Voice Of Sufferers > Horror > Gone South Read Online

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Gone South Robert McCammon 75340K 2023-08-30

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Tiive her fifteen one, he

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at his watch

She wasn&039;t co

Five more minutes Five more, and then he&039;dit and leave

He leaned back and closed his eyes, listening to the night sounds

It took only a few heartbeats, only a few breaths, and he was back m theThe name of the

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&039;was Cho Yat It was in the lowlands, where rwe padches ed under the August sun and the jungle hid sniper nests and snake holes The platoon had stopped at Cho Yat while Captain Aubrey and the South Vietnae elders about Cong activity in the sector The elders answcxed reluctantly, and in riddle It was not their war As the other Snake Handlers waited, eight or nine children gathered around for a closer look at the foreign giants A newnext to Dan opened his knapsack and gave one litue boy a chocolate bar "Hershey," the man said He was from Boston, and he had a clipped Yankee accent "Can you say that?

Hershey"

"Hishee, " the child answered

"Good enough Why don&039;t you give so away, peeling the tinfoil back and ja the chocolate into his mouth, with other children yeBM in pursuit The Bostonian-his eyes cornflower blue in a young, ununed face, his hair as yellow as the sun-had looked at Dan and shrugged "I guess they don&039;t go in for sharing around here"

"Nope," Dan had replied "If I were you, rd leave it to the captain to do the talking You&039;ll be wanting that in a few hours"

The rust-splotched station wagon crept through the streets of Alexandria, past the dark and quiet houses, past the teardrop-shaped streetla on the parched brons

Dan drove slowly, alert for the police His shoulder was stiffening, his body felt as if he&039;d been tumbled a few times inside a cement mixer, but he was alive and free and Basile Park was less than a mile away

He&039;d seen no police cars and only a few other vehicles out at this late hour He turned onto a street that led into theit past an area of picnic tables and tennis courts A sign pointed the way to the a lot

His heart sank, the lot was empty But maybe she hadn&039;t been able to shake the police Maybe a lot of things Or maybe she&039;d just derided not to show up I -A He decided to wait He stopped the station wagon, cut the lights and the engine, and," there in the dark, the song of cicadas reaching him

&039;a

nearby stand of pines

What had happened to his pickup truck still speared hihtmare was accountable to the truck, and it had taken that red-haired witch two seconds to destroy its usefulness

Da Easy payood warranty, made in America

Dan wondered what Blanchard&039;s wife and children were feeling like about now, and he let the thoughts of his pickup truck go

Tiive her fifteenat his watch

She wasn&039;t co

Five more minutes Five more, and then he&039;d accept it and leave

He leajaed back and closed his eyes, listening to the night sounds

It took only a few heartbeats, only a few breaths, and he was back m the&039;

The name of the

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was Cho Yat It was in the lowlands, where nce padches steale hid sniper nests and snake holes The platoon had stopped at Cho Yat while Captain Aubrey and the South Vietnamese translator bunkered down in the shade to ask theelders about Cong activity in the sector The elders answered reluctantly, and in riddles It was not their war As the other Snake Handlers wated, eight or iants A newnext to Dan opened his knapsack and gave one little boy a chocolate bar "Hershey," the man said He was from Boston, and he had a clipped Yankee accent "Can you say that?

Hershey"

"Hishee, " the child answered

"Good enough Why don&039;t you give so away, peeling the tinfoil back and ja the chocolate into hisin pursuit The Bostonian-his eyes cornflower blue in a young, unlined face, his hair as yellow as the sun-had looked at Dan and shrugged "I guess they don&039;t go in for sharing around here" "Nope," Dan had replied "If I were you, I&039;d leave it to the captain to do the tradin&039;

You&039;ll be wanting it in a few horn"

"I&039;ll survive"

"Uh-huh Well, if I were you, I&039;d do what I was told and no more

Don&039;t offer, don&039;t volunteer, and don&039;t be givin&039; away your food"

"It was just a chocolate bar So what?"

"You&039;ll find out in a reen Bostonian was surrounded by shouting children with their hands thrust out Soht scrounge froiants The co of the elders, and he ca at the Bostonian like a monsoon cloud It was explained to the soldier that he was not to be giving away his food or any other iteifts because the Cong had been known to slaughter whole villages when they found canned goods, mirrors, or other trinkets All this had been said with Captain Aubrey&039;s face about two inches from the Bostonian&039;s, and by the ti in his voice that could curl a chopper&039;s rotors, the Bostonian&039;s face had gone chalky under his fresh sunburn

"It was just a piece of candy," the young man had said when Captain Aubrey returned to his business and the children had been scattered away "It&039;s no big deal"

Dan had looked at the Bostonian&039;s sweat-damp shirt and seen his name printed there in black stencil over the pocket: Farrow "Out here everythin&039;s a big deal," Dan had told him "Just lay low, do what you&039;re supposed to, and don&039;t go south, you ht live for a week or two"

The platoon had left Cho Yat,rice paddies toward the dark wall of jungle that lay beyond Their patrol had lasted four hours and discovered not so much as the print of a Goodyear-soled sandal It was on the way out when the point teae that sole with the others, Dan had seen the dark scrawl of sly yellow sky A harsh, hot wind had washed over him, and in it he&039;d smelled a sickly-sweet odor like pork barbecue

He&039;d knohat the odor was He&039;d smelled it before, after a flamethrower had done its work on a snake hole

Captain Aubrey had ordered thee, and Dan had done what he was told because he&039;d always been a good soldier, the sent air and his boots slogging through rice-paddy mud

His eyes opened in the dark

He peered into the rearviewthe park road

He stopped breathing If it was a police carHis fingers weift to the key in the ignition switch The headlights ca on his face Then the car stopped about twenty feet away and the lights went out

His breathing resued note It was a darkcolored Toyota, not a police car Dan watched the rearview hts

He sat there waiting So did the Toyota&039;s driver Well, he would have to ot out and stood beside the station wagon The driver&039;s door of the Toyota opened, and a wolier seat

"Dan?" If the sound of her voice had been glass, it would have cut his throat

"It&039;s me," he answered His palether in the pit of his stomach

She came toward him She stopped suddenly, when she could see his face a little better "You&039;ve changed," she said

"Lost souess"

Susan had never been one to shrink frorit She continued to walk toward hies and deliriuht some of the hell of that war back with hion Susan stopped n when she was an arood," he told her, and it was the truth Susan had been on the thin side when they&039;d divorced, but now she looked fit and healthy He figured her nerves were a lot steadier without him around

She&039;d cut her dark brown hair to just above her shoulders, and Dan could tell that there was a lot of gray in it Her face was still firm-jawed and more attractive than he remembered More confident, too

There was soreen She wore jeans and a short-sleeved pale blue blouse Susan was still Susan: ato announce that she was anything other than a woht," he said

"I am We both are"

He looked anxiously toward the park road Susan said, "I didn&039;t bring the police"

"I believe you"

"I told &039;em you called, and that I was afraid to stay at the house I wouldn&039;t have taken so long, but they had one of their men follow me to the Holiday Inn He sat out in the parkin&039; lot for about an hour Then all of a sudden he raced off, and I thought for sure they&039;d caught you"

Dan figured the otten a radio call By now the police ht you&039;d be in a pickup truck," Susan said

"I stopped at a motel outside town and the couple n the place found out who I was They tried to get the reward by blastin&039; ut-shot her own husband by accident and then blew out one of the truck&039;s tires Only way I could get here was by takin&039; their car"

"Dan-" Susan&039;s voice cracked "Dan, what&039;re you gonna do?"

"I don&039;t know Keep froht, I hope Maybe find a place where I can rest awhile and think sorim smile "This hasn&039;t been one of my best days"

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