Dues of Mortality Read Online Free PDF Page A

what it is?” Max asked.
    “ We
had to put him in isolation because he thought the occupied cells
were filled with man-eating sea turtles. That’s the kind of
shit the stuff makes you see. The skin on his face is spotting up
from the broken capillaries. Now he can barely walk. Yeah, I’m
sure.”
    The
officer removed Moses’s cuffs and Moses hit the floor with a
thunderous slap.
    “ Aw,
shit,” Max said reaching for his own cuffs.
    “ Hold
on,” Xavier said. “Let’s each take an arm. It’ll
be easier to drag him out.”
    “ Okay.”
    Outside,
the two MPs looked like they were hauling a fresh corpse to a mass
grave, with Moses’s toes scraping the ground the whole way.
    “ God,
I'm glad we're not doing this in armor,” Max said. “In
this heat we'd be popping our turkey timers by now. I can’t
believe Elana Hatten’s taste could be this bad. I bet she eats
black jelly beans, too.”
    “ Elanaaaaa,”
Moses droned.
    “ Careful,
huh,” Xavier said, glancing at their baggage.
    “ What?”
Max said. “He’s not gonna remember anything tomorrow
morning. Fucking loser.”
    “ It’s
her life, man. Like I said, she’ll wise up. She’s a lot
like my momma, now that I think about it. She likes to give others
the benefit of the doubt, but she’s not stupid. My guess is
after this she won't want to see him anytime soon.”
    Max
smiled. “Aha, already planning your opening salvo of
studliness, huh? Or maybe you did that last night when you kissed
her?”
    Moses’s
eyes suddenly flared red as he stared at the ground.
    Xavier
unlooped Moses' saggy arm from around his neck so he could retrieve
the keys to the transport’s doors. “Ay, I didn’t
kiss her. She kissed me and...”
    Before
he knew it, a small serrated knife capable of gutting a shark was
buried into Xavier’s chest. Moses had moved like lightning. He
had fashioned a sheath and sewn the knife to the inside of his
belt—easy for the local boys to miss, especially if they didn’t
think him much of a threat. Xavier dropped the keys where he stood.
Moses then spun and caught Max Porter with a kick that cracked a rib.
He filched Xavier’s gun from its holster and laughed at the
blatant confoundedness that had appeared to overtake the MP. Xavier
had heard of the phenomena before: fight, flight or freeze, analysis
paralysis; it could happen even to the most hardened of military
vets. In this case, the four inch handle sticking out of his chest
had sent Xavier into temporary brain-lock.
    Max
reached for his own sidearm, but was too late to keep Moses from
firing a shot into his knee. Moses then snatched up the keys to the
transport, jumped into the driver's seat and burned out with the
tires’ squeal ripping the night air.
    Elana
Hatten had never quite known what hit her. One moment, she was having
a drink with friends at her apartment and the next she was laying in
a pool of her own blood, her head barely attached to her body by
shreds of skin and sinew. The bastard had shot her at close range
with nary a word. She just opened the door and...
    Xavier
felt the trigger give a bit against his finger. He raised the
revolver, and placed it against his lips. The smell of gun oil seeped
into in his nostrils. His eyes puddled with tears. He closed them and
drew the gun under his chin. He planted the barrel at the spot where
the lump in his throat was tightest. He then placed his thumb over
the trigger. He started to shiver and beads of sweat bubbled down his
face, stinging his lip with the salty taste of regret. He gripped the
handle with both hands and used a forefinger to push back the hammer.
Then taking a deep and quite literally last breath...pulled the trigger.
    If
this was Hell , Xavier thought, after opening his eyes, then it needs a maid .
He glanced from left to right and it took him a moment before he
remembered hearing a “clack” instead of “bang”.
He thumbed the gun's catch and the cylinder fell open, revealing the
single hollow chamber