Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves TownDoctorow, Cory
Science
Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town
Doctorow, Cory
Internet -- Fiction; Science fiction; Toronto (Ont.) -- Fiction
Apparently, it did. He heard the sound of the small glass pane over the
doorknob shatter, and Davey turned his head to look in the direction of
the sound. Alan snatched up the pillow that he'd been smothering under
and swung it as hard as he could at Davey's head, knocking him around,
and the door was open now, the summer night air sweeping up the stairs
to the second-floor bedroom.
"Alan?" It was Kurt.
"Kurt, up here, he's got a knife!"
Boots on the stairs, and Davey standing again, cornered, with the knife,
slashing at the air toward him and toward the bedroom door, toward the
light coming up the stairs, bobbing, Kurt's maglight, clenched in his
teeth, and Davey bolted for the door with the knife held high. The light
stopped moving and there was an instant's tableau, Davey caught in the
light, cracked black lips peeled back from sharp teeth, chest heaving,
knife bobbing, and then Alan was free, diving for his knees, bringing
him down.
Kurt was on them before Davey could struggle up to his good elbow,
kicking the knife away, scattering fingerbones like dice.
Davey screeched like a rusty hinge as Kurt twisted his arms up behind
his back and Alan took hold of his ankles. He thrashed like a raccoon in
a trap, and Alan forced the back of his head down so that his face was
mashed against the cool floor, muffling his cries.
Kurt shifted so that his knee and one hand were pinning Davey's wrists,
fished in his pockets, and came out with a bundle of hairy twine. He set
it on the floor next to Alan and then shifted his grip back to Davey's
arms.
As soon as Alan released the back of Davey's head, he jerked it up and
snapped his teeth into the top of Kurt's calf, just above the top of his
high, chain-draped boot. Kurt hollered and Adam reached out and took the
knife, moving quickly before he could think, and smashed the butt into
Davey's jaw, which cracked audibly. Davey let go of Kurt's calf and Alan
worked quickly to lash his feet together, using half the bundle of
twine, heedless of how he cut into the thin, cracking skin. He used the
knife to snip the string and then handed the roll to Kurt, who went to
work on Danny's wrists.
Alan got the lights and rolled his brother over, looked into his mad
eyes. Dale was trying to scream, but with his jaw hanging limp and his
teeth scattered, it came out in a rasp. Alan stood and found that he was
naked, his shoulder and bicep dripping blood down his side into a pool
on the polished floor.
"We'll take him to the basement," he told Kurt, and dug through the
laundry hamper at the foot of the bed for jeans. He found a couple of
pairs of boxer shorts and tied one around his bicep and the other around
his shoulder, using his teeth and chin as a second hand. It took two
tries before he had them bound tight enough to still the throb.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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