Read Online The Junkie Quatrain by Peter Clines - Free Book Online Page A

lot.
    Epi and Sarah were gone. The bikes were unlocked and the cable was pulled halfway through them. There was no blood and no empty brass from their weapons.
    ‘Guys,’ called Barney. It was a stage whisper that probably carried a hundred feet at the most. ‘Where are you?’
    They called out their names and listened for any sort of answer. A quiet response, a cry for help, or even just the awful sound of junkies feeding. The silence of the abandoned city filled the air.
    Monica looked at him. ‘Junkies?’
    Barney shook his head. ‘We didn’t hear anything.’
    ‘Maybe they just ran.’
    ‘Why would they run away from the door?’
    ‘Maybe something was blocking them.’
    Barney looked around the parking lot. ‘Then where’s that? What could’ve made them run away that we wouldn’t’ve heard or seen?’
    Big Jay shuffled up behind them, tugging on his knit cap. ‘She out there?’
    Monica shook his head. ‘There’s no sign of either of them.’
    The large man tried to push past them, but Barney settled him with a hand on his chest. ‘She’s gone, big guy.’
    ‘But she could be right over there,’ said Jay. He pointed to the alley on the west side of the parking lot. It almost lined up with the drive-through. ‘They both could be.’
    ‘If they are, they’ll find us. If they aren’t... well, there’s nothing we could do for them.’
    ‘We gotta look.’
    ‘We don’t and we can’t,’ said Barney. ‘We’ve got rules and we’ve got a schedule.’
    The big man’s face twisted up and his fingers tightened on his rifle. ‘She’d look for me.’
    ‘If you want to go, you can,’ said Barney. ‘But you go alone. That’s the rules. You knew that from the day you joined up.’
    Jay stared out at the empty lot for a minute. Then he turned and went inside.
    ‘Go make sure he’s not taking it out on anything we might need later,’ said Barney.
    Monica nodded and headed in.
    Barney looked at the hedge between the parking lot and the residential street. It was already getting overgrown and wild. The whole city was getting wild. He thought about the streets of Baghdad and how crazy things had gotten there, and he remembered how long it took before things even vaguely resembled sanity again.
    How long was it going to take a city the size of Los Angeles? Or Dallas? Or New York?
    Just like in Iraq, he could feel something watching him.
    He went back inside. He put one foot behind the other and never turned his back to the thing with eyes on him. The door closed in front of him.
    ‘What’s the story, boss?’ asked Charlie.
    ‘They’re gone,’ said Barney. ‘We don’t know if they got killed or taken or what. We just know they aren’t out back and they’re not answering.’
    Chit nodded. ‘So what are we doing?’
    He looked at Big Jay. The man stared out the window and squeezed his fists. ‘Just what we said. The bikes are unlocked. We get out of here and head straight down Wilshire as fast as we can.’
    A few grunts of understanding came from the outsiders. They looked at each other and realized how small their group suddenly was.
    ‘Let’s be quick,’ said Barney. He shrugged the pack of medical supplies up onto his back. ‘I want to be out of here in the next couple minutes, before the junkies start waking up.’
    They exited the restaurant with weapons up. Charlie finished unthreading the wire that bound the bicycles together. He went to coil it and Barney waved for him to leave it. The little man nodded and guided bikes out of the pack one by one.
    Monica straddled her bicycle and kept watch. The city was still silent. No vehicles. No sounds of junkies. It was quiet. The phrase too quiet immediately crossed her mind. She tried to come up with something less gnawing and her mind produced silent as the grave . When she brushed that aside it came up with quiet as a tomb .
    A loud crash came from behind her. Charlie had knocked one of the bikes over. It had dominoed into the one that