Page 172 of Diamond Kisses

With the sun climbing up the sky, I didn’t have the darkness to hide in.

I should wait until tonight.

I should go sleep in some barn and eat at a local eatery.

But…

I glanced at my leg.

The drive had taken longer because I’d had to stop and use my belt as a tourniquet. The bleeding had slowed but frustrating numbness crawled down my leg. My foot was dead and I’d grown acquainted with the light-headedness of blood loss all over again.

I didn’t have the luxury of waiting for tonight.

If I wanted to take out the rest of these monsters, I had to do it now.

And then, I can finally sleep.

I sighed and rested my head on the steering wheel.

Christ, that sounded good.

Sounbelievablygood.

Just another hour or so and I would be free.

Let’s do this, then.

Gathering all my strength, I tightened the black t-shirt I’d wrapped around my bitten arm and hauled my very dead, very heavy carcass out of the car. I’d tucked the ostentatious Lamborghini behind a farmer’s lichen-covered wall.

I’d have a long walk.

Going to the trunk at the front of the car, I popped it open and dressed myself in every weapon I’d stolen.

Automatic rifles slung over my shoulders, pistols hooked into my waistband. Even a grenade I’d found in one sick fuck’s den dropped into my pocket.

Tightening the belt around my leg, I slammed the trunk closed and walked.

The sunshine was my enemy as I cut across the farmer’s field and did my best to stay in the shadows of the windbreak trees. I managed to traverse most of the vineyard on some other person’s land.

Sheep came to sniff me.

A blackbird took off cackling.

My steps grew heavier and slower the higher up the hill I climbed.

But I didn’t stop.

Death whispered on the edge of my mind.

All that darkness gathered behind me to push me the final way.

Panting hard, I cut across the rock wall and took a deep breath.

They’d be able to see me from here. They’d see a bloody, exhausted man bristling with weapons traipsing uninvited across their garden.

Human instinct to survive made me shrink back into the shadows.

But bloodlust and eagerness to have this whole life over made me step boldly into the sunshine.

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