[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Bill lifted his head and looked toward the truck; the flashlight beams blurred through the stinging tears in his eyes.
"Go on!" Byron shouted, waving his arms.
Crawling away and finally managing to climb to his feet, Bill did as he was told...
When he entered the truck stop, A.J. and Jon were standing at the front of the store; Doug was behind them in the darkness talking
quietly with the girls, while others stood around, stiff and anxious, keeping their eyes on the windows and doors.
"What's happening?" A.J. asked, rushing toward him. Before he could answer, she gasped quietly and said, "My God, Bill, you look
horrible. Are you all right?"
He leaned against a rack of candy and chewing gum and chuckled. "I don't think so."
"What's happening outside, Dad?" Jon asked, stepping forward.
"They're getting the guh-garlic from ... from the truck. So they can spread it around. The building. At the doors and windows, and..."
He felt dizzy again and paused, leaning forward and holding his head in his hands. When he lifted his head again, he realized that the
other people around him were closing in, their expressions fearful, as if they were depending on him to tell them something they were
waiting to hear. "Luh-look," he said quietly, "everything'll be okay if we just stay inside. That's all, just stay inside."
"But what if they come in here?" barked a fat woman as she bounced a baby in her arms.
Other voices spoke up, asking questions urgently, but they all melted into a buzz in Bill's ears. He lifted his hands trying to appear
comforting. "It'll just be few more minutes before they have that garlic spread around the building. Then there's no way they can come
in here."
The voices quieted, making way for a scream coming from the restaurant.
"Help! Please, somebody help! She's bleeeeding! She's bleeeeding!"
Bill and A.J. exchanged a glance, then she turned to Doug and said, "I'm going to see if there's something I can do." Bill followed her
into the restaurant, where the waitress was still huddling over her little girl. Bill put his arm around Jon as they neared the kneeling
woman, who looked up at A.J., eyes desperate.
"I'm a nurse," A.J. said.
The woman swept a hand across her teary eyes and said, "She's been bitten. Bad. She's bleeding."
A.J. knelt down beside her and the waitress, whose uniform was stained with blood, grasped her arm. Her face screwed up and tears
fell more freely.
"She has AIDS," she whispered.
A.J. removed the woman's hand gently and turned the pale, frightened girl's head to one side so she could inspect the wound. "If s not
too bad," she said. "We just need to stop the bleeding. Are there any rubber gloves around here?"
The waitress thought a moment, then said, 'The dishwasher," and hurried away, returning a moment later with a pair of green latex
dish washing gloves. As A.J. put them on, she said, "Get me a cloth, something clean to stop the flow, some hydrogen peroxide from
the store, maybe, and some gauze if they have any."
The little girl blinked as her mother rushed to get the peroxide and bandages; she looked at A.J., confused and frightened, and
asked, "Is the monster gone?"
With tears in her eyes, A.J. looked up at Bill, silently asking him for help. He hunkered down beside the girl and tried to sound
reassuring as he said, "Yeah, honey. The monster's gone."
The girl squinted at Bill for a moment, asked his name and, after he'd replied, she asked, "Are you sick, too?"
Bill's lips pursed and he tried hard to swallow the viscous lump in his throat--You're dying already---as he nodded. "Yeah," he
whispered. "I'm sick, too." He stood and turned to the crowd in the restaurant. They were watching him quietly with expectant eyes.
"Everything's going to be okay," Bill said, "as long as none of you leave the building for any reason whatsoever. Just ... stay inside."
The batteries powering the auxiliary lights finally died and the restaurant flickered into darkness. "Somebody get some of those
hologen lanterns and bring them in here," Bill called weakly to no one in particular.
"What's gonna happen, Dad?" Jon asked quietly.
"We're going to stay here until sunrise, Jonny. It's just--" He glanced at his watch."--oh, an hour or so from now. Things are going to be
fine."
"No. I mean, what's gonna happen to you?"
Bill put his hand on Jon's shoulder and gave a closed-mouth smile. "Oh, don't worry about me. Tell you what. Go see how your sisters
are doing, okay?" He patted the boy and gave him a gentle push. Once Jon had disappeared, tossing reluctant looks over his
shoulder, Bill went to the coffee counter and fell heavily onto one of the stools, folding his arms on the counter and resting his head.
"Good question," he mumbled quietly to himself. "What' s gonna happen to me..."
Sunrise was only a short time away.
And he knew that what the creature had told him was true: he was dying...
[Back to Table of Contents]
CHAPTER 18
Time crawled by as the snow continued to swirl outside. Bill stayed at the coffee counter with his head on his arms, his strength
draining from him like blood from a wound. He lifted his head occasionally, partly to keep himself awake, but also to check on Adelle,
who continued to comfort Jenny, the waitress, and watch over her daughter Shawna; when the girl slept, Adelle moved around the
restaurant helping Dr. Phillip Kale--who was rather upset himself--to calm down those on the verge of panic and to tend to the cuts
and scratches a few people had gotten from the broken glass. One woman, however, would not be calmed. Dina Bonnick paced
around the restaurant, her face pale and drawn, eyes wide and darting, wringing her hands as she said over and over--sometimes in
a quiet mumble, other times in an authoritative bark--"This is a mess ... a mess ... this place is a mess, where is the janitor, this has
to be ... well, somebody has to clean this up. I'm responsible. I-I-I'm in charge here and this place is a mess!"
The doctor took her aside, holding her arm and patting her back, speaking to her in low, soothing tones.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]