Life Among the Dead (Book 4): The End by Daniel Cotton Page B

stands at the precipice of taking his company to new heights. All he wants at this moment is the cigarette he lights with the complementary matches the jaded clerk had included.
    The first drag of the dusty tasting smoke makes his head swoon. Price staggers to his car needing to hold onto it for support. His watering eyes clear after a moment behind the wheel. He wishes he could just go home, crawl into bed with his wife and make up for all his trespasses, but there is far too much to do. At some point tomorrow he will need to get the money back into their account and hope she hasn’t noticed its absence. He must destroy the compromising photo, and of course ditch the body he has stuffed in the suitcase behind him.
    The bag in question shifts in the backseat when the engine turns over, sliding from the seat and getting stuck behind the backrests. Price looks at the luggage, knowing he had laid it squarely on the seats but realizes with all the stop and go traffic and detours it undoubtedly shifted. He avoided the flashing strobes of the police as much as he could on his way here, not wanting to get caught with the mobster’s corpse in the back of his car. He can’t wait until he has a chance to dump the bag in the Charles River. He tries not to feel too bad for the man he will be discarding like trash, he didn’t exactly choose a line of work known for having the best of retirement plan.
    Price pulls onto the street, seeing red and blue flashing lights in the distance the way he had come. The industrial park is relatively calm, coming in and out at all hours as he normally does, there typically isn’t too much excitement aside from being caught in the crossfire of change of shift for the numerous factories. When these people get off of work they fly out of their respective lots as if they can’t get away from work fast enough. Tonight is odd, he doesn’t pass any cars just people. Workers he figures as many are in matching or similarly drab uniforms, they look tired as they lazily saunter towards the city. Slack, tired looking faces eye Price as he cruises towards his lab, he figures they are just trying to catch sight of all the ruckus, men and women taking a break from their monotonous toil, probably hoping to see what’s going on before grabbing a bite to eat.

15
     
    Dashing through the city, on a one horse open sleigh, Luke once again must pull back on the reigns to halt his ride. Handling the horse drawn carriage is much harder than he ever could imagine, it takes some coaxing to get the thing turned around so he can detour whenever the road ahead is blocked. What should have been a quick jaunt uptown is taking him longer than he likes. Gunfire pops off, echoing in the night. The constant strobes of the responding vehicles is joined in the night sky by the glare of fires that light up the plumes of smoke they cause as they devour buildings. The city seems to be at war with itself and all Luke can think about are his grandsons, hoping to get to them before it’s too late and the battle spreads to where they are.
     
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    “Did you hear something?”
    “That was me. I need to use the bathroom,” assures a voice in the dark.
    “Not you,” the younger of the two dismisses. “From downstairs.”
    “Probably just Mrs. Krantz. Go back to sleep.”
    Half-brothers, separated in age by five years, share a room in their suburban home. Though the house has three bedrooms, their father claimed one as his office. He insisted that sharing a room would build character. Neither boy has complained much yet, but Killian is twelve, getting to be that age where he wants a little more privacy. He’s going through changes and has urges he’d rather not talk about let alone be witnessed.
    “Wait,” the youngest, says. “I gotta go too.”
    “Hippo,” Killian groans his brother’s nickname in protest, hunching over as if his stomach hurts to hide his need to be alone. “Can’t you wait?”
    “No, it’s