Free Wormwood Dawn (Episode III) by Edward Crae Page A

couldn’t light her fireplace to keep the house warm.”
    Dan nodded, only partially listening. “I guess so,” he said, fishing a half-pint from his jacket.
    He took a swig, swallowing the sweet whiskey with a sigh. He put the bottle back and continued forward along the road, heading toward the next and last neighborhood before the old state road.
    “There are more houses down here we haven’t hit,” he said. “There should be some good shit. It’s a bit more upscale.”
    “The last time I broke into a rich dude’s house I got laid,” Vincent said. “That was some fucked up shit. He was gone; she was home and horny.”
    “What the fuck?” Drew said, laughing.
    “He must not have paid much attention to her,” Vincent continued. “When she saw me sneakin’ around, she opened her robe and dropped it on the flo’. Fucked her right there in the kitchen. That was some good shit, tho’.”
    Jake laughed hard, probably harder than Dan had ever heard him laugh. Soon, he and Drew joined in, picturing the scene as they rolled down the road.
    A few minutes later, they came upon the next neighborhood. There were four houses there; all of them large and perfectly kept. There was no candlelight in any of the windows, and even the houses with solar were dark and almost ghostly in appearance. The long concrete driveways were overgrown with weeds, and a single car sat in one of them. Its driver’s side door was open, and a body lay sprawled half in and half out.
    “Chaos in the burbs,” Jake said. “Sounds like a great flick.”
    “Rich people usually have good pills,” Vincent said. “They got them doctors in they pocket.”
    “Fuck yeah,” Dan said.
    “And some good wine,” Drew added. “Not that liquor store cough syrup.”
    “You and your fuckin’ wine,” Dan said, pulling into the nearest driveway. “Just drink whiskey like a normal person.”
    “Shit,” Vincent said. “I bet there’s some good cognac in there somewhere. Dibs.”
    “Well,” Dan said, shutting off the Hummer. “Make sure you grab a brandy snifter. I don’t have any.”
    “Fuck that,” Vincent snorted. “I ain’t above drinkin’ straight out the bottle.”
    “I hope they have Kool-Aid,” Jake said. “Hell, I could go for a glass of milk.”
    They stepped out, not bothering to be quiet. There didn’t seem to be any reason. The neighborhood was abandoned, and there would be no one to challenge them. Dan hoped so, anyway. He boldly strode forward, trying hard to blank the sight of Shirley’s skinless corpse out of his mind.
    What a way to go, he thought. Fucking brutal.
    Dan pushed the door open, pointing his light inside. The house was well kept and neat from what he could see, but there was a smell of decay hanging in the air. It wasn’t the smell of rotting flesh, but something else.
    Maybe milk.
    He stepped inside, moving to the right so the others could enter. As their collective lights illuminated the room, it was plainly obvious that this family had left quickly; without packing a single item. There was nothing around that would indicate they had tried to survive for a few days, or even one day. They had just left.
    “Lower-upper class douchebags,” Dan said. “They probably went with the mercs willingly.”
    “Well,” Drew said. “They left a houseful of shit.”
    “Let’s divide and conquer,” Dan said. “I’ll check down this hallway. I don’t give a shit what you guys do.”
    Vincent laughed. “Nice plan, man.”
    Dan grinned, heading down the long, perfectly plastered hallway to the left. There were pictures on the walls; smiling kids, smiling parents, smiling dog. It was all picture perfect bullshit that looked like photos that came with the frames. Nobody’s family is that fucking happy.
    “Every happy family is the same,” Dan said. “And every dysfunctional family is dysfunctional in its own way.”
    Who said that? Did he even get the quote right?
    A shorter hallway branched off to the