Running with the Horde Read Online Free PDF

my car with their rifles pointed at me. My heart was pounding very fast but I hadn’t seen them shoot anybody yet and I was going to try and talk my way in.
                  I kept both hands visible on the steering wheel as one of the soldiers approached my window. His scalp glistened through his buzz cut in the hot sun. The others fanned out around my car. The long line of vehicles behind me remained orderly, not even honking, soldiers and guns tend to have that effect on people.
                  The man tapped on my window with the barrel of his weapon. I slowly cranked it down as he peered in at me.
                  “You got a fucking death wish, sir?” he asked with a frown. A giant hairy mole on his cheek kept calling my name.
                  “No, I most definitely do not,” I chuckled as I tried not to stare at the mole.
                  I gave him my most disarming smile like he was a school girl I could charm into a quick game of kissy face.
                  “My father lives downtown. He is elderly with a medical condition and I haven’t been able to reach him by phone.”
                  The man flexed his jaw tightly several times like I’d just told him I’d been making out with his mother in the back seat.
                  “Do you see all these men here?” he asked and I nodded once. “Downtown is under Martial Law, and all these men, the ones with the guns, we are the marshals, no one is getting in.”
                  “Oh…Okay.”
                  “You understand I don’t give a shit about your father?”
                  “I do, yes.”
                  “Take a left down this road here and drive back to wherever you came from or we’ll pull you out of your stupid car and shoot you in your fucking face in front of all these people.”
                  “Yes. Yes, I will do that…the first thing I mean. I will do the left,” I stuttered.
                  “Good boy, I’d hate to ruin your ride,” he smiled. “If I ever see it again I’m gonna shoot it with an RPG, understand?”
                  “Definitely and thank you for your service,” I said as I nodded seriously. I knew I sounded like an idiot. I’m not sure why I even said the last thing, it wasn’t the appropriate time for an expression of civic gratitude but I was nervous.
                  They backed away from my car to let me turn which I did very carefully so as not to spook anyone into shooting at me.
                  With that, all the will to see my father was gone. I just wanted to go home and go to bed. It was a long ride back.

Chapter 6
    “Darkness”
    It was well after two o’clock in the morning when I finally made it back home. While the cities and towns I drove through were still manically awake, my street was blissfully dark and quiet. I pulled into my driveway under the light of the moon and activated my garage door opener.
    Nothing happened.
    I obstinately pushed the button a few more times but it still wouldn’t open. The implications of this were very troubling to me. If the garage door opener was broken, there’s no way I‘d ever be able to repair it on my own.
    The car door creaked open as I got out and looked around. The quiet stillness I’d noted when I drove in now seemed eerie. It was too dark.
    I fumbled around on the porch u ntil I let myself into a living room as black as King Tut’s tomb. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to conclude it wasn’t a malfunctioning garage door opener.
    By some miracle I located a flashlight and went about manually opening the garage door to bring my car in.
    Back on the porch, I sipped a glass of straight whiskey and choked down a stale cigarette from a pack I kept around when times got stressful enough for me to deal with them chemically.
    The sounds of