Valkyrie: Rat in the Dumpster by Tony Bowman Read Free Book Online

Rat wasn’t sure when she had lost hope. The dumpster was rocking, and she could hear the heavy breathing outside. Over the last few days, she’d eaten everything consumable in the garbage, and a few things that weren’t. But, it was water she needed. Things were getting fuzzy in her head, and she had taken to talking to things that weren’t there, or at least things that couldn’t answer her.
    There were bugs crawling on her. They were in her hair. She didn’t like to think about it. She knew the creepy crawlies wouldn’t eat her while she was alive. They’d wait, and then there would be Rat for everybody – a regular smorgasbord.
    “The worms go in, the worms go out, Ratty for breakfast, punk girl take out,” she said and laughed.
    Something slammed hard against the dumpster and she whined.
    The thing outside was bad. It was very bad. It was hungry, and it didn’t want to wait for her to die.
    Be patient , she thought. A few more hours and I won’t even put up a fight. I’ll just slide right down your gullet like an oyster .
    The world had gone insane, and she wasn’t far behind.
    A couple of weeks before there had been sunshine.
     
     
    She was sharing a joint with a skateboarder under the Broadway Street Bridge in Little Rock when people started running and screaming. The teenager ran off, leaving her with the weed. The sun had been out a few minutes before, but thick clouds had rolled in, and it had gotten very, very dark.
    She was stoned, but not so stoned she didn’t realize there must be a tornado rolling in. People screaming, dark in the middle of the morning – a tornado was the first thing that came to mind.
    Rat squeezed tighter into the niche between the bridge and the concrete support. She was small, so it wasn’t hard to cram herself into the tiny gap that smelled of diesel exhaust, beer, piss, and reefer. She didn’t mind small spaces, they were comforting as long as there were no spiders. Or snakes – Arkansas was full of snakes and she’d be happy to put Little Rock behind her.
    She’d started out three months earlier at an orphanage in Alexandria, Virginia. She was almost seventeen, and the rules at the orphanage were starting to get on her nerves.
    So, she’d split, left them in the dust. Alexandria to Richmond, Richmond to Raleigh, Raleigh to Nashville, Nashville to Memphis, Memphis to Little Rock.
    And, now there was a very good chance she was going to die in a tornado.
    The wind picked up. She watched a plastic grocery bag float by on the street below. It skimmed the guard rail and fell onto the surface of the lake. The wind blew it along the water like a plastic jellyfish.
    She caught movement out of the corner of her eye.
    The thing was standing in the middle of the street, breathing heavy like a marathon runner. It was hunched over, about five feet tall. The creature was covered in shiny black scales. It had a long reptilian face with yellow eyes that darted left and right. The hands and feet had long black claws.
    Bat wings sprouted from its shoulders. It beat the air with them, and then sniffed.
    Not a tornado , she thought.
    It peered toward her, turning its head from side to side to get a better look.
    She focused on making herself as small as she could. Rat wanted to close her eyes. She didn’t want to see the reptilian lips part showing the small sharp teeth, the black forked tongue that whipped out and tasted the air.
    But, she kept her eyes open. She didn’t blink. Rat worried about her most recent fashion choice: pink dye in her shoulder length hair. Neon pink, and she imagined it almost glowed, framing her face.
    Please be nearsighted , she thought.
    There was a shriek from above the bridge and the creature turned its long head toward it. It hissed a reply and the leathery wings pushed against the air. The creature rose and soared away.
    Rat breathed. She had been holding her breath the entire time, and she gulped in air, no longer caring about the stench of her