Revenant Rising Read Online Free PDF

enough to announce his return. “Colin, I’m back . . . help’s on the way . . . hang on, man.” He repeats this like a mantra as he covers the remaining distance, pausing only when he thinks he hears noises—noises attributed to activity up above and his overactive imagination.
    In the brighter wider beam of a full-sized flashlight, the wreckage looks much worse than it did within the limitations of a penlight. When he climbs over the truck bed as the quicker way of reaching Colin, he notices a lot that he didn’t take in earlier.
    Earlier, he failed to see that a large section of roof is ripped open where the light rack used to be. It’s a wonder he didn’t slice himself on the jagged edges protruding into the cab, and he would have if he’d had to do anything at all for Aurora. This time, he checks for what might be hanging over Colin’s head before sticking his own head through the window opening. He sees nothing dangerous enough to further delay reassessing Colin’s condition, so it’s only another bout of cowardly trepidation holding him back.
    Nate sucks in some relief once he determines Colin is still breathing, however unevenly. In this better light he sees that Colin’s eyes are still open, but they’re not reacting to the light the way they did last time. Nate gropes his jeans pocket for the penlight. Its tighter focus is more apt to produce the results he wants. His motions cause him to illuminate Aurora’s body. He wishes he hadn’t.
    He may have screamed. Then again, maybe not, because his throat is closed, he can’t even swallow. Aurora’s head is gone; it’s not just bent at a bad angle, it’s removed from her body. For a ludicrous moment he thinks it may have fallen off. He looks for it behind the broken bench seat and on the ground around the truck. He revisits all the places he looked for a baby that was probably never there to begin with. Maybe her head was never there to begin with; maybe he just thought it was because the sight of a bloodied stump was too much to handle. But what about those spots on her neck? Didn’t he see with his own eyes those dark bruise-like markings that gave him the idea she was in a drug-induced state when she died because those markings resembled needle tracks?
    He’s unable to return to Colin right away; he’s unable to speak, or think, or unfold the blankets he should be placing around Colin. And now, while he’s most vulnerable, his senses take another hit. He thinks he hears noises again. He does hear noises, and they’re different from the sounds that would be made by someone coming down the embankment. Something or someone is out there in the wilderness, grunting and snapping branches as it draws closer. Throughout the entire ordeal, Nate hasn’t dared acknowledge fear or it would have conquered him. Now he’s thinking in terms of unconditional surrender to fear when Bill heaves into view.
    “Jesus god .” Nate lets out a ragged breath.
    “Didn’t mean to spook you.” Bill labors under a load that includes a chainsaw, a large toolbox, and a pair of metal cylinders strapped to his back. “I could see your light from down below, so I didn’t bother with turning mine on.” He grunts again as he relieves himself of the load. “I’ll go back for the rest after I have a look around.”
    “Wait,” Nate says, “what do you mean below? Is there another road down there?”
    “I thought I recognized this spot when you described it earlier. Them there tin can barriers are not much better than the old log and cable ones they used to use. Bridge never shoulda been built here where the drop-off’s so steep, but it woulda cost more to put a curve in the road to where the grade’s better. And now what money that was spent’s a waste cuz there’s nothin’ down there now but an abandoned railroad line, and even the tracks and ties are gone. Only the roadbed’s left and that oughta be bulldozed cuz it encourages them fools with the motorized