Read Online Snow by Ronald Malfi - Free Book Online Page B

with her worrying, had he not been the poster child for optimism. He’d beaten the cancer and proved to Nan that positive energy could be just as effective as traditional medicine; even though he’d been scared shitless, Nan had never known. It was just how he was built, with those easy grins and strong embracing arms coming as naturally to him as breathing.
    He leaned down and peered into the Volkswagen and immediately fought off a wave of nausea.
    “Fred?” Nan called from the curb as he staggered a few steps back from the car, a hand over his mouth and nose. “What is it? What’s the matter?”
    He waved a hand at her. “Stay there, hon.”
    Taking a deep breath, he approached the car once again, bending down and peering inside. The driver’s seat was saturated with blood, the surface of which sparkled with ice crystals. A single sneaker was wedged beneath the accelerator, and it appeared to be filled with ink. The cold kept much of the smell at bay, although it was impossible not to catch awhiff of the underlying decay that hummed like a cloud of flies inside the car.
    The keys were dangling from the ignition.
    “Figures,” Fred muttered, leaning over the messy seat and cranking the ignition. The engine groaned but would not turn over. Which was just as well; could they have really all piled in here and driven away? All that blood…
    Someone would have to pry that sneaker out from under the accelerator first, he thought, then immediately vomited in the driver’s side foot well. Thankfully, the snow across the windshield blocked him from Nan’s view.
    After a few seconds catching his breath, Fred wiped his mouth with his sleeve, then extricated himself from the Volkswagen. As he stood, tendons popped in his back. Nan had been on him about not doing his exercises lately. He was paying the price for his lethargy now.
    “No good?” Nan said.
    He shook his head. “Wouldn’t start. I think it might—”
    A man was standing directly behind Nan, no more than five feet away. His clothes hung off him in tattered ribbons and were splattered with blood. The man’s eyes were dead in their sockets, his face as expressionless as an Egyptian mummy.
    “Hon,” Fred said quickly, holding both arms out toward his wife. “Come here. Quick.”
    “Fred, what in the—”
    “Come here,” he repeated. “Now.”
    Todd pressed the flashlight against the window of the convenience store to eliminate the glare. Inside, the flashlight illuminated overturned aisles, bags of potato chips and popcorn on the floor. Soda had congealed to the tiled floor and busted soda cans were scattered about like spent shotgun shells.
    “What do you see?” Kate said in a low voice by his ear.
    “Place is a mess.”
    “Is there someone in there?”
    “I thought I saw movement…”
    “But now you’re not so sure?”
    “I’m not—”
    The flashlight’s beam fell on what at first appeared to be a strange tropical plant caught in the process of blossoming. It took several seconds for Todd’s brain to register what he was actually seeing, and he jerked backward away from the glass. The flashlight clattered to the snow, causing the beam to cut out.
    “What?” Kate said. “What’d you see?”
    “Someone’s dead in there,” he managed. “Head was split open…”
    “Oh my God…”
    Again, movement from within the store caught Todd’s attention. He jerked his head up and squinted through the darkness just as a whitish shape flitted across the aisles. Whoever—or whatever—was inside was heading for the door.
    “Get back,” Todd shouted at Kate. Together, they both stumbled backward off the snow-packed curb.
    The convenience store’s door flung open, Christmas bells on a strip of rawhide rebounding off the smoked glass, and a shape sprung out into the night. There was the sound of a long-barreled gun being charged and Todd felt his body brace for impact.
    Nan took a hesitant step toward Fred, an odd, almost coy smile playing