Blackout by Tim Curran

Author:Tim Curran
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: DarkFuse
Published: 2014-06-06T23:00:00+00:00

12

“This is crazy,” Ray said, startling us all. “What’s the point of us being bottled up like this?”

“I think it has something to do with dying,” Billy told him, smart-assed as always.

Apparently, Ray had snapped out of his fugue. No one was more surprised than I was.

“My point is,” he said, “this is getting us nowhere. We need to come up with some kind of plan. The rest of the world is out there even if we can’t contact them. What we need to be thinking is how we’re going to get word to them about what’s going on here.”

“If they haven’t figured it out by now,” Iris said, “then they’re either blind, stupid, or dead.”

Bonnie nodded. “It’s probably going on everywhere. Even our cells are down and there’s no Internet. I checked. Nobody out there can help us any more than they can help themselves. We need to face that.”

“So we should just give up?” Ray put to her.

“I didn’t say that.”

“But that’s what you implied.”

“Just shut up, Ray. Okay?”

“Frightened little pill bugs that roll up when they’re scared,” he said, meaning all of us. “I expected better. Maybe not from you, Bonnie, but from the rest of you people.”

Bonnie was getting pissed and I could sense it. “Tell you what, Ray,” she said, almost too calmly. “Why don’t you just crawl back into your corner and shut the fuck up?”

Ray shuddered. I could hear him grinding his teeth. “You don’t talk to me like that! Maybe your husband isn’t man enough to slap your little whoring mouth but I sure as hell am and I sure as hell will!”

Billy set his beer down. “Nobody’s going to be slapping anybody’s mouth, Ray. Not even Bonnie’s whoring mouth. I’m going to give you a pass on this because you’re stressed-out and my wife has a way of blurting out the first stupid thing she can think of. But if you threaten her again, I’ll have to knock your teeth down your throat. I won’t enjoy it, but I sure as fuck will do it.”

There was something about Billy’s smooth, easy manner that was frightening. He never lost his temper, never went into theatrics shouting and stomping his feet, but when he said he would hit you, you could be sure he would. It shut Ray up. Bonnie said something else I didn’t catch and Billy told her to quit while she was still ahead.

Christ. If this went on for six months, it was going to be ugly…and bloody. There was no doubt about that. Six days would be pushing it.

After a few moments, Ray said, “We can’t just sit here.”

I heard Billy sigh. “All right, all right. If you’re so unhappy, then feel free to go out there and marshal the troops.”

“Yes,” Iris said. “Go out there. It’s sheer stupidity, but nothing would surprise me with you, Ray Wetmore.”

I decided it was time to intervene. “All right, everybody settle down. Nobody’s going out there.”

But by then Ray had his back up.

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