Darkness on the Edge of Town by Brian Keene Page B

the trigger on somebody, then you should be prepared to kill them. Okay?”
    Swallowing, I nodded. “Okay. Jesus Christ…”
    “Just be careful. There’s no safety on a gun like that. Don’t put your finger on the trigger unless you intend to pull it. You know how to shoot, right?”
    I nodded again. “Yeah, I’ve been to the range a few times.”
    “Then let’s go.”
    He took the flashlight from me and turned it off. We made our way downstairs, trying to move as quietly but quickly as possible. We paused at my apartment. The door was still shut, and there were no sounds from inside. Russ put a finger to his lips, nodded at me, and stood to the side. I reached for the doorknob. It seemed to take a lifetime before my fingers closed around it. Russ raised his pistol. I opened the door and Christy slapped me hard enough to make my face sting.
    “Ouch!”
    “Where the hell have you been, Robbie?”
    Russ exhaled. “Jesus Christ, Christy, I almost shot you.”
    She glanced at the gun in my hand and then at Russ’s. Her eyes widened in surprise. “A gunshot woke me up. Was that you guys?”
    “No,” I said. “But it was very close. We thought…well, never mind what we thought. Just stay here and lock the door.”
    “What? No way, Robbie. You’re—”
    “I don’t have time to argue with you, goddamn it. Just stay here, keep your voice down, and lock the fucking door.”
    She reeled backward as if I’d hit her. That was fine by me. My cheek still stung from where she’d slapped me, so I figured that made us even. Deep down inside, I felt a twinge of guilt and regret, but they were swallowed seconds later in a wave of adrenaline, fear, and anger.
    Or looking back, maybe it was something else that had extinguished them.
    “Stay here,” I told her. “We’ll talk about this when I get back.”
    “Be careful.”
    There were tears in her eyes, and after she’d closed the door, I heard the deadbolt slide into place. Then came the soft sound of crying. That made me feel guilty again, but the emotion soon vanished, replaced once more with something a little more violent. The strangest part was that those darker emotions were somehow comforting. I fought the urge to embrace them.
    Russ and I descended to the first floor, making no effort to conceal our footsteps any longer. If there was an intruder in the building, then they’d probably heard Christy’s outburst anyway. He turned on the flashlight as we reached the bottom of the stairs. Cranston’s apartment door was shut. We stood in front of it, listening. I reached out and tried the knob. The door was locked.
    Russ leaned in close and called, “Cranston?”
    There was no answer.
    Russ raised his voice a little louder. “Cranston? You in there?”
    Still no response.
    “What should we do?”
    Russ shook his head, shrugged, then knocked on the door with the barrel of his handgun. It sounded very loud, and I glanced around nervously.
    “Cranston? It’s Russ and Robbie. You okay?”
    A floorboard creaked behind the door. “Who’s there?”
    “I just told you. It’s Russ and Robbie, from upstairs. There was a gunshot.”
    The door opened slightly, held in place by a chain. Cranston peered out at us with one red, bleary eye. I smelled booze on his breath. The door opened wider.Candles flickered behind him, dancing across the walls. I caught a faint hint of patchouli oil and incense.
    “I heard it, too,” he said. “I think it came from the building next door. What’s going on out there, man?”
    “We don’t know,” Russ admitted, “but we intend to find out.”
    “Be careful. Earlier, I went to the grocery store to get some things. The line was out the door and people were starting to fight over groceries. Some of them started looting. Just taking stuff without paying for it.”
    Russ and I glanced at each other.
    “The streets aren’t safe anymore,” Cranston continued. “I saw a carjacking on Maple, and I heard that a girl was gang raped