Read Online Swan Song by Robert McCammon - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Robert McCammon
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chain, reached inside and switched on the lights.
Before she followed her husband and son over the threshold, Elise Croninger heard the sound of water dripping, and she saw another puddle spreading in the corridor. The ceiling was leaking in three places, and there was a long, jagged crack two inches wide. Jesus! she thought, unnerved, but she stepped into the room anyway.
Her first impression was of the starkness of a military barracks. The walls were beige-painted cinder block, decorated with a few oil paintings. The carpet was thick enough, and not a bad color of rust red, but the ceiling seemed awfully low to her. Though it cleared Phil’s head by about six inches, and he was five feet eleven, the apparent lack of height in the suite’s “living area,” as the pamphlets had called it, made her feel almost… yes, she thought, almost entombed. One nice touch, though, was that the entire far wall was a photographic mural of snow-capped mountains, opening up the room a little, if just by optical illusion.
There were two bedrooms and a single bathroom connecting them. Sergeant Schorr took a few minutes to show them around, demonstrating the whooshing toilet that flushed upward to a tank, he said, that “delivered the waste materials to the forest floor and so aided the vegetation growth. “The bedrooms were also of beige-painted cinder block, and the ceilings were made of cork tile that presumably, Elise thought, hid the latticework of iron beams and reinforcing rods.
“It’s great, isn’t it?” Phil asked her. “Isn’t this something?”
“I’m not sure yet,” she replied. “I still feel like I’m in a mine shaft.”
“Oh, that’ll pass,” Schorr told her amiably. “Some of the first-timers get claustrophobia, but it wears off. Let me give you this,” he said, and he handed Phil an Earth House map that unfolded to show the cafeteria, the gymnasium, the infirmary, and the arcade game room. “The Town Hall’s right here,” he said, and he pointed on the map. “It’s really just an auditorium, but we figure we’re a community down here, right? Let me show you the quickest way to get there from here…”
In his bedroom, the smaller of the two, Roland had switched on the bedside lamp and was scouting a suitable electrical outlet for his computer. The room was small, but he thought it was okay; it was the atmosphere that was important, and he looked forward to the seminars on “Improvised Weapons,” “Living off the Land,” “Governments in Chaos,” and “Guerrilla Tactics” that the pamphlets had promised.
He found a good outlet, near enough to the bed so he could prop himself up on pillows while he programmed the King’s Knight game on his computer. In the next two weeks, he thought, he was going to dream up dungeons and monsters to roam them that would make even an expert, jaded King’s Knight like himself tremble in his jambeaus.
Roland went to the closet and opened it to see how much room he had to store his stuff. The inside was cheaply paneled, a few wire hangers dangling from the rod. But something small and yellow suddenly flitted like an autumn leaf from the back of the closet. Roland instinctively reached out and caught it, closing his fingers around it. Then he walked over to the light and carefully opened his palm.
Lying stunned in his hand was a fragile yellow butterfly with streaks of green and gold along its wings. Its eyes were dark green pinheads, like gleaming emeralds. The butterfly fluttered, weak and dazed.
How long have you been in there, Roland wondered. No telling. Probably came in on somebody’s car or camper, or in their clothes. He lifted his hand closer to his face and stared for a few seconds into the creature’s tiny eyes.
And then he crushed the butterfly in his fist, feeling the body smear under the power of his grip. Zap! he thought. Super Zap! He sure hadn’t come all the way from Flagstaff, he told himself, to share a room with a fucking
Before she followed her husband and son over the threshold, Elise Croninger heard the sound of water dripping, and she saw another puddle spreading in the corridor. The ceiling was leaking in three places, and there was a long, jagged crack two inches wide. Jesus! she thought, unnerved, but she stepped into the room anyway.
Her first impression was of the starkness of a military barracks. The walls were beige-painted cinder block, decorated with a few oil paintings. The carpet was thick enough, and not a bad color of rust red, but the ceiling seemed awfully low to her. Though it cleared Phil’s head by about six inches, and he was five feet eleven, the apparent lack of height in the suite’s “living area,” as the pamphlets had called it, made her feel almost… yes, she thought, almost entombed. One nice touch, though, was that the entire far wall was a photographic mural of snow-capped mountains, opening up the room a little, if just by optical illusion.
There were two bedrooms and a single bathroom connecting them. Sergeant Schorr took a few minutes to show them around, demonstrating the whooshing toilet that flushed upward to a tank, he said, that “delivered the waste materials to the forest floor and so aided the vegetation growth. “The bedrooms were also of beige-painted cinder block, and the ceilings were made of cork tile that presumably, Elise thought, hid the latticework of iron beams and reinforcing rods.
“It’s great, isn’t it?” Phil asked her. “Isn’t this something?”
“I’m not sure yet,” she replied. “I still feel like I’m in a mine shaft.”
“Oh, that’ll pass,” Schorr told her amiably. “Some of the first-timers get claustrophobia, but it wears off. Let me give you this,” he said, and he handed Phil an Earth House map that unfolded to show the cafeteria, the gymnasium, the infirmary, and the arcade game room. “The Town Hall’s right here,” he said, and he pointed on the map. “It’s really just an auditorium, but we figure we’re a community down here, right? Let me show you the quickest way to get there from here…”
In his bedroom, the smaller of the two, Roland had switched on the bedside lamp and was scouting a suitable electrical outlet for his computer. The room was small, but he thought it was okay; it was the atmosphere that was important, and he looked forward to the seminars on “Improvised Weapons,” “Living off the Land,” “Governments in Chaos,” and “Guerrilla Tactics” that the pamphlets had promised.
He found a good outlet, near enough to the bed so he could prop himself up on pillows while he programmed the King’s Knight game on his computer. In the next two weeks, he thought, he was going to dream up dungeons and monsters to roam them that would make even an expert, jaded King’s Knight like himself tremble in his jambeaus.
Roland went to the closet and opened it to see how much room he had to store his stuff. The inside was cheaply paneled, a few wire hangers dangling from the rod. But something small and yellow suddenly flitted like an autumn leaf from the back of the closet. Roland instinctively reached out and caught it, closing his fingers around it. Then he walked over to the light and carefully opened his palm.
Lying stunned in his hand was a fragile yellow butterfly with streaks of green and gold along its wings. Its eyes were dark green pinheads, like gleaming emeralds. The butterfly fluttered, weak and dazed.
How long have you been in there, Roland wondered. No telling. Probably came in on somebody’s car or camper, or in their clothes. He lifted his hand closer to his face and stared for a few seconds into the creature’s tiny eyes.
And then he crushed the butterfly in his fist, feeling the body smear under the power of his grip. Zap! he thought. Super Zap! He sure hadn’t come all the way from Flagstaff, he told himself, to share a room with a fucking
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