Page 69 of Ride Hard
I glanced up at the moon and shrugged. “Maybe.”
“But we’ve got nothing to make a fire, and there are coyotes out there…” On cue, another howl echoed through thenight.
“It’s about fifteen miles to the nearest town,” I said. “So about fivehours.”
“How do you know that?” She screwed up her face. “Are you a fucking mediumnow?”
“No.” I pointed to the sign that was looming out of the darkening twilight. “It’s written rightthere.”
Sloane scowled, which only caused me tolaugh.
“Don’t laugh at me,” she complained. “Five hours walk? Fuck thatshit.”
Ignoring her, I kept walking, focusing on the last smear of sunlight on the horizon. Forever moving east… Straight into the lion’sden.
* * *
It didn’t takea genius to know we took over five hours to cover the distance to the smallest town inAmerica.
Sloane dragged her feet the entire way, and it was closing in on two a.m.? by the time civilization came into view. It didn’t help that no cars had passed us, either. Hitching a ride would’ve been a welcome luxury, but we would have had a lot of explaining to do about the mess we’d leftbehind. ??????
Nothing stirred, so we spent the rest of the night on the stoop of the local post office—a rundown building in the middle of a park of dead trees and rusted play equipment—and waited for something tomove.
Sloane fell asleep instantly, so I kept watch, passing the time watching the sky for UFOs until the sunrose.
“Excuse me?Sir?”
My eyes snapped open, and I started as I realized I’d drifted off.Idiot.
“Sir?” the voice askedagain.
Looking up into the face of a confused middle-aged woman, I rubbed my eyes, and Sloane stirred besideme.
“Ma’am?” I rose to my feet, dusting off my jeans as I went. “I’m sorry to disturb you. We ran into some trouble on the road during the nightand—”
“You broke down?” she asked, interruptingme.
I gave her the once-over, noting the United States Postal Service emblem on her blouse and the wiry silver hair on her head. She had a no-nonsense look abouther.
“Yes. We ran off the road about fifteen miles back. Blew two tires androlled.”
The woman glanced at Sloane, who’d remained silent, thankfuck.
“Lucky you got out of that, then,” she said, stepping around us and unlocking the door. “No one bothers us out here much anymore. If you were trapped, no one would’ve found you anytimesoon.”
“That explains why we saw no one on the walkhere.”
The woman nodded. “It won’t be long until the post stops, then this place will really die. Hear that?” I frowned as she paused. “That silence is the deathrattle.”
Sloane shot me a look and circled her finger around her temple, signaling she thought the woman was batshit crazy. Luckily, the woman didn’t notice the gesture and let us into the postoffice.
“May we trouble you to use your phone?” Iasked.
“Sure thing. I don’t see why not. It’s out back.” She gestured for me to follow as Sloane lingered in the shop. Rounding the counter, the woman opened the door, turned on the lights, and nodded toward the desk. “Helpyourself.”
I waited until I was alone to dial the number. This conversation wasn’t going to be pretty, not by a longshot.
He answered after fiverings.
