The car lurched backward and rolled a few feet. The headlights were destroyed; I knew they were, and the cloud/mass slammed into the crunched front of the car, sending it rolling back even further. The windshield strained, and I knew in a second I would feel those dark things at my throat as I was covered in glass.It held. But I knew it wouldn’t for long.I could not believe what was happening to me. Of all the things I’ve seen and even done in my life, this was not something I could ever have imagined.At that point, I knew I was going to die. That was a given. I was not afraid of death, per se, because in our game, it could come at any time. A made man believes his death will come quickly if he’s lucky. A bomb. A gun. A wire around the neck, like in those Mafia flicks. In ways, you can almost understand but hope you never have to experience. But no one wants to die screaming in horror. Screaming about something you don’t understand. There is no honor in that.At that point, I decid

He had rambled to the back entrance of a restaurant, waiting for the proprietor to throw out some leftover food. He and his family had been living off the refuse of this establishment for weeks and were happy that none of the other homeless, hundreds by this time, had found this sweet spot. If so, he would have had to fight them off, as he had done so many times over the past year. He himself had been beaten away by various vagrants in his search for a day’s meal. Some of the homeless were freakishly strong, and he wished he had paid more attention to his weight training in school.He worried incessantly about his family and made sure they were tucked away in the safest places he could find throughout the city as he foraged for meals. Bus stations, train depots and overpasses sometimes made for safe-havens for his loved-ones. Once he found the food, he would wrap as much of it as he could in newspaper and hurry to his wife and daughter, waiting for him at the place he had left them.T

“When Jack asked me about it, I got scared. I didn’t tell him anything. It would have been no use. This, coupled with the fact that I want to leave anyway, makes me a marked man.” Dan laughs as he pauses and looks at her. “But you know, it’s funny. Even though it’s causing me a lot of trouble, I’m glad I saved her life.”Amy is looking hard at Dan. “Dan, I have to tell you something.”Dan stops what he is doing and stares at Amy for a long moment. Her face is filled with an emotion he cannot gauge. He sniffs a bit and looks away from her. His heart is breaking, and she hasn’t spoken yet. He kind of knew it would come to this. She’s too far gone from this kind of life. And at this time in her life, being on the run is not on the agenda. He braces himself for the punch.“I understand,” he says. “This is just a little too much for you to handle right now.” He resigns himself to the fact that he has lost her.He is utterly surprised by what happens next.“No, Dan. It’s not that at all. Pl

The first of a bevy of patrol cars tears into the parking lot of the hotel. Uniformed officers bail out of the cars at lightning speed as they begin to make their way into the lobby of the hotel. He knows he doesn’t have much time before they block him in. If that were to happen, he would not be able to get out and find Amy.Dan spins clumsily and looks once more around the room. Turning quickly, he trots toward the door, stopping short of going into the hallway. He looks around the edge of the broken jam and sees some of the other tenants looking back at him cautiously. No sign of the bad guys or the cops. Good.He walks quickly into the hallway, staggering a bit. The onlookers gasp and retreat as the armed and wounded man surveys the corridor.With the sleeve of his jacket, Dan smudges the blood away from his eyes, which lock on the one thing he is looking for.The stairwell exit.Still groggy from the injury, he staggers/runs to the end of the hall with purpose in his step. He bang

Edgar staggers back toward Jack and past him on his way to the entrance of the building ahead. Jack smiles and cannot resist a dig at his drunken partner.“You know, Ed,” Jack says slyly, “if what Mike says is true, that piece won’t do you any good.”Edgar stops and spins drunkenly to face Jack. Even through Edgar’s alcohol-sunken face, Jack can see the fear entrenched in his eyes. His eyes are already dead, Jack ponders.“This is not for him.” Edgar places the muzzle of the gun to his temple. “This is for me.”Jack’s heart jumps. He’s going to off himself right now! Right in front of me! Part of Jack wants to see it. Really. He cannot help it. Edgar’s weakness over the past few days has disgusted him, and in Jack’s heart of hearts, this would be a fitting end for Ed. He’ll kill himself before Jack has to. It’s probably better this way.Edgar takes the muzzle from the side of his head and Jack, in all honesty, is a little disapper Edgar then turns again and heads into the darkened war