AWOL: A Character Lost Read Online Free PDF Page A

the cat got quiet. “What the hell do you want?” Eric’s ears picked up on the noise. “What the hell is that?”
    Eric turned towards the wall, and all he could see was metal. He got up and made his way to the door that led into the cab. He pushed it open and stepped inside. The cold air of the cab sent chills down his back, his breath white as he inhaled and exhaled.
    He stood there a moment and listened. The noise was coming from the passenger’s side. He turned to look out the window, but it was covered with a heavy layer of snow. He climbed over the seat and tried to open it, but the snow was so heavy and thick against it that it wouldn’t budge. He tried the door handle, and he found the door unable to budge as well.
    What Eric didn’t know was that the way the truck was positioned in the road allowed the wind to push a massive snow drift up against it. This snow drift stood tall enough that it covered the truck from the ground to the roofline on the passenger’s side.
    Eric’s brain refused to work (still hung-over), and he was out of ideas as the noise kept drawing closer. It was then that he thought of the hatch.
    He scrambled into the back and grabbed the ladder. He scurried up as quickly as his hung-over legs could climb. He popped the latch to the hatch and realized he would need a boost. In his current state, he had forgotten about that. Lucky for him, luck was on his side.
    The character stirred. “Would someone turn off that damn leaf blower?”
    Eric looked down at the character who had just woken himself up with that statement. The character looked up at Eric who was looking down at him.
    “What the hell is that?” The character asked.
    “I have no idea, but I know it’s bad, whatever it is. Can you boost me?”
    Eric tried to open the hatch as the character got up on wobbly legs. He steadied himself and then went over to Eric who, at the moment, was in a bit of a jam. The snow had buried the hatch so deep that it was hard to budge. The buzzing sound was really getting loud now and very close. They needed to have eyes on the world outside.
    “Shit! The snow’s too thick. Hand me something to jam it with, something to give me some leverage.” The character began to look around the room. The buzzing sound was so close now that it was almost making it hard to hear. Whatever it was that was coming at them was coming fast, and it wasn’t stopping. Eric was getting impatient. “Hurry up, will you?”
    The character did the best he could to hurry up, but he was very, very, very, hung over. In a zombie apocalypse –
why did they drink so much?
    The character stumbled onto a piece of wood they didn’t burn and handed it up to Eric. Eric grabbed it and started banging away on the hatch. The glass shattered as the wood went right through. Snow fell onto Eric and the floor below like a powder white waterfall. Eric shook the flakes free and then reached up and removed the shards of glass that were still left in the opening he had just made.
    The buzzing sound was now echoing around the room, rattling things that were hanging on the walls, bouncing loose stuff lying on the floor, scaring the cat, who was now in the corner on high alert.
    Eric reached up and pushed some snow out of the way. The problem was, all he could see was more snow. He tried to dig a little more, but realized that the only way he was going to make it to the roof was by tunneling. He was glad he wasn’t claustrophobic.
    Eric looked down at the character. “Okay, boost me now.”
    The character did as he was asked, and Eric scrambled through the opening, tunneling upward until he was able to pop his head out and see the bright blue sky and sunlight. He used his arms to push the rest of the way through and climbed out onto the roof like a corpse crawling out of a fresh grave.
    What he saw sent him immediately back into the room below, almost falling off the ladder, as he slipped and scrambled his way to the floor.
    “What is