The Reaper Virus (42 page)

They turned my city into Hell. I’d remind
them what Hell really was.

My feet found the ladder’s metal rungs. A
symphony of popping wood and flesh played out behind me. At the top
of the fence I looked back at the house. Smoke blacked out a dismal
sky. Rapidly advancing flames already danced outside the walls. The
roar of destruction blissfully drowned out the clatter of evil. It
was time to go.

I set my sights on a pile of leaves just past
the fence. Grace wasn’t an option as I dismounted the privacy
fence. All I could do was hope that the powers that be hadn’t
forsaken me entirely. When my boots landed on the leaves I realized
that my pleas for leniency went unheard. My fall continued past the
level of the ground, and I finally impacted when I’d fallen all the
way into the two foot deep hole excavated by the neighbor kids. I
barely felt the snap of my femur, but it was so loud I heard it
above everything else.

“God damn kids had to fill the hole with
leaves?” I said through painfully gritted teeth.

Light from my burning home started a visible
dance over the fence. In the light I saw my smiling family.
Thoughts of Sarah, Maddox, and Calise soothed the ire I felt over
such a pointless downfall. I closed my eyes. As the world grew numb
I waited for the flame to claim me too. I desperately sought sleep
so that I could finally wake from this nightmare.