Shut The Fuck Up And Die! Read Online Free Page A

a nose that bled like a staked
vampire and which probably wasn't even broken. He'd really needed her and she had risen
to the occasion.
    “ Turnin' oudda be one helluba
honeymoon, huh?”
     
     
    By the time the couple staggered out of the
car, the deer was dead. Its body lay motionless in the snow; only
the unnatural stiffness of its legs and an antler that looked as if
it had been snipped off with a bolt cutter betrayed the fact that
it simply hadn't laid down for a little rest. Mona expected to see
red stains that had seeped into the drifts around it. But there
were only a few drops, like tiny rose blossoms, directly beneath
the beast's dark mouth.
    “ Piece of shit!”
    She kicked the carcass and her combat boot
thumped hollowly against the tawny fur . . . it's dark eyes never
blinked, never shifted in panic or fear. They simply gazed into
whatever void its spirit had slipped into as flakes of snow slowly
melted on their surface.
    While they had still been in the car
and waiting for his bleeding to stop, Matt had suggested that she
put the thing out of its misery. They'd been able to see it
clearly: the way its body twitched with spasms of pain, the quick
plumes of steam that snorted through its flared nostrils, how it
had gradually lost the strength to even hold its head up any
longer. It probably had been
suffering . . . but, in all honesty, Mona had been perfectly fine
with that.
    Let the damn thing finish out the remaining
moments of its life in pain and fear. Served the fucker right . . .
it had derailed their trip, wrecked their car, and – most
importantly – hurt Matt. Why should it be allowed peace when the
man she loved, the only man in the world who mattered, probably
felt like his face had gone twelve rounds with Rocky Balboa?
    “ Didn't realize we went off the road.
Seemed like there was suddenly just this tree in our
way.”
    At some point during the wreck, the car had
apparently went over a small embankment. Not steep enough to have
caused them to flip, thank God, but the hillside was marred with
deep, muddy ruts that looked like open wounds on the snow-covered
earth.
    For a moment, they stood with their arms
wrapped around one another and listened to the soft ticking of the
cooling engine. Though the clouds of steam had long since
dissipated, the smell of antifreeze still hung in the air like the
scent of a sweet flower.
    Matt held his hand out and the keys jangled
softly as he pressed a button on the black fob. Two quick chirps
filled the night in perfect synchronicity with the flashing of the
taillights. Mona shook her head and laughed in a way that only
Mattie could coax from her: it was as if the sound simply bubbled
up from inside her, as light and free as a bird in the sky.
    “ What?”
    He tried to suppress his own grin as he
looked at his wife, yet his voice still quivered with
amusement.
    “ We wouldn't want anyone stealing that
fine automobile of ours, now would be?”
    “ Oh, no. Heaven forbid. I hear there's
quite a market for crushed up Hondas. All the cool kids are driving
them these days.”
    Matt squeezed her as best as he could through
the thick layers of parka that separated them and then touched the
tip of her nose with the cold, vinyl finger of his glove.
    “ Stick with me, kiddo, and we'll
own five crushed up
Hondas.”
    He pulled the zipper on her jacket so that it
was snugly beneath her chin and then cinched the drawstrings of the
fur-lined hood.
    “ Come on, Nanook . . . let's get going.
It's fuckin' freezing out here.”
    “ Tell me about it. You reckon we can
find help, baby? I haven't seen a car since we turned off that four
lane.”
    Matt held Mona's hand tightly as he helped
her up the incline, taking care to ensure that she didn't slip in
the mud.
    “ We better.”
    Once they'd crested the hill, Matt looked in
both directions as if trying to decide which way they should
go.
    “ Otherwise there's a good chance that
we're gonna die out here.”
     
    SCENE