Bone And Cinder: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller (Zapheads Book 1) by Scott Nicholson, Joshua Simcox Read Free Book Online Page B

his hair.  “They were a little before my time, but y’know what I loved when I was younger?  Alfred Hitchcock Presents , EC horror comics from the ‘50’s.  All those twisty, ironic morality plays.  Your wasted life is nothing if not a morality play, Mackie.  Your bad decisions brought you to this point, and your failure at a very simple task brought the McAllister girl into your life.  I knew I had to cut you loose, but putting all this together and playing the two of you against each other...well, that’s the kind of creativity that’s kept me alive for so long.”
    Mackie’s burning eyes drifted from Krider’s face to the ceiling.  “Looks like God just unleashed the biggest morality play of all. Wipe most of the human race off the planet and turn the survivors into raging, mutant killers.”
    “Maybe God isn’t the one who deserves the credit,” Krider said.  “But nothing changes in my world.  You see, doing what I do and doing it well requires a certain amount of showmanship.  Theatrics.  Unpredictability.  It’s a big part of how I keep the people close to me afraid.  And doing what I do only works when people are afraid.”  He smiled again.  “But now...now everyone’ s afraid.  No telling how many of those Zaphead things are out there, running wild, tearing people limb from limb.”
    “You sound like you’re loving all this.”  The billiard table grew softer beneath Mackie as the heroin kicked into lower gear and thrummed through his central nervous system.
    “It’s always been survival of the fittest.  The rules have changed now, but the game’s still the same.  This is fun for me, sure, but fun is only a by-product.  Survival is the real pay-off.  Same as how working for me kept you and your family alive.  The world ended, and I’m still keeping you alive.”
    Krider removed his hand and leaned back.  “You weren’t cut out for the game, Mackie. You never developed a taste for it.  Never mastered the flinch .  You could pull the trigger when I told you to, but you’d always, always flinch first.  And the flinch got in your way.  Didn’t matter that, technically, you got the job done.  I knew the day would come when you wouldn’t, or you’d make a mistake that would compromise everything.”
    “Do it, then.  Spare me another Scarface soliloquy and get it over with.”
    “I’ve been generous with you, Mackie.  I let you and your family and your mutant girlfriend live after you betrayed me.    I taught you ways to kill and survive that put you orders of magnitude above most of society.  And, hell, you even got paid .  I mean, c’mon, just how well were you really doing with that shit-ass liberal arts degree?”
    Krider’s voice modulated to a higher octave, but he quickly brought it back to his baseline of honeyed placidness.  “But what you gave me in return,” he said softly, “was the bare minimum .”
    “I did...everything... everything you...” The words vaporized in Mackie’s dry throat.
    Krider plucked another gummy bear from the bag and tossed it playfully at Mackie’s face.  It bounced from his cheek and fell to the billiard cloth.  He barely felt the contact.
    “That’s just how tight I have to run my ship, Mackie.  Flinching is unacceptable, ‘bare minimum’ doesn’t cut it, and ‘half-assed’ gets you dead quicker than anything.  But a half-assed junkie , of all things?  Keeping you around was never an option.”
    “So just kill me.  I don’t understand what you’re waiting for.”
    Krider patted his hand.  “You haven’t had the best of days.  Sleep it off.  We have more to discuss in the morning.  Herrera here will stand guard in case any crazies come knocking.”
    A flare suddenly pierced the heroin fog saturating Mackie’s brain.
    Allie.
    The last time he’d seen her was during the pummeling he took from Krider’s men.  Mackie tried to speak her name, but his voice was lost in a painful