Channel Button

There are 32 articles on this title. You are reading the article ranked and rated #4 by Helium's members.

Creative Writing   >

Novel Excerpts

Get a Widget for this title

Novel excerpts: Survival

In the Dead Center



Without lying any more than necessary, deputy sheriff Earnest C. Loll had been a good man, and he came to the typical end in an atypical way. Late in the afternoon of September 28th 1935 the Sheriff of Multnomah County found Loll prone behind the remains of a fallen Douglas fir in the woods around Mount Sylvania. The back of his head, crowned with an explosion of sword fern and blood...

Seventy-two hours before he would be murdered, Loll raised himself to a sitting position. The sky was a murky gray-blue, and he could feel the air biting his bare skin through the heavy woolen blanket.

He shook off the night with a powerful shutter. Around him shinny ice-covered fir trees came into focus.
She was gone.

And with her, his steel-toed boots. He touched the frozen sole imprint in the mud where he had taken them off the night before. A pair of boots like those, were a hard loss. But she had been almost worth it. And if she crossed his path at another time, he would take the boots and her again.

The coals were dead in their fire pit. He was not surprised she had left him. A woman like her is uncommon, and exceptional things never stick to ordinary men.

Loll pulled up his long underwear, and then his trousers, buckled his gun belt tightly around his hips, and began the long walk back to town.

"Five dollars and fifty cents down payment. We'll hold them for you until Tuesday," Mr. Brandenburg said with a plosion of breath on each stop consonant.

Loll couldn't imagine Brandenburg spending the night naked in the deep woods with a strange woman and yet he was the one with all the money and all the control.

"Hold them until Tuesday and I'll pay you in full when I pick them up."

"Why don't you just buy them now? You could take them now."

"You can't hold them for me?"

"Put the twenty percent down now, and we'll hold them. Or you could just come in Tuesday and buy them then. But we can't hold them without twenty percent down."

"I can pay in full Tuesday if you'll hold them until then, because I need them for work."

"Deputy Loll, you'll just have to take the chance they'll still be here on Tuesday. Twenty percent down, that's our policy. I can't guarantee anything unless you make the down payment."

With the cracking of wood and the shattering of glass, the front of the store exploded inward as two armed men tumbled through, rolling in a bedlam of curses, handguns and heavy woolen clothing. Splintered planks from the door frame clobbered Deputy Loll, knocking him to the ground.

Mr.


Below are the top articles rated and ranked by Helium members on:

Novel excerpts: Survival

  • by Maria Shepherdson

    Quite Blown Away

    'Well? Are you coming? Jozef?'

    A grimy hand shook him awake. Blinking in the smoky dimness

    read more

  • 2 of 32

    by Lois Ryan

    The White Knight Chapter Four-First Fight

    For the next few months, Maria continued her training as a warrior. Just as Sir

    read more

  • 3 of 32

    by Ronald Peterson

    Tower of Terror

    "Hey, Bill, Al blurted out loudly to his co-worker in the adjoining office, What the hell was that?"

    "I

    read more

  • 4 of 32

    by K Shawn Edgar

    In the Dead Center



    Without lying any more than necessary, deputy sheriff Earnest C. Loll had been a good man, and he came

    read more

  • 5 of 32

    by Monday Knight

    The User's Guide To Life, Death and Decision Making for the Alton Shermer-Springfield Region
    Chapter Seven, Car Crash, Lola's

    read more

View All Articles on:
Novel excerpts: Survival

Add your voice

Know something about Novel excerpts: Survival?
We want to hear your view. Write_penWrite now!

102314

Featured Partner

Appleseed

Appleseed, a nonprofit network of 16 public interest justice centers in the United States and Mexico, uncovers and co...more

What is Helium? | Buy Web Content | Contact Us | Privacy | User agreement | DMCA | User Tools | Help | Community | Helium’s Official Blog | Link to Helium

Helium, Inc.
200 Brickstone Square Andover, MA 01810 USA