Edge of End by Suren Hakobyan Read Free Book Online Page B

couldn’t
easily dismiss this idea.
    Quiet fell in the street, air stood,
trees were motionless. The weather got hotter; soon I was covered
by sweat and repeatedly wiped my forehead by my arm. The bottom of
my boots seemed to be on fire, the ground got warmer as if lava
streamed a metre beneath it.
    “ It’s hot,” Elizabeth
broke the silence.
    “ Yeah,” I
agreed.
    “ We should’ve been out the
town now,” Elizabeth said.
    “ I don’t know how deep I
entered it.”
    “ Are you sure we’re going
to the right direction?”
    “ There is no any other way
to go,” I looked around and saw a van parked to our right. “Let’s
check it.”
    “ What? The
car?”
    “ Come on.”
    Thick dust on the car covered even its
color. I reached for the door and pulled it open. As I did so, a
cloud of dust engulfed me, and I coughed.
    “ It should’ve been here
for ages,” Elizabeth said. “I doubt it’s still usable.”
    “ At least we can check,” I
replied and leaped in behind the steering wheel.
    While I examined it and looked for the
key the other door opened sending a puff of dusty cloud into the
car and then Elizabeth sat on the next seat.
    “ If we bring it to life we
can travel through the desert,” I thought aloud.
    “ We don’t even know there
is a gas in the tank.”
    I placed my hands below the steering
wheel and pulled the panel. It cracked and gave away intently and
wire rope sheaves hang in mid-air.
    “ You know what to do?”
Elizabeth bent forward to have a better look.
    “ I guess. It’s in my head.
Maybe I was a car thief back…” I stammered looking for the right
words. “Back at the life I have no memory anymore.”
    I cut two different wires and tied
them to each other.
    “ And?” Elizabeth looked at
my impatiently.
    “ Nothing,” I replied and
got out of the car.
    I opened the hood and found as much
dust under it as on the car. This car was useless, I doubted that
anyone could bring it to life ever.
    I went back, got into it and leaned
against the back of the driver seat. My hands to my sides I stared
up at the empty spot while Elizabeth was watching me with
interest.
    “ You were right,” I
muttered. “This car is a scrap metal.”
    “ We can check the next
one,” Elizabeth said.
    “ I guess the others are
dead as well,” I lowered my eyes on her. Her cheeks were reddened,
her lips plump and fresh as she ran her tongue over
them.
    “ So we walk,” she
said.
    “ We walk,” I repeated,
crossed my fingers and leaned my forehead on them. “Let’s go back
to the start. Each of us woke up in the desert and hurried to this
town hoping to find some help. Instead I found you, the only normal
human looking person, then monsters, abnormal dogs with long and
sharp nails, an ugly woman and rag-faced man.”
    “ What woman?”
    “ There is a café up the
street. Working,” I added with a wan smile. “She runs it. A rude,
plump woman. Maybe we should head to the café?”
    Elizabeth glanced back. “We still have
those dogs up the street blocking our way.”
    “ I barely forgot about
them,” I murmured and then hit the steering wheel. “Fuck,” I cried
out.
    “ Oh,” a surprised voice
escaped her mouth.
    “ Sorry.” I looked at her
affectionately.
    “ You might be right about
the light,” Elizabeth said abruptly changing the subject. “Maybe
it’s where we have to go.”
    “ We must deepen into the
heart of the town, cross it to reach the light. We’ll either become
a meal for those dogs, or a humanoid monster kills us both.” I
glanced down the street. “Let’s just go to the entrance and get out
of here.”
    “ There might be hundred
miles to the civilization,” Elizabeth widened her eyes. “We may die
in the desert. Besides, if my supposition about aliens turns right,
we won’t find anything out there.”
    “ Get over it, Elizabeth.
Aliens,” I smirked. “We’re rather dead than transferred to another
planet by aliens.”
    I pushed the door open and