Read Online The Dark Trinity (Book 1): Shuffle by Steven Till - Free Book Online

brain stopped his mental Rolodex of horror clichés on one
that might get him killed.
    God I hope my cell phone doesn’t ring .
    The notion to reach into his pocket to ensure that his phone
was on silent crossed his mind, but doing so would surely get him caught. He
continued to hold his breath, which became more and more difficult, and hoped
that the store clerk would give up the chase. Bag after bag of garbage piled on
top of him. Mystery sauces and wetness seeped out of the myriad of bags that
now covered his head. After what felt like an eternity, the clerk withdrew her
arm and the lid slammed closed.
    Ten minutes later, Nathan decided to make his move. He eased
the piles of filth off of himself and lifted the lid an inch. His cell phone
rang. SHIT! Closing the lid, he frantically pulled his phone out of his
pocket and dropped it in the process. Just like in all those stupid movies. He
managed to recover the phone on the third ring and answered it.
    “Hello?” he whispered as loud as he dared. Bracing himself
for the lid to fly open again, he heard his friend on the other end of the
call.
    “Dude, where you at?” Ronnie asked.
    “I’m sitting in a dumpster.”
    Ronnie chuckled. “Why are you sitting in a dumpster?”
    “This homicidal 7-Eleven clerk is trying to kill me, I
think.”
    “That’s fucked up, bro. I can barely hear you, can you talk
up?”
    “No I can’t talk up, I told you someone’s trying to kill me
and I’m hiding!” Nathan replied in one of those whisper-yells.
    “Oh, right on, right on.”
    “Hold on a sec.”
    Nathan ventured another peek out into the alley. Through the
slit of light he allowed, he saw no sign of the infected clerk. The alley
appeared to be empty. He stood up, flipped the lid back, and sprung out of the
dumpster, grateful for the fresh air. Nathan inched his way to the entrance of
the alley, peered around the corner and surveyed the street. No sign of the
clerk.
    “Okay, so where are you at buddy?” Nathan asked, more himself
now.
    “Walkin’ your way bro. I think we should boogie on outta
here; shit’s gettin’ crazy!”
    “Sounds good to me, but I’m not at work and I’m not equipped
to deal with any of the shit that’s going down,” Nathan said as he made his way
up to Penn Avenue, keeping an eye open for any immediate dangers. People
everywhere ran in a panic, but nobody paid him any attention.
    “For sure. You got a plan?” asked Ronnie.
    “Nope, none whatsoever. All I know is that we definitely need
to get out of the city. I gotta get back to Eve as soon as I can.”
    Ronnie answered in an unusually lucid tone, “Don't count on
using any of the bridges, cuz. They got the National Guard rollin’ in to shut
‘em all down.”
    Their options for escape dwindled at an alarming rate. Nathan
racked his brain for an alternative. He had seen enough end-of-the-world movies
to know that the government would try to contain what was going on downtown.
They weren't going to let anyone leave. Then, it hit him. He was about a block
down from Liberty Avenue, which contained a strange mish-mash of retail stores
and businesses. Among the eclectic menagerie of shops, was an Army/Navy surplus
outlet. Although an odd store to find downtown, it had been there for decades.
If he and Ronnie were to escape to the North Hills, they were going to need
some survival gear and weapons.
    “Alright dude, here’s what we're gonna do. You remember that
Army/Navy store on Liberty? I’m going to head there and grab some weapons;
there are people killing each other in the streets. We're never gonna make it
if we can't defend ourselves. I can try to meet you at the Steel Plaza T
station. We'll take the subway out of the city.”
    “They've probably stopped running the trains, bro,” Ronnie
stated. “If they wanna keep us in, then they wouldn’t want the subway running.”
    “Yeah, I thought of that. We can follow the subway tunnels to
the North Shore Connector that runs under