After Midnight Read Online Free Page B

and seeing if I could find any pottery, arrowheads, things like that, but decided against it. If I slip and fall or something, I’m fucked, and I won’t do something stupid this late in the game. I’m rounding third and heading for home.
     
    Nov. 26, 1971- I was up at sunrise, and made three miles by noon. If it wasn’t for this damn snow I could be at Wilhelm’s tonight or the night after tomorrow.
    It’s overcast again, and cold, but it’s such beautiful country, tranquil and serene. I’ve only been up here a handful of times with Wilhelm, but never for very long, and I never went far from him in case he hurt himself or something.
    I love that old guy like a father. I owe him. I was a bum, robbing houses and riding the rails, when he pulled me out of the gutter and took me in. I’d probably be dead or in prison right now if it wasn’t for him. He found me and gave me a home, a job, a life. This was all his idea, and I just went along with it. Like I said, I owe him.
    Anyway, I found another cave, this one huge. I’m gonna go way back in it and have a fire. I think I can spoil myself a little.
     
    Nov. 27, 1971- I found some weird looking footprints in the snow near the cave mouth this morning. They just...start and stop out of nowhere, kinda like a ghost materialized in mid-step and then vanished again. I stood over one for a moment looking at it, trying to figure out what the hell could have made it, and was pretty damn shocked when I discerned the outline of a human foot.
    Needless to say, I was spooked, so I packed up the party and took off as fast as I could, glancing over my shoulder here and there, looking for a cop or a guardsmen. I made about two miles before my sense caught up with me and stopped me in my tracks. I saw a footprint, which meant that it would have had to have been made by a bare human foot. Now, I don't know much about police procedure, but I'm pretty sure that no cop would run around in the snow with no shoes on. And the size of the print was too small to have been left by even the tiniest pig. It looked like a woman's, or a child's.
    It's g ot to be an animal, I figure, and I chuckled at myself for being so stupid. Of course it was.
    Anyway, I made about six miles by late afternoon. I crossed a creek between two rising hills and got soaked to the knees, so my legs are aching with cold. I hope I don't get frostbite. That would be awful. Wilhelm would have to come looking for me, and he's not really in the best of shape. I guess if it came down to it I'd let the police find me, but that's something I don't want to even think about.
    Right now I'm hunkered down in a little lean-to against a sharp incline, nestled in a dead tangle of thin branches. A fire would probably get out of hand and roast me alive, but I can't have one anyway; too dangerous. Earlier, as I was pushing through the forest, I heard the whup-whup-whup of chopper blades. Screened behind the intertwined treetops I glimpsed a big green helicopter. Probably National Guard. Who knows who all's looking for me? The Guard. State police. F.B.I. Hell, probably even civilian search parties, yee-haw hunters with bright orange vests, plaid caps, hunting rifles, and a thirst for fame. I still haven't decided what I'll do if I come across someone on the other team. Is murder worth it?
    Maybe. They’ll probably put me away for life anyway. What do I have to lose?
     
    Nov. 28, 1971 - I had no idea I camped so close to the highway. Not even half a mile back, so close I could hear cars whooshing back and forth this morning. Good thing I couldn't have a fire, it would have been easily visible from the road.
    Oh, and I found more footprints. Same deal as before; looks like the tracks of a child or a small monkey. Really weird.
     
    Nov. 29, 1971- It’s midnight, and something's out there, screaming in the dark, wailing and fucking shrieking like a banshee or something. You might just hear it in the background. [Note by FBI: Severe winds