Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 135792 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135792 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 679(@200wpm)___ 543(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Liv nodded, and they moved along a narrow path between hills of scrap metal, rubber, and electronics. The rain eased to a sprinkle, and then stopped altogether while they followed the moving light. Once they got close enough, it became clear the soft hum they’d been hearing in the background wasn’t produced by rain but some kind of vehicle.
The day was not over, and despite the bit of illumination coming from the night sky, it was getting more and more difficult to find paths through the dead city of scrap. A stray piece of metal rattled somewhere to the side, but Liv dismissed it as being the result of a bird or rat looking for food. He strained his eyes as he leaned back to squeeze through a narrow path between two towers made of rusty cars. Damp metal felt like ice through his wet clothes, but with Knox following close behind and moving with more ease due to his size, Liv did not want to hold him back.
He ducked as soon as he made it to the other side, because the light they’d been following was right ahead, and no longer moving. Liv's heart sped up, but his gaze wandered to the open back of a school bus standing between them and the workers. The glow he and Knox had been chasing invited them from the open space beyond the vehicle’s dashboard. He gestured at Knox to follow him inside the damaged bus.
Watching their every move, they climbed in and near-crawled over the grimy floor. Just as they were about to see what the workers were up to so late, someone spoke, making Liv’s balls pull up to his body. Dude was standing way too close for comfort, and Liv grabbed Knox, putting a hand over his mouth in panic.
“You didn’t bring your dog? I actually think Hades might enjoy this.” A young guy’s voice was followed by a cackle.
Dog. Of course those people had dogs here, because life always fucking sucked! Thank fuck whoever the guy was talking to didn’t bring his mutt along, because if they did, Liv and Knox would have been fucked. Knox’s eyes went wide, and his mouth opened against Liv’s hand as he shook his head.
They both peeked through the empty windscreen at the same time. The bus faced a cleared area the size of a high school classroom, with a pickup truck parked in front of a deep hole in the ground. Two men with massive flashlights stood in front of the pit, one of them lowering a barrel inside to join three others.
The guy who’d just spoken wore a black leather vest with patches over a denim jacket. The other man, taller and with a hood covering his face, threw a cigarette butt to the ground. “I wouldn’t trust him around acid. You have to be careful with these things, Dex, it’s not a joke.”
“Acid?” Knox mouthed to Liv, wide-eyed.
Dex shrugged and faced the light as he turned to a duffel bag resting on the ground. He had a bleached blond mohawk and youthful features that betrayed he was about Liv’s age. Smiling, he pulled out a pair of long yellow gloves. “But if you trained all your dogs to eat meat on command—”
The other guy spread his arms wide. “What next? Maybe you and Hammer should start a pig farm and call it Peppa’s Sausage Disposal?”
Dex started laughing as, to Liv’s growing confusion and dread, he stepped into white overalls that zipped up from crotch to neck.
“Fuck,” Knox whispered in the tiniest voice. “This looks like some kind of Breaking Bad shit. I think they’re making drugs here. We need to go.”
Liv’s skull echoed with the drumming of his heartbeat, but he squeezed Knox’s shoulder, wordlessly telling him to keep still, because if those really were gang members, they would shoot intruders like rabid dogs and bury them in the fucking ground.
Or toss them into a reservoir.
And no, the irony of it was not lost on Liv.
Knox met his gaze and, after exhaling once, offered him a nod. They should wait until the coast was clear.
“Shane, bring over the first one, will you?” Dex asked, and his voice sounded somewhat muffled, as if he were speaking through a face mask. “I’ll get the acid.”
“On it,” the hooded man responded.
While both Liv and Knox had agreed to lay low and minimize the risk of being discovered, when Shane cursed, Liv’s head popped up just enough for him to see the hooded man dragging something. At first, in the deep shadows created by the bright lights, it looked like a massive sack. But when he changed course, and a limp arm came into view, Liv went rigid as if his muscles turned to wood.
They were not making drugs.
Those people were out here to dissolve bodies. Like in a fucking movie.