Now & Again Read Online Free

hand like a drowning man. “Get out! Out! I’m comin’! Out!”
    Kendall transferred his hold onto the center console in the nearly vertical world of the crew cab and let go of Josh’s hand. “Hurry!” He yelled as much to himself as to Josh.
    Kendall pulled himself up far enough to grasp the now dangling seatbelt in a death grip. The truck continued its slow motion roll over.
    Josh was poised at the door, waiting. Kendall furiously yanked himself up the belt with both hands and tackled Josh. They were both catapulted out the open door as the truck rolled away and tumbled downhill.
    Below, vehicles were smashing onto trapped cars and the jack-knifed gas truck slid inevitably toward the center divider.
    Kendall jerked Josh to his feet and shoved him ahead. “Up the hill! Now!”
    Josh didn’t hesitate. He raced off in a mad dash with Kendall right behind him. Both of them clawed and scrabbled up through the underbrush. Reaching the top, they felt the concussive whump of the tanker’s detonation and heard the roar rising behind. They leaped the guard rail together. A torrent of flame and truck parts howled by just above their heads and continued on into the air.
    The two men rolled wildly down the opposite side, with their arms swishing through the tall grass, to arrive at the bottom in a tangled heap. For a time, neither man did anything but gasp for breath and stare at the blue sky above them.
    Josh slowly propped himself up on his elbows and swallowed enough spit to lubricate his voice. “Is that it?”
    Kendall coughed and rolled onto his side. “Just wait.”
    Josh sat up. He checked his hands, front and back. “Wait for what?”
    “Hopefully nothing.”
    “You mean it’s over?”
    Kendall gently probed his bruised forehead and shrugged.
    Josh looked at him. “So, you were right?”
    Kendall painfully sat up and cocked his head to the side. “Always a first time.”
    Josh staggered back up the berm and carefully gazed over the guard rail, shielding his eyes.
    Kendall gingerly rose to his feet to follow but stopped. He grabbed wonderingly at his suit coat, holding out the sides. “Hey Josh, what the hell?” He swayed a bit on uncertain feet and looked at himself. “When did I put this on?”
    “What?” Josh looked curiously down the hill at him.
    “My suit coat! I took it off first thing before I got in the truck.” He shook his head and laboriously crawled up the hill after Josh, muttering, “That’s just nuts.”
    Together they peered down at the horrific devastation below them. The massive tanker fire raged across both sides of the freeway, its unrelenting flames roiling from the wreck in bloated orange waves. Thick black smoke swelled into a solid column high in the air. At the edges of the accident, injured people wandered aimlessly. Bodies and twisted cars were strewn everywhere. Faint sirens wailed a promise of help while the distant stutter of helicopters grew louder.
    “What just happened to us?” Josh asked, still staring downhill.
    Kendall tipped his head back following the column of smoke up into the air. “We survived.”
    “Did we?”
    “I think so.” Kendall puzzled at something he saw below him. He stretched higher on the brow of the hill and unconsciously moved his head forward as he looked more intently down the embankment. “Josh?”
    “Yeah.”
    “What color’s my truck?”
    “What? Why?”
    “C’mon. What color?” Kendall’s voice had become hard. This was no idle question.
    Josh moved nervously. “Black…”
    “Yeah. Right. So, what color is…
that
truck?”
    Josh stared down the hill at their flipped and abandoned
red
truck. He blinked a few times and then his face went empty. “That’s not your truck.”

CHAPTER 2:
    The Reivers Corporation headquarters building in Pasadena, Maryland presented a striking edifice; as well it should, since it was the expensive result of a spirited architectural competition. Seated on a forested plot of high ground within a