Out of the Shadows Read Online Free PDF Page A

to use his napkin. With what I assume was fervent disgust, I spat at him. “Go to hell.”
    The man’s fist punched through the window, shattering it to pieces as he grasped my throat, squeezing the life from me. Billy had been right: my flak jacket would be worthless in this crisis, not to mention uncomfortable. My hands grappled at the man’s taught fingers around my neck, not an iota of anger in his face. I needed to defend myself, or I would be dead in thirty seconds.
    I put my gun to his face and pulled the trigger.
    In that moment of shock when his fingers released their grip on me, and he fell backward onto the concrete, the other four in the group stared at me, showing no signs of anger or fear. Just looking at their faces creeped me the hell out, so I yanked my gearshift into drive and peeled out down the road, leaving the madness behind.
     
    *     *     *
     
    I sped more quickly than I should have down the empty forest road, tall trees reaching up into the black sky on either side, my headlights haphazardly illuminating the winding path before me. My mind couldn’t get a grasp on the events of the past few hours since I had awakened and showered away last night’s hangover. This was all something out of a bad horror flick; zombies, vampires, mind control, whatever the hell was going on .
    There was no reason to stay in Angelwood any longer. I hoped that maybe somewhere far away from my small town was still normal. I had turned on the radio in my truck, letting it automatically scan through stations. Static had filled them all. I had stopped at a gas station payphone and tried calling my ex-wife Sarah, but I’d received a default message about high call volume and to try again later.
    Now, nothing felt right anymore. Even the trees looked odd, like there was a slight sheen glistening over them that was gone the second the truck’s headlights passed them. As I drove, I realized another oddity about the evening: there were no animals to be found. Not anywhere. I remembered back to when I left my house to go to the store and found it odd that the sounds of bird chirps weren’t echoing through the trees. In my gut, I knew that they weren’t all dead. They had surely left, knowing what was about to take place. An animal’s intuition placed them higher than people on survival skill, but these emotionless human husks that were born from today’s chaos were underestimating me.
    I entered the familiar suburban neighborhood where I used to live with Sarah – back when things were wonderful and Annie giggled everyday. Unpleasant emotions rose to the surface as I pulled my truck up to the front of my old house. Shortly after Annie was killed, Sarah had kicked me out, which was all for the best, because I couldn’t stand the place without my daughter’s laughter.
    But before I left town tonight, I needed to make sure that Sarah was safe. I had few personal attachments to Angelwood, and I wanted to make damn well sure that they were all either preserved or destroyed, so as not to leave any loose ends that would always leave me wondering with regret.
    I exited my truck and removed the flak jacket from under my hoodie, replacing my red ball cap on my head. I glanced both ways down the street lined with cookie-cutter houses, all of the one-story Ranch-style homes identical except for their exterior paint colors.
    The night was too quiet. Even more silent than my house of solitude in the woods. The midnight breeze worsened matters, as if something filthy floated through the air on those wind currents, and it left me on-edge. I patted my holster to reassure myself that my gun was at my side, and I started walking up the driveway.
    It was only when I stepped up onto the porch that I noticed the front door was wide open.

Barren

IV
     
     
    I hesitated for only a moment before I released my gun from its holster and took cover against the brick wall to the left of the open door. I took a deep breath, repressing