Free Cheap Thrills (6 Thrilling reads) by Luis Samways Page A

of the survivors behind him. The man looks back up at Sammy while holding his nose in pain. Some of the onlookers smirk at the sight of the heckling man in the puddle.
    ‘Now we have that out of the way, we need to figure out what we are going to do,’ says Sammy as he scans the crowd for answers.
    One woman steps forward.
    ‘Why don’t we get on a boat and get out of the country?’ She asks
    ‘I’m afraid that’s out of the question. You saw what happened above ground. Those flashing lights practically killed thirty odd thousand people in front of us all. If it wasn’t for the fact that we were on the East exits, it could be us up there lying on the ground in a pile of our own ashes’
    The woman shakes her head in disagreement.
    ‘You weren’t with us in the stands, you were on the field’
    Sammy Banes looks down at his jersey. It has a big red number nine on it. Next to his shoulder lies the insignia of the New York Jets.
    ‘Well, I was one of the lucky ones I supposed. The rest of my teammates found themselves in a pile of ashes too, just like a quarter of the stadium’
    ‘How the hell did you get underground so fast?’ One of the men in the crowd asks
    ‘I don’t know, but when I saw what was happening, I thought it was best to hit the road. When I got up to the stairwell leading out of the stadium, it was full of people trying to escape, so I took the elevator and found a bunch of you guys running, so I followed the group and here I am’
    ‘You left your teammates to die!’ Another one of the crowd members shouts.
    Sammy shakes his head
    ‘No, I left my teammates to live ’

Seven
    New York City
    ‘Come on Dwayne, don’t fucking blow up on me now!’ says Tyrell as he rushes through the empty streets of New York on 46 th .
    Dwayne’s trying to keep pace with the faster and leaner Tyrell.
    ‘I won’t man, trust me, I aint looking to die today!’ shouts Dwayne while out of breath from the constant running he and Tyrell have been doing since seeing a man self-combust in front of them.
    They continue to run some more until they come across a sewer grate that’s uncovered. They both stop dead in front of the grate and stare down the endless black hole. The sweat on Tyrell’s hands drip down his fingers as he nervously looks around the desolate street. A few cars remain parked on the side street but nothing else is present but fear and loneliness as they both contemplate their next moves.
    ‘I say we carry on running. We find a shop or something and hunker down in there,’ suggests Dwayne, still reeling for air.
    ‘Nah man, let’s go underground, above ground is dangerous. You ever saw those wacko shows on National Geographic?’
    Dwayne shakes his head
    ‘What shows?’
    ‘You know, the ones with those white people who fear the end of the world is near so they build or buy an underground shelter for when it does end so they can keep safe’
    Dwayne laughs while whipping the sweat off his brow.
    ‘Well it seems as if those white folks were onto something then!’
    ‘I hear you! I’ll go first, the ladder looks a bit unsteady, if it breaks and I fall, just go on without me,’ says Tyrell as he mounts the ladder on the manhole.
    ‘You don’t have to tell me twice!’ says Dwayne
    Tyrell disappears from sight as he clunks his way down the ladder. The sound of his feet hitting every run is a sigh of relief for Dwayne as he continues to stare at his wrist in anxiety. The flashing hasn’t slowed down, as a matter of fact its speeding up. Dwayne sighs impatiently as he starts to worry about exploding into thin air. Finally Tyrell’s voice can be heard from the bottom of the ladder. It seems as if everything went well as Dwayne himself mounts the ladder. Before Dwayne can stabilize himself, he loses his footing on the first run of the dirty ladder. He slips and free falls down the manhole. Its a few seconds before he hits the water but when he does he immediately recognises the pain he is