Read All That I See - 02 for Free Online Page A

were well past their use-by date. They startled me, and I reacted by swinging the machete. I reacted a little slower than I might have, had I been warmer, but it didn’t matter. I took off the head of the first one with one swing. The second one took a bit more work, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. It didn’t bother me. I was past that. I didn’t feel any worse than I would have had I stepped on a bug. The decapitated head continued to snap its jaws, but it couldn’t hurt me.
    I looked in some of the drawers in the kitchen for a flashlight, but I never found one. I got out a spoon then popped the top on one of those cans of potted meat. They smelled pretty bad, too, but I was hungry enough not to care. I ate the whole can in three scoops, and then took a swig of rum.
    Okay. Time to go.
    I went outside through the back door then crept around the side of the house. I was able to avoid the creatures that had followed me. There was a Crown Victoria parked beside the house. The keys fit. It was slow to start, and I attracted an audience before I finally got it cranked.
    I turned the heat on and backed out of there. I headed over to Lockridge Street then east until I connected to 8th Street. I was out of the city limits before the interior of the car started to get warm.
     
    When I pulled into Blaine’s, my headlights shown on the little car Brian Davies had left there weeks before. There was also a gray pickup parked there, too. I didn’t see the church van in which Sara had escaped, but I figured she had traded it for the truck.
    I got out and stumbled toward the workshop. The door opened and a flashlight beam hit me in the face. I squinted and held my hand up to shield my eyes.
    “Stop right there,” said a man’s voice.
    “Who are you?” I said.
    “I’ve got the gun, so I ask the questions,” he said. “What are you doing here?”
    “I’m looking for my friend,” I said. “Has she been here?”
    “Put you r hand down so I can see your face.”
    I dropped my hand.
    “Well, I’ll be damned,” he said.
    The flashlight beam dropped.
    “How the hell are ya?” he said.
    “Not too good,” I said, trying to figure out who it was.
    He p ointed the beam at his own face.
    “It’s me–Nicholas.”
    “Mr. Somerville?” I said, relieved. “What are you doing here?”
    “Judy and I have been here for about a week,” he said. “We’ve been wondering where y’all were.”
    “Has Sara been here?” I asked.
    “No,” he said. “We haven’t seen her. I heard a vehicle go by this morning, but I was out back splitting wood, and I didn’t get around in time to see who it was. Is everything alright?”
    “No,” I said. “We had some trouble this morning and got separated.”
    “Come on in and tell us all about it. I’ll have Judy start some coffee.”
    I entered the building with Nicholas. Judy Somerville lifted her .357 magnum and pointed it at us.
    “Jesus, Judy!” Nicholas said, “I swear you’re planning to accidently kill me on purpose. Put that thing away.”
    “Nick, if I decided to kill you, it will be on purpose on purpose.”
    “Let’s get a pot of coffee going,” Nicholas said.
    The workshop had not changed much since the last time I was there. The mattresses were still in the floor on either side of the room where Jen and I had put them our first night together. The Somervilles had a few of their things scatter around, and there was a makeshift clothes line strung up over the woodstove.
    “I don’t really want any coffee,” I said. “I just want to find Sara.”
    “What about that other girl?” Somerville asked. “Was it Jess?”
    “Jen,” I said. “Jen didn’t make it.”
    “Aw, hell,” he said, sitting down. “I’m sorry, man.”
    “She and Brian Davies both…um…well, actually, Brian—“
    “Brian Davies…” Nicholas said, looking over at Judy.  “Where do I know that name?”
    “He was Michael Jackson,” Judy said. “You had your picture