A Portion for Foxes by Daniel Mitchell

Author:Daniel Mitchell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: violence, rape, thriller, suspense, survival, gangs
Publisher: Red Adept Publishing
Published: 2021-08-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

“Well, would you look at the hippie,” Will said. “Where the hell have you been?” He hadn't changed much while I was gone. He was my height, just short of six feet, but was wirier and whipcord lean than me. Fat just melted off him and turned to lean muscle in a way I'd always envied. He had the same laughing brown eyes and dark buzz cut as always. His Wranglers were faded but clean under a T-shirt with the sleeves cut off.

On Friday evening, Will had just come home from working a twelve-hour night-shift job and slept during the day—four on and four off. Mom told me he didn’t come home every morning. She thought he had a girlfriend someplace but said Will refused to talk about it.

“Chillin’,” I replied with a fake-casual shrug.

“Really? Months without a word, and that’s the best you can come up with?"

I looked down for what seemed a long time. “Remember when we used to talk about moving to the quarry if things got bad or we had to hide for a while?”

"No crap? Dad hinted that he kicked you out but wouldn't tell me squat. What did you do?"

I thought of Eades’s body settling in the dust, and my throat went all tight. "I can't tell you. Not yet."

Will laughed and started to say something but took another look at my face and seemed to change his mind. "You're really not going to tell me?"

"Not anytime soon," I said. "But someday when we're old and really drunk. Maybe then."

Surprisingly, he just nodded and seemed to accept it, but I knew he didn’t plan to let it go that easily.

"Why didn't you tell me where you were going, at least? I'd have gone with you. You're my brother."

I thought about that for a minute. How different it would have been if I hadn’t been alone.

"So you’ve been living in some railroad shack for six months? What did you eat, wild man? You never could hunt for crap.”

“You’d be surprised,” I said, “what a man can do and what he’ll eat when he’s hungry enough. I set traps, hunted, ran your lines."

Will laughed. “A man, did you say? Horse crap! You’ve been playing Jeremiah Johnson in a cave for six months? You got to be kidding. I mean, you smell like it, but seriously?”

“Ate pretty much whatever I could find at first, and I didn’t live in some shack. Remember that cave we always talked about? I found it and spent the winter there. Then I met a guy in the woods, and he took me in. Taught me some stuff.”

“I bet he did, with that long, pretty hair of yours." He smiled at that in a way I hadn't seen from him since I was little. "Don't do it again,” he said quietly. Suddenly, Will reached out and pulled my hair. “But this shaggy-dog look has to go, and what are those? Whiskers? Puberty finally came, huh?”

“Think fast,” I said and punched him in the short ribs.

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