prefers to do her work. For one thing, it is big enough that the worker from the night before won’t be on duty the next morning, but not so big that they have a security camera on every corner. In fact, a day of scoping out places revealed that this particular hotel only has security cameras on every other floor, thanks to construction.
    She entered this hotel once as a businesswoman in town for a night.
    The second time she came in was on the arm of large man who was sweating profusely. No surprise in the muggy July heat. His hand shook, just a minor tremble as he scribbled on the room information form. He slid