Darkness on the Edge of Town by Brian Keene Read Free Book Online

noise,” somebody yelled.
    The chief broke into another coughing fit. The fireman manning the sound system handed him a bottle of water. He accepted it eagerly, unscrewed the cap, and sipped. Then he faced the crowd again.
    “I know it’s not an easy thing to ask, but I’m asking just the same. It’s for your safety, as well as the safety of my men.”
    “It’s them terrorists, isn’t it? It’s the Al Qaeda?”
    I recognized the speaker from earlier. She was the woman who had felt sorry for Dez.
    “We don’t know what it is,” the chief responded. “But we intend to find out. Let’s not jump to any conclusions yet. We’ve decided to send a crew to the next town, Verona, to see if they can determine what’s happened and how large of an area this thing has affected. The plain truth is that we don’t know if this is a national, regional, or localized event. Meanwhile, the main thing we all need to do is remain calm. Panic leads to injury, and with the phones out, you have no way of calling 911. I would also like to suggest that we conserve our resources until we better understand our situation. Once the men have returned, we’ll inform all of you—probably by calling another meeting or going door-to-door. So until then, just stay put and again, remain calm. We’re doing our best, and we thank youin advance for your cooperation and patience. We’ll get through this together.”
    “What a crock of shit,” a bald man in front of us muttered. “Who the hell put this guy in charge? He doesn’t know any more than the rest of us.”
    “Hey,” Russ said, tapping him on the shoulder. “Why don’t you cut him some slack? The man is just trying his best.”
    The bald man scowled. “I heard you snickering at his name.”
    “Maybe,” Russ admitted, “but that doesn’t mean I question his authority. If he’s got a plan—and it sounds to me like he does—then I say we respect it.”
    “Who cares what you say? What—you know him or something?”
    “No. I don’t know him. I don’t know you either. I’m just saying that maybe we ought to work together. That’s all. If you don’t like it, then maybe you should leave now, rather than bringing everybody else down.”
    Cranston nodded in agreement. “All this negativity is no good. We need to get along.”
    I thought for a moment that the bald man was going to take a swing at Russ and Cranston both. Instead, he just stared at them. His expression hovered between pissed off and incredulous. Then he turned his attention back to the chief. If he had more opinions, he didn’t share them with us.
    Christy shivered against me.
    “You okay?” I asked.
    She nodded. “I’m just cold. I hope this doesn’t last much longer. It’s creepy, standing out here in the dark.”
    “It’s not completely dark,” I said. “Not like over there.”
    I pointed toward the shadowed horizon and immediately regretted it. Acknowledging it seemed to makeit more real somehow—seemed to solidify it. At the time, I thought that was just in my head. Thought that I was being superstitious. But now I have to wonder.
    Had the darkness heard me, even then? The more I think about it, the more I’m inclined to believe it might have.
    Recovering from another bout of coughing, the chief then went over some safety concerns, advising people with generators to make sure they were well vented and talking about fireplaces and the hazards associated with kerosene heaters and candles. I kind of zoned out during that part of the speech.
    When he’d finished with his safety checklist, the chief asked, “Are there any questions?”
    There were. Lots of them. People had him repeat things he’d already said and wanted him to speculate on what he thought had occurred and wanted to bitch about the situation in general. A few seemed to consider this meeting a chance to share their personal stories, telling the chief and the crowd about their husband or wife who’d left for work or about what they