Pursuit of the Apocalypse by Benjamin Wallace Read Free Book Online

heard Mr. Christopher screaming as they started the engines and hit the throttle. The sound of squealing tires and gunshots filled the steel building as they raced away from the best job they had ever had.
    They didn’t stop riding until they were miles away from the warehouse and in a place where a Jeep couldn’t follow. Willie pulled off the road and Coy followed. The two were still breathing heavy.
    “That guy welched!” Coy cast an accusatory finger back to the west. “He’s a welcher.”
    “I know, Coy. I know. You just can’t trust people to keep their word nowadays.”
    Coy pouted for a minute before sighing. “Well, what are we going to do for money now?”
    “I don’t know, Coy.” Willie stared off into the distance. He always believed that’s where really good ideas were found—somewhere off in the distance. That’s where the stars in the movies always looked. It’s where important people in paintings always looked. So that’s where Willie looked. But all he could see was the interstate. A lone truck made up all of the traffic of the once busy road. But, he sure didn’t see any ideas.
    Then it was there. The great idea was right in front of him. “I do know what we’re going to do.” He pointed to the truck. “We’re going to catch the Librarian ourselves.”
    “What are you talking about?” Coy asked.
    Willie pointed in Mr. Christopher’s general direction. “Screw that jerk. If he was going to pay us ten to capture the guy, he’s probably getting at least twenty for him. Right? So we cut out the middle man and collect the money ourselves.”
    Coy walked over and stood next to Willie. Together they watched the truck journey west. “You really think it’s as much as twenty?”
    “Maybe more. Maybe thirty.” Willie was getting excited. He really liked this plan.
    “But he whooped seven of us back there.”
    “He’s after Mr. Christopher. We know that now. He’s distracted. We’ll use that.”
    “But how are we going to stop him?” Coy asked.
    “By using our smartness,” Willie said to the distance.
    FIVE
    Mr. Christopher watched the two bikes fade into the distance from the steel building’s loft. He cursed the two idiots and marveled at their sheer stupidity. Their failure had cost him nothing financially. But, it may have cost him his lead over his pursuer. The aggravation alone was worth murdering them both slowly.
    Mr. Christopher wasn’t afraid of the Librarian. He was afraid of losing him. As long as he was ahead of the wanted man, he was in control, and that’s where he intended to stay.
    He watched the horizon wondering if he would see the man appear in his truck ahead of a cloud of smoke. How had he caught up so fast to begin with? Christopher had stopped for nothing until the storm trapped him in Bomb City. How could his prey have made up the time?
    He wanted to think that it was impossible. That no man could live up to their own legend, but the Librarian had managed to outwit, outshoot, outfight, and out-stab every man and minion Christopher had hired to take him down.
    He’d hired dozens of locals across the wasteland and they had failed miserably to subdue the bounty. This was not surprising. He knew they stood little chance of stopping the target, and he expected most of them to end up broken or dead. He sent them to harass the Librarian and remind him that he would never be out of danger. The constant state of alertness was intended to fatigue his mark and keep him off-balance. But the man had proven surprisingly resilient.
    Several bounty hunters of considerable repute had also met their ends at the hands of the Librarian. Mr. Christopher had agreed to split the bounty with men and women of fearsome reputations. Their failure, while disappointing, had spared him the trouble of double-crossing them at a later date.
    Many morons had their place in his plans. They were extremely useful. They worked cheap because math gave them headaches. And, often they worked