Take the Long Way Home by Brian Keene Read Free Book Online Page A

Homeland Security and F.E.M.A.—that’s what they’re for. At the very least, they should mobilize the National Guard. What the hell’s the President doing? Hiding on Air Force One again while everything turns to shit?”
    “No,” Tony whispered. “The President’s among the missing.”
    I shook my head. The guy we’d encountered earlier, the one who’d pissed himself, had been right after all. I wondered if he’d been right about the gray aliens part, too.
    Conversation died after that. One man produced a bottle of diet soda, and another had a whiskey flask. Both were passed around, along with cigarettes. The group drank and smoked in silence.
    Finally, Charlie broke the quiet. “So, anybody want to tell us what happened to the guy hanging from the noose?”
    The group shifted uneasily. Charlie pointed but none of them would look directly at the swinging corpse. Nobody answered him, so Charlie tried again.
    “He’s like the proverbial elephant in the corner, isn’t he? Aren’t any of you going to tell us what happened?”
    They glanced at one another.
    “Skinheads,” Tony said. “A gang of skinheads; six of them. There was a little girl. Both her parents were missing. That guy—” he cocked a thumb at the swinging dead man, “tried to coax her inside his car. A lot of us saw it, and it was clear that the girl didn’t know him. She started yelling and ran away. So we all confronted him. He denied it at first, but the girl swore she didn’t know him, and that he’d shown her his ‘wee wee.’ That was all it took. Before we could do anything about it, the skinheads jumped him.”
    The black woman pulled her hands back from the fire. “Beat the hell out of him is what they did.”
    “Yeah,” Tony agreed. “They did that, too. Then they put that sign on him and strung him up. After that, they torched his car.” He pointed to the far lane and, sure enough, there was a burned out steel shell sitting on four heat-warped tires.
    Charlie shuddered. “And you people just let them?”
    “Hey,” Tony said, “there were seven of them.”
    “I thought you said there were six?”
    “Six. Seven. What’s the difference? They all had guns. A few of us tried calling the cops, but our cell phones aren’t working. And besides…”
    “What?”
    Tony shrugged. “The guy deserved it. I mean, think about what he did. He was going to kidnap and rape a little girl who’d lost her parents. He’d have probably killed her after he was done. You see it every day on the news.”
    Charlie looked around. “Where’s the little girl? Is she okay?”
    The black woman pointed. “She’s asleep in the back of that van over there. She’s safe. We’re watching over her, until . . .”
    “Until what?”
    She stared Charlie in the eyes. “Until things get back to normal. Until someone comes along and tells us what to do.”
    Frank took a sip of whiskey as it passed by him. He closed his eyes and a look of sheer bliss crossed his face.
    “Besides,” Tony said, “better him than us, right? They were skinheads. They could just have easily turned on us.”
    “That’s right,” the black woman agreed.
    “So where are these skinheads now?” I asked.
    The black woman pointed up the highway. “They moved on when it was over. Good riddance, if you ask me.”
    “Guess they didn’t want to hang around.” Tony smiled at his own gallows humor.
    “I don’t believe this shit,” Charlie said. “Skinheads, my ass.”
    Tony’s smile turned to a frown. “What? Are you calling me a liar?”
    I took Charlie by the arm. “Come on. Let it alone.”
    “Fuck that! They—”
    “I mean it, Charlie.” I squeezed his arm hard, insisting. “Let’s go.”
    “But—”
    I thanked the group gathered around the fire. “Appreciate your help. We need to get moving.”
    They nodded in understanding, but several of them, Tony and the black woman included, glared at Charlie. He let me lead him away. A moment later, Frank followed