Free Dead Air (Book One of The Dead Series) by Jon Schafer

to give out a slow steady beating that would be remembered for some time.
    He reached over the dryer and took down a sawed off baseball bat from a shelf before turning and calling out loudly, "Strike three, honey, you're out."
    Anton took the stairs two at a time up to the master bedroom, then paused at the door and hefted his weapon. He considered taking a practice swing at the wall but quickly dismissed this idea. Anton and the ball bat were well acquainted from previous punishment sessions, and he felt it would be a waste of energy best saved for the upcoming festivities.
    Seeing the door to the bedroom ajar, he used the end of the bat to push it all the way open. Taking four quick steps into the room, he started to say, "Honey, we really need to talk about a few things," but the words died in his mouth. On the other side of the bed was a sight that caused the saliva in his mouth to dry up and leave him speechless.
    Anton's wife had his very own shotgun pointed directly at his head.
    He was at a loss for words at this new development, so Lois Washburn filled him in. With a voice completely void of emotion, she said, "For seven years I've let you abuse me and degrade me and I'm not gonna let that happen no more. I've thought about doing this a million times but I was worried what would happen to our two children with you killed and me in prison for doing it."
    Shifting the barrel of the shotgun slightly to point at the television on the dresser behind Anton , she said, "Now I got me an out. You came home crazed and tried to bite me. I'll tell them you must have gotten bit walking back from the bar, and then you tried to attack me. I made it up here and grabbed the first thing I could find to defend myself. I didn't want to do it but I had to. Anyone with the disease needs to be put down. It's been all over the news and I heard you say it yourself."
    Anton felt his bladder void down his leg as he started to say the words, "We can work this out, honey ," but they were lost in the roar of the shotgun.
    Shaking, Lois Washburn walked over to her husband and looked down at his corpse. Leaning over, she spit in the place where his head would normally have been and said, "Thank you, Lord, for delivering me from evil, Amen."
    ***
    Denver, Colorado:
    Mile High Stadium was known for its sellout crowds when the Broncos played. Tickets were sold out well in advance, and on the day of the game, scalpers could be found peddling these passes on the streets leading to the stadium for three and four times their face value.
    Tim Darcy was one of those sellers , but on this night he felt like he was the one getting scalped. Knowing that on a normal game night he could get rid of as many tickets as he could afford to buy, the previous day he had purchased twenty tickets for tonight's game at twice their value, hoping to sell them at a tidy profit. He looked with disgust at the remaining passes in his hand as he realized that, from the way things were going, this was not to be. So far, he had only been able to get rid of one pair of tickets and the game was set to start in twenty minutes.
    Traffic in front of him came to a halt as the light turned red so Tim stepped out into the street, walking between the rows of cars with his tickets held up for all to see. Reaching the end of the line, he turned around to see with disbelief that the light was still red. Usually he ran out of time before he ran out of cars and had to dodge traffic as he ran back to the safety of the sidewalk.
    Where in the hell was everyone? Even his regular customers were no shows tonight.
    Looking down and shaking his head in wonder, he started walking back to his corner to await the next red light. He felt his skin prickle as he looked up, wondering what the hell was going on now. Ahead of him, he could see one of the other scalpers, a black guy who usually worked the other side of the street and who was now standing in his spot waiting for him. This was a clear violation of