Page 72 of Lake
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Lake
“It’s fuckin’ cold,” the prospect said, his body doing its best to shrink into his coat.
I laughed and nodded in agreement.
I could tell he wasn’t trying to complain so I didn’t give him any shit.
The weather was so weird here. There was really no Fall. One day it would be in the high seventies and the next it would be a high of forty. And two days later, back up to the point you felt like you could wear shorts. Not that I was a shorts guy. I wondered if I’d ever get used to it. I got that I was still newish to the area and that there were going to be things I’d have to adapt to. But fuck, this weather was the worst.
“Wait,” I said looking at him. “You’ve lived here most of your life, shouldn’t you be used to it?”
He tossed his head back and barked out a laugh.
“Not something you really get used to. You should see it when we get snow. And I’m talking about light snow, barely enough to show up. Whole fucking town shuts down.”
“Really?” I asked because coming from the mountains, I was used to dealing with that shit all winter.
“City has like one plow. And better keep your ass off the roads. You think people drive like shit now…”
He shook his head like he couldn’t even tell me how bad it was.
Okay, that frightened me. People drove for shit in this city. It was worse when I was on my bike. It was like I wasn’t even there. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’d been cut off and almost ran up someone’s bumper because they just decided to slam on the brakes out of nowhere.
“What was that?” he asked in a harsh whisper as he reached for his gun.
The noise was faint and I would have guessed some kind of small animal. But I sure as hell wasn’t going to brush it off.
“Right behind you,” I said as I reached for my own piece.
We made our way through the maze of containers. It was dark and though our eyes had adjusted to the darkness because we’d been out here for hours, it was still hard to see clearly.
“Hold up,” I said as something flashed in my vision.
We both froze. I slowly reached for the flashlight I had tucked in my back pocket and clicked it on.
“Fuck,” we both said as the light revealed what was not even ten feet in front of us.
The damn alligator hissed at us and I knew it was time to fucking move.
“You think he sees us?” the prospect asked.
“Should we back away slowly or run?” I asked.
“I ain’t takin’ my eyes off of him.”
“Good idea.”
Ten minutes later, we were both standing on top of a bunch of stacked rusted out containers looking around like the thing was going to crawl up after us.
And that was how we finished out our patrol, walking only where we could without hopping down to the ground level.
I didn’t want to run into the thing again. Or another one. I also didn’t want to shoot it because, well, that just seemed extreme.
The sun started to peek its head up on the horizon as I flipped my phone around in my hand absentmindedly. I’d had this idea running through my head all night but was unsure of it. Finally, without thinking, I called Mouse.
“What’s going on, brother?” he asked as he answered the phone. “Everything alright? I was getting ready to head that way in a few.”
