Free Mayan Afterglow by A. S. Fenichel Page B

Aileen’s
stomach churned from both the sound and the stench.
    “You don’t look to be borrowing, boy. Looks to me like
you’re stealing from the law here in this fine town.”
    Ian reached through the window and wrapped his hand around
the .38 lying on the seat. “You may not have noticed, Sheriff, but there’s not
much town left. You seem to be the only thing still living here and I think
that’s a stretch of my imagination.”
    Aileen crouched down and Ian backed away from the truck
slightly as he opened the door.
    She could hear his thoughts screaming in her head. “Get in
and if I don’t make it, drive.”
    “Still, it’s my town and I don’t take kindly to thieves
coming through thinking they can take anything they want. You are a thief, Ian
Scott. I know all about you and that whore you travel with. For some reason my
boss wants the girl and I have to do my job here and take her to him.”
    Ian shot, blowing the left side of the sheriff’s face off.
At the same time he opened the driver’s side door and yelled, “Go.”
    Aileen got in and drove forward. In the rearview mirror she
saw what was left of the sheriff stumble off the stoop and lunge at Ian. She
stopped, threw the truck in reverse and hit the gas and the horn at the same
time.
    Ian turned and jumped out of the way just as the truck bed
rammed the sheriff. He got up roaring and continued his pursuit. Ian raised the
.38 and fired the remaining eight shots directly into the sheriff’s head. What
was left finally fell to the ground oozing almost black blood onto the gravel.
    Ian jumped in the cab. “Drive.”
    Aileen stomped on the gas pedal and the truck spit gravel
out behind them.
    “We have to get out of here,” she said as they left town and
turned onto Highway 96 toward the airport.
    “We have to fix the plane.”
    Turning left down the drive toward the airport she stomped
the brakes so hard that the truck fish-tailed. Panic started to seep into her
heart. Asher, was he okay? Had Mictlan sent more than one creature this time?
    She threw the truck into park outside the small hangar and
raced across the lot calling his name. “Asher!”
    Ian was only a step behind her.
    “Asher!”
    She looked left and right. The Cessna had been left in the
middle of the repair bay. Tools were all around as if thrown haphazardly.
    “Asher!” Ian called.
    “What?” the boy called back from a catwalk to the right and
above them.
    Aileen sat down on the floor and put her head in her hands.
“Thank God,” she said to herself.
    “You okay?” Ian asked.
    “Yeah,” he said taking the stairs down to them at a run.
“What happened to you two?”
    “Undead sheriff in town. We don’t have much time. I got all
the tools I could find. How long do you think it will take to get that nose to
where we can take off?”
    Asher didn’t stop until he was crouching in front of Aileen
on the floor. “An hour, maybe two,” he said to Ian, but his eyes were on
Aileen. “Are you all right?”
    Her eyes were filled with terror. “I thought we’d find you
dead or worse.”
    His eyes grew large. “Worse? I hope you’ll put a bullet in
me if it’s worse,” he said with a laugh but she knew he was not joking.
    “I was worried.”
    He took her hand and yanked her to her feet. “I’m fine. I
got the nose pulled back. The interior looks okay. We need to get the
aerodynamics in order and we’ll be good to go.”
    “We have to hurry,” she said.
    * * * * *
    They were back in the air with a full tank of fuel and
nearly two hours of rusty daylight remaining in the autumn sky. The farther
south they traveled the longer the day. That would buy them a little more time
before they would have to find a place to land and sleep.
    It was nearly dark when Ian pointed toward the right and
said, “There, you see it?”
    Aileen followed the direction he was pointing. In the middle
of the desert she could see a small house.
    “I see it. I’m going to put her down on that