Alan Wake by Rick Burroughs

Author:Rick Burroughs
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fantasy, Fiction, Suspense, Action & Adventure, General
ISBN: 0765328437
Publisher: Tor Books
Published: 2010-05-25T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 15

THE BRIGHT FALLS Power Co. pickup ran out of gas within sight of the coal mining camp, a cluster of broken-down wooden buildings at the top of a hill. The truck started to roll backwards, but Wake put on the emergency brake. He tried to turn the engine over, but just ground the starter.

He had found the truck about ten miles back, found it in the weeds beside a dirt logging road and looked around for the owner without success. The keys were in the ignition, as though the driver had stepped out for a leisurely piss in the tall grass and never came back. He had waited around for fifteen minutes, resting, but the owner never showed. Wake drove off toward the coal mine. He was tired of walking, exhausted from lack of sleep, and at this point, a car theft charge was the least of his worries.

Wake sat in the front seat, restless, lightly tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. He had over an hour before the kidnapper was supposed to show so he spent some of it searching the truck. He found a more powerful light behind the passenger seat, a searchlight with what seemed to be fresh batteries. He hoped he wouldn’t need it, hoped he would have Alice back before the sun went down.

In an hour, Wake was going to meet the kidnapper, and the man was going to return Alice. He flicked the safety of the 9mm off and on, off and on. One way or the other, the kidnapper was going to release her. Unharmed. Wake hefted the pistol. Eleven bullets in the magazine; more than enough. The man was going to do it, because Wake wasn’t going to give him a choice.

Little by little, without realizing it, Wake had come to believe that the story in the manuscript was coming true, the current of its narrative dragging him deeper and deeper into dark waters. Alice had been taken from him. Barry was probably in jail. Wake was a fugitive from the FBI. The Taken roamed the night, murderous and mindless, fearing only the light. It felt real, it was real…but to anyone on the outside, anyone who hadn’t seen what Wake had seen, done what he had done, it would be grounds for involuntary commitment.

Wake stared through the windshield, watching as a metallic-green dragonfly darted past, then hovered over the hood of the pickup, lacy wings shimmering in the light. The dragonfly dipped in the breeze, blown backwards, then veered through the open window. Wake didn’t move, didn’t breathe, watching it as it floated inches from his face, beautiful and alien, the dragonfly’s glittering, faceted eyes fixed on him. Just as suddenly, the dragonfly flew off, wings rustling. Wake shook his head. He imagined a local saying, You don’t see things like that in New York City, mister. It was true. Hard to believe how quickly he had adapted to this new reality, how rapidly the veneer of civilization had peeled away.

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