Beneath the Neon Moon Read Online Free

You?"
    "Not a clue." Mal rolled his head against one of the rocks in the wall and looked up at the ceiling. "Not one fucking clue." He looked at Zach. "Time to move again, okay?"
    Zach took a deep, sighing breath and sneezed. The air smelled musty, heavy with age and cold earth and things too long in the dark. "Okay. Which way we going?"
    "Forward again. Away from the wall. You have allergies?"
    "Nah." Zach sneezed again.
    "They develop at any time, you know."
    Zach pulled a breath in and thought about it. "If you look in a horse's mouth you can tell if it's young or old or sick, stuff like that. Somebody gives you a horse, you don't look in its mouth because that'd make you an ingrate."
    "And you're telling me this because why?"
    "I thought we were trading useless information."
    "Damn, I like you." Mal's grin crinkled the corners of his eyes. "So, your turn. Tell me what you were doing last night. Shit, not the part where you—not that ," he said hurriedly when Zach gave him a look. "Before."
    "I've been laid off for a few weeks from my job. Some of my friends thought I needed a night out drinking. I had a few too many." Zach rubbed his nose and thought about it. "More than a few."
    "Laid off, huh? It's a damn good reason to throw a few back. All the good college boys do it."
    "I wouldn't know. Never went." Zach looked down at their feet. "And you're not putting me off anymore. I'm gonna look at that ankle, okay? Grab the water jug."
    Mal rolled his eyes and leaned over, grabbing the pitcher by the handle. He put it by Zach on the ground. "Okay, Nurse Nightingale. But you pull that chain and I'll show you some real hysterics."
    Zach nodded impatiently, then moved closer and bent over Mal's ankle. "They took your sock."
    "Easier to carve the turkey that way, I guess. The turkey being me of course. Nice of them to give me my shoe back."
    "Man, you don't ever stop. Don't move." The chain was thinner than the wall chain and the same thickness as the chain that ran between them. Zach tried easing his little finger in between it and Mal's skin. "Damn, that's tight." He gave up almost immediately. He'd hoped to try and work the jean material from Mal's pants leg in under the prongs, but nothing was going to wedge in there without gouging him further.
    He leaned down again and studied Mal's ankle more closely, saw the metal prongs disappearing into swollen, bloody skin. "Damn it," he swore, couldn't help himself. "I don't see how you're sitting upright, much less talking through all this."
    "Doesn't hurt too bad if I don't think about it," Mal said softly.
    Zach shook his head, giving him a dubious look. There was blood all over Zach's hand. Blood caked on Mal's ankles and down below, into his sneaker. Zach winced, remembering how he'd pulled away from Mal earlier.
    He picked up the jug and looked at Mal, making sure he was ready. Mal nodded, and Zach tipped water out of the jug. He heard Mal's breath hiss between his teeth. His hand jerked, splashing water over Mal's shin. 
    "Sorry," he said, not looking up. He kept pouring, a careful, slow flow.
    "The water's making the prongs cold. Are you almost done?"
    Zach stopped, looking up again. "Does it hurt?"
    "I don't like it. Feels weird. Like I feel them cooling inside my skin."
    "Almost done." Zach resumed pouring, stopping when the runoff was finally clear. The water was nearly gone. He put the jug down, then settled his hand on Mal's knee, looking at him intently. "I just don't understand why anyone would do this to you. What's the purpose here?"
    Mal scratched his nose. "Don't know. We can ask them again next time they come down."
    "Don't joke. This is so, so far from funny. They've got this shit rigged specifically to hurt you. I'd like to know why."
    "I know it's not funny, damn it, but they didn't give me any answers. You're the one that spent time with these guys, not me. I'm sorry to ask, but do you remember anything at all from last night that might help us figure out