Read Renewal 4 - Down on the River for Free Online Page B

Dodge, and left her there while he jogged from one car to the next, looking for supplies. He finally found a gas can in the back of an old pickup and a worn coil of garden hose in another. He set about siphoning gasoline into the can. He lucked out finding a hose with a garden sprayer on the end. Once he got the fuel flowing, he could fill the can and release the handle on the sprayer to hold the fuel in the hose until he came back. He started with the bone pile, and doused the bodies in the lobby. He took a side trip into the office and down the hall, where he used an entire can soaking the nightmarish food prep area. He wanted to make sure that horror show was never seen again. After four siphoning breaks, Dad had the school ready to burn. He poured himself a dangerous liquid fuse of sorts with the last of the gas, streaming it all the way out to the first car he could reach.
    He ducked behind the car, preparing to throw a match when he remembered Francine. She could obsess over cannibal killing, but he could obsess over his post-Breakdown engineering projects. He went back to the Dodge, which was probably far enough from the school to be safe, but he wasn’t sure. He tried to convince Francine to take cover, but she didn’t respond. He thought she had dropped back into a catatonic state after the rampage. He spoke to her for about ten seconds before he just grabbed her shirt and pulled her behind the car. He went back up to his own cover and said a small prayer before he lit the match and prepared to toss it on the gasoline.
    The gas ignited on his practice swing. He was lucky he didn’t ignite himself at the same time. The match passed through the fumes and the gasoline bloomed with immediate heat. Dad said he could not believe how fast the gas burned into the school. The front doors erupted in glass, flame, and a last belch of death stench. In seconds, the school was burning in earnest, volatile smoke billowing from the doors, and the sounds of rushing air surrounding him. He stood up when he was fairly certain the explosions were over and watched the school burn with an engineer’s eye.
    He did a double take when he realized that Francine was standing beside him. She was watching the wall of flames calmly and was using one of the tails of her shirt to wipe the gore from his flashlight. When it was clean to her standards, she handed it back to him. He was watching her face as he slid it back into the nylon holster on his belt and waited to see what new surprise she could toss his way.
    “I’ve gone too far,” Francine said, over the roar of the fire. She pulled out her gun.
    Dad was expecting a suicide, I guess, but he was still caught off guard. He backed away a couple of steps, and held up his hands in a stop gesture. She set the gun on the hood of the car.
    “You may need this,” she said. She walked five steps towards the school, stopped, and looked at my dad over her shoulder.
    Dad said he could already see her hair starting to smoke from the intense heat, even that far away. She paused just long enough for Dad to get the message. She was done with this life, and she wouldn’t appreciate any attempt to stop her. Dad said he gave her a shaky nod, and she turned again towards the school. She was burning long before she made it to the doors, but she never altered her stately walk, and she never made a sound.
     

 
     
    Chapter 4 - 6
    Terry had a death grip on the arms of his wicker chair. He had slid forward to perch on the front edge and had pivoted to face Bill, somewhere during the story.
    “Holy crap! That was one crazy old lady.” Terry said.
    “Maybe. Maybe she was just tough,” Bill replied, standing up. He stepped to the edge of the porch and tapped the spent tobacco out of his pipe. “Or maybe, she was just done. There are plenty of reasons to give up on life. I think it’s harder to decide to keep going, but that doesn’t mean that giving up is always wrong. You stay married to one person