Free Among the Living by Timothy Long Page B

her key that triggers the car. Her hand slips under the trunk, and the lid pops up. She deposits her bags and then sets her purse inside. Leaning over, she takes out a few dollars and then slams the trunk.
    A passerby averts his eyes as she turns, and she bets he was staring up her skirt as she leaned over. Well, let him look and let him imagine how soft her legs are. She holds the money out and walks toward the groaning man with her nose crinkled up as if she is about to root around in a trashcan.
    The man doesn’t move at all. His head has slumped to the side. Did he fall asleep like that? She will just drop the money in his lap and move on.
    She struts across the parking lot and stands to one side.
    “Here you go, mister. I hope you spend it on food and not booze,” she says and then drops the money in his lap. Oh shit, was that a twenty? How could she be so stupid?
    The dollar bills pile around his lap, and a woman walking by in a long sundress with a droopy yellow hat smiles at her in a clear attempt to acknowledge her generosity. Shylah Rae nods back, and when the woman turns, she reaches down with finger and thumb and grabs the twenty, then pulls it out as if extracting a receipt from the trash.
    She lets out a little scream when the guy moves. Then she crinkles the twenty in her hand before he can see it and walks away. The man comes to his feet like a shot. She glances back at him and feels horror creep over her skin. His eyes are red, bloody, and the color around them has become a sickening gray as if devoid of any pigmentation.
    He hauls himself toward her, and she notices he is bleeding from one hand where several fingers are missing. The sight of the bloody stumps is too much, and she cries out in dread.
    On heels that are not designed for running, she attempts a little skitter step, but he is right there. She starts to scream when he lunges forward and wraps her in his arms.
    “I gave you money, leave me alone!” she howls, but he sinks his teeth, his fucking nasty stinking teeth into her shoulder, and pain explodes in her head as she is borne to the ground. Her knees scrape against the hot black pavement. She manages to free one hand but not before a piece of broken glass rips it nearly to the bone. She hears a snap that concerns her, but her brain is still trying to come to grips with a man biting her.
    The smell of him is like an alley filled with old piss and beer bottles. The overwhelming stench combined with the hot ground makes her want to gag. She swings her elbow back and manages to dislodge his teeth from her shoulder, and maybe it’s not that bad. Then the pain arrives from that area, and she nearly passes out.
    He digs in again, and this time there is a tearing sound as he pulls a chunk of flesh out. It is the same sickening sound as the time she cut up a whole chicken and had to pull the leg off the thigh meat.
    Then the weight is gone as a man pulls the bum off her. Another man arrives, and they commence beating the crap out of the guy. The homeless man doesn’t just resist; he goes crazy and swings his arms up to grip the first man in a bear hug, then his mouth snaps down to bite him as well.
    Through tear-stained eyes, she watches him try to struggle free. Her other savior, a black guy with a shaved head, grabs the homeless man and tears him free. He grips him by the throat and thrusts him away with a loud “Back off!” but the guy only falls and then tries to stand again.
    The first savior holds his own neck, and there is blood there, but it doesn’t seem to matter to her as much anymore as she faints dead away. The last thought her living brain ever has is worry for the dress, which she forgot to hang up in the back of the car. Then darkness descends as a haze of red covers her sight.
     
     

Lester
     
     
    A crash outside makes Lester sit up in a panic and look around the dark room. He reaches for his gun, but it isn’t there, and when his hand doesn’t find the nightstand, he