Dead Highways: Origins by Richard Brown Read Free Book Online Page B

throat. I forced it back down and tried to take another deep breath. I wiped my forearm against the concrete until most of the drool was off and then wiped the remainder on my pants. Then I got back to my feet and slammed the door to the humvee.
    Fuck figuring out how to shut it off.
    “Are you okay?” Peaches yelled.
    I turned and gave a thumbs-up, checked my arm one last time for drops of spit, and then hustled across the street to the convenience store. A quarter mile down the street, I saw a car slowly cross the road and fall out of sight behind some buildings. It wasn’t a particularly busy time of day, and this wasn’t a busy road, but it was good to know there were still some signs of life.
    As I approached the store, I noticed Aamod’s Toyota wasn’t parked along the side where it usually sat. It was possible they could have left in the time it took me to get downstairs, but I couldn’t remember seeing the car earlier from the window either.
    I tried the door, but it was locked. No surprise there. I put my face to the glass, knocked a few times. The lights were off inside, and I didn’t see anyone moving about in the shadows.
    I sighed. “Crap.”
    I looked back at Peaches sitting at the window across the street. She never took her eyes off me. She was doing the job I gave her well. She really cared. She hardly knew me, but she cared what happened to me, even if it was just that without me, she’d be all alone. Regardless of her motive, it felt good to be needed. For this moment in time, I was all she had. I was like . . . her hero.
    I smiled at her and then turned back around.
    “Shit!” I yelled, recoiling backward, thinking I’d seen a ghost.
    Naima stood on the other side of the glass looking out at me, scaring the hero piss out of me. I wondered what Peaches would think of me jumping like a spooked cat.
    “What do you want?” Naima asked.
    “Can you open up?” She shook her head. “Please. I just need some food and water.”
    She shook her head again. “Sorry. The store is closed.”
    “Please,” I said again.
    But she didn’t respond. She just stood there staring at me through the glass like I was some beggar. I felt like one. I felt like Kevin. I thought about the gun tucked into my pants. Yeah, I’m sure Sally would get her to open the door. More like run and hide in the back.
    I sighed and walked away.
    Maybe it was because I gave her some space that she felt comfortable opening the door. But she did, only enough to poke her head out.
    I’ll never understand how a man as repulsive looking as Aamod could have produced a daughter as attractive as Naima. I figured she was either adopted, or her mom had ultra-strong genes. Her cheekbones were well defined, her lips soft, her nose small but sharp, her hair long and dark and shiny. But unlike Peaches, Naima dressed conservatively, probably due in part to her father, and while her breasts weren’t nearly as big, neither was the rest of her. From my little experience doing small business with her, she was also very kind and well spoken. A major contrast to Aamod’s stern and overbearing personality.
    “Do you know what is going on?” she asked. “I see the soldiers around and it makes me nervous.”
    “Me too. I only know what I saw on the news, and it wasn’t good. I’m not sure what to do.”
    She slowly came the rest of the way outside. “I could sense something in my father this morning that wasn’t right. Like he wasn’t telling me something.”
    “Where is he?”
    “He went to my house to get my mother.” She took a deep breath. A look of concern ran all through her face. “He left over an hour ago. He should have been back by now.”
    So that’s why the car wasn’t there.
    “He wanted me to keep an eye on the store,” she continued. “He thought people might try to break in.”
    I thought about how I had considered the idea of breaking in, and suddenly felt guilty.
    “You’re guarding the store?” I asked,