False Prey: A Wildfire Novella (Wildfire Saga) by Marcus Richardson Read Free Book Online Page A

Just starting life, you know?   By now she’d probably be in grad school or married or something…”   Danny felt the old familiar ache return to his chest.   It happened every time he thought about his daughter.
    Sang was silent, but those dark eyes watched Danny.   Danny continued.   “It was just after they shut down all the schools and had banned public gatherings—they’ll probably do that now, too.   Back then, it was too little, too late, I guess.   We were all at home, healthy and safe, while the rest of the world went up in flames.   We had enough food for a few weeks or so and figured we had it made—all we had to do was stay inside and stay away from people till it burned itself out.”
    “What happened?” asked Sang quietly.
    “I couldn’t resist it—it was the biggest story in recent memory.   Well, I was editor-in-chief at the Tribune .   Top of the world.   I ran a tight ship.   And we were missing out on the biggest story since…maybe since we walked on the Moon.”   He shrugged.   “I tried to run the paper from home, teleconferencing, phone calls, that sort of thing.   Eventually the only way to get the job done was to get to the office.   I told myself I’d only need to go to the office just one time.   You know—bring in the staff willing to come and get everyone on the same page?”   He sighed.   “My wife, Nikki, begged me not to go.”
    “Did you?”
    “Yes,” said Danny.   He took another drag and exhaled, hoping the pain would leave his soul like the smoke that drifted out the window.   It didn’t work.   “One of my people had caught it, but we didn’t know at the time.   He gave it to the rest of us.   Including me.   I gave it to my family.   Within a few days, my little girl, Keisha, was dead and my wife and I were about to follow her.”
    “What happened?”
    Danny flicked the stub of his cigarette out the window and watched it spin lazily in the air as it tumbled to the ground and went out in the dirt.   “We almost died.   But Nikki got better. Then I did.   She never forgave me for bringing that virus into our house.”   He sighed, which brought on a coughing fit.  
    Sang’s eyes flew open.   Danny held up a hand.   “Not what you think,” he wheezed.   “I’ve got early-onset COPD.   Been smoking these cancer-sticks my whole life.”   He chuckled, a hollow sound.   “I survived the Blue Flu—the docs said that was a miracle in itself—most smokers who caught it simply couldn’t fight it off and died.   Nikki left me one month after we buried Keisha.   She never talked to me again.”   He cleared his throat.   “But we’re not here to talk about me.   I want to know more about you.   Let’s start at the beginning.   You had car trouble right?   What happened?”
    Sang shifted to a new position and sighed.   “It’s my own fault I’m here.   I was fiddling with the radio in the car, trying to find a station that didn’t have the damn emergency broadcast on—I was desperate to hear something other than how many people were getting sick out west and how fast it was moving across the country.”   He tried to shrug.   “I hit a piece of junk in the road, metal or something—I don’t know, I never really saw it.   Whatever it was, it ripped open my two front tires and almost gave the car a C-section.”
    Danny whistled.   “The gas tank?”   The ache was starting to go away.  
    “Oh yeah,” said Sang with a shake of his head.   “I limped into town on vapors—that was last Wednesday—but my car left an oil slick all the way back to the interstate.   First thing Mr. Moore said when I got out was to get away from the car because he thought the damn thing was going to explode.   I guess I was lucky it didn’t.”  
    Danny grunted.   “Some luck.   The car didn’t explode, but look at you now.”
    “And so here I am, stuck here in this little town in the middle of nowhere, only a few