Free Crash III: There's No Place Like Home by Michael Robertson Page A

crows. Is that what you want?”
    Michael shook his head.
    After watching him for a few more seconds as if daring him to say something else, Lola resumed with dragging the boy toward the library.  
    Hobbling ahead of her, Michael pulled the huge wooden door open. The old hinges creaked, echoing through the high-ceilinged building.
    After Lola had dragged him through, Michael let the door fall closed and watched her drag him to one of the aisles.  
    Her scowl said, “Back the fuck off,” but Michael couldn’t. “You’re going to leave him there?”
    She cocked an eyebrow and tilted her head to one side.  
    Michael didn’t ask her anything else.  
    When she pulled a book from the shelf and a lighter from her pocket, Michael gasped again.  
    “Do you need a fucking inhaler or something?” Lola asked.
    Before he could say anything, she struck the lighter, opened the book slightly, and held the flame to the pages. It went up almost instantly. She put the lighter back in her pocket and pulled another book from a shelf. Using the first book, she lit the second.  
    After setting fire to several more books, she placed them individually on the shelves surrounding the dead boy and pulled more books onto each one.
    Before long, flames had spread along the lines of books, and smoke filled the air. The brightness and heat increased with each passing second.  
    “You wanted a proper send-off,” Lola said. “What better way than a cremation that will light up the entire city?”
    The plastic taste of smoke snaked into Michael’s throat, and he had to swallow to get his words out. “But won’t everyone see this?”
    “Yes, and we’ll be nowhere near it when they do; as long as we leave now, that is. It’s perfect; it’ll distract the bad men while we make our escape.”
    Michael turned back to the flames, the heat tingling against his skin as he stood hypnotized by the orange glow. Fatigue stung his eyes, and he lost focus.  
    When he looked around a few seconds later, Lola had gone. After another glance at the dead boy on the floor, he left too.

Stay With Me

    Michael clenched his jaw against the biting cold as he walked down the street with Lola. They hadn’t spoken since leaving the library.
    The only light came from the moon in the cloudless sky. Michael looked back in the direction they’d come from. “It won’t be long before the library’s lighting up the whole of London. That many books are going to make one hell of a bonfire.”
    Michael stumbled to the side when Lola suddenly shoved him. “Hey, what was that for?”
    She nodded at his feet. “Your ankle’s better then?”
    “Yeah, it seems a lot better. It still hurts a little, but it can take my weight now.”
    Her eyes narrowed and her tone sharpened. “So I carried you all that way for nothing?” She tutted at him. “You were acting like it was broken.”
    Michael threw his arms up and stopped. “What’s wrong with you? You’ve been bitchy since you woke up. Have you got your period or something?”
    At first, Lola just stared at him, her fists clenched as she ground her jaw. Then her brow softened, and her eyes widened slightly. A twitch of her mouth and she snorted before she started to laugh.
    “What’s so fucking funny?”
    When Lola ruffled his shaggy hair, it took everything he had not to swing for her.  
    “Come on, Nearly Eleven; let’s walk. Maybe I’ll explain a thing or two to you about how to talk to women.”
    Michael stared at her back as she walked away, shook his head, and then followed after her.  

    ***

    All that was left of the supermarket’s logo was the letter T . The other letters seemed to have completely vanished. It seemed odd that anyone would steal them.
    As they walked across the front of the supermarket, they had to step through the once metal frame that had been the automatic door at the main entrance. At one point, it would have been glazed but not anymore. Shards of glass jutted from the frame as