by Blake Crouch
“I can’t find the roadmap,” Jack said.
“You looked under the bed?”
“Yes.”
“Last place I saw it.”
Jack set the flashlight on the counter and stared at his fourteen-year-old daughter, pouting at the breakfast table, her purple-streaked blond hair twirled around her finger.
“Got your clothes together yet?” he asked.
She shook her head.
“Go, Naomi, right now, and help Cole pack, too. I think your brother got distracted.”
“We aren’t really leaving, are we?”
“Get going.”
Naomi pushed back from the table, her chair shrieking against the hardwood floor, and stormed out of the kitchen down the hallway.
“Hey,” he shouted after her.
“Cut her a break,” Dee said. “She’s terrified.”
Jack stood beside his wife.
The night beyond the windowglass was moonless and unmarred by even the faintest pinpricks of light. The city’s second night without power.
“This is the last jug,” Dee said. “Makes eight gallons.”
“That isn’t going to last us very long.”
From the battery-powered radio on the windowsill above the sink, an old woman’s voice replaced the static that had dominated the airwaves for the last six hours. Jack reached over, turned up the volume.
They listened as she read another name, another address over the radio.
Jack said, “They’ve lost their fucking minds.”
Dee turned off the tap, screwed a cap onto the final jug. “You think anyone’s actually acting on that?”
“I don’t know.”
“I don’t want to leave.”
“I’ll take these jugs out to the car. Go make sure the kids are getting packed.”
Jack hit the light switch out of habit, but when he opened the door, the garage remained dark. He shined the flashlight on the four steps that dropped out of the utility room. The smooth concrete was cold through his socks. He popped the hatch to the cargo area, illumination flooding out of the overhead dome lights into the two-car garage. He set the first jug of water in the back of the Land Rover Discovery. Their backpacks and camping equipment hung from hooks over the chest freezer, and he lifted them down off the wall. Pristine, unblemished by even a speck of trail dust. Four never-slept-in sleeping bags dangled from the ceiling in mesh sacks. He dragged a workbench over from the red Craftsman tool drawer and climbed up to take them down. Dee had been begging for a family camping trip ever since he’d purchased three thousand dollars’ worth of backpacking gear, and he’d fully intended for their family to spend every other weekend in the mountains or the desert. But two years had passed, and life had happened, priorities changed. The gas stove and water filter hadn’t even been liberated from their packaging, which still bore price tags.
Inside the house, Dee released a loud gasp. He grabbed the flashlight, negotiated the sprawl of backpacks and sleeping bags, and bolted up the steps and through the door into the utility room. Past the washer and dryer, back into the kitchen. Naomi and his seven-year-old son, Cole, stood at the opening to the hallway, their faces all warmth and shadow in the candlelight, watching their mother at the sink.
Jack shined the light on Dee—her face streaked with tears, body visibly shaking.
She pointed at the radio.
“They just read off Marty Anderson’s name. They’re going through the humanities department, Jack.”
“Turn it up.”
“Jim Barbour is a professor of religious studies at the University of New Mexico.” The old woman on the radio spoke slowly and with precision. “His address is Two Carpenter Court. Those of you near campus, go now, and while you’re in the neighborhood, stop by the home of Jack Colclough.”
“Dad—”
“Shhh.”
“—a professor of philosophy at UNM.”
“Oh my God.”
“Shhh.”
“—lives at Fourteen, fourteen Arroyo Way. Repeat. Fourteen, fourteen Arroyo Way. Go now.”
“Oh my God, Jack. Oh my God.”
“Get the food in the back of the car.”
“This is not—”
“Listen to me. Get the food in the back of the car. Naomi, bring yours and Cole’s clothes out to the garage. I’ll meet you all there in one minute.”
BLAKE CROUCH is the author of DESERT PLACES, LOCKED DOORS, SNOWBOUND, and ABANDON, which was an IndieBound Notable Selection, all published by St. Martin’s Press. His latest thriller, RUN, was released in February 2011. His short fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Thriller 2, Shivers VI, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, and other anthologies. In 2009, he co-wrote “Serial” with JA Konrath, which has been downloaded over 500,000 times and topped the Kindle bestseller list for 4 weeks. That story and ABANDON have also been optioned for film. Blake lives in Colorado. His website is www.blakecrouch.com.
JA KONRATH is the author of seven novels in the Lt. Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels thriller series. The latest is Shaken, published by AmazonEncore.
JACK KILBORN is the pen name for JA Konrath. Under the Kilborn moniker, he wrote ENDURANCE, TRAPPED, and AFRAID, all structured in the same way as DRACULAS, but decidedly darker. Konrath currently has twenty-seven ebooks available on Kindle, most of them inexpensively priced. In 2011, Ace Books is releasing TIMECASTER, a sci-fi ecopunk novel written under the nom de plume Joe Kimball. You can visit all of his personalities at www.jakonrath.com.
JA KONRATH’S/JACK KILBORN’S WORKS AVAILABLE ON KINDLE
Jack Daniels thrillers
Whiskey Sour
Bloody Mary
Rusty Nail
Dirty Martini
Fuzzy Navel
Cherry Bomb
Shaken
Shot of Tequila
Banana Hammock
Jack Daniels Stories (collected stories)
Serial Uncut with Blake Crouch
Killers with Blake Crouch
Suckers with Jeff Strand
Planter’s Punch with Tom Schreck
Floaters with Henry Perez
Truck Stop
Symbios (writing as Joe Kimball)
Jailbait (with Ann Voss Peterson)
Wild Night is Calling (with Ann Voss Peterson)
Shapeshifters Anonymous
The Screaming
Other works
Afraid
Endurance
Trapped
Origin
The List
Disturb
65 Proof (short story omnibus)
Crime Stories (collected stories)
Horror Stories (collected stories)
Dumb Jokes & Vulgar Poems
A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing
Visit the author at www.jakonrath.com
BLAKE CROUCH’S WORKS AVAILABLE ON KINDLE
Andrew Z. Thomas thrillers
Break You
Desert Places
Locked Doors
Other works
Run
Draculas with JA Konrath, Jeff Strand and F. Paul Wilson
Abandon
Snowbound
Famous
Perfect Little Town (horror novella)
Bad Girl (short story)
Serial with Jack Kilborn
Serial Uncut with JA Konrath and Jack Kilborn
Killers with Jack Kilborn
Birds of Prey with Jack Kilborn and JA Konrath
Killers Uncut with Jack Kilborn and JA Konrath
Serial Killers Uncut with Jack Kilborn and JA Konrath
Shining Rock (short story)
*69 (short story)
On the Good, Red Road (short story)
Remaking (short story)
The Meteorologist (short story)
The Pain of Others (novella)
Unconditional (short story)
Four Live Rounds (collected stories)
Six in the Cylinder (colle
cted stories)
Fully Loaded (complete collected stories)
Visit Blake at www.BlakeCrouch.com
Stirred by Blake Crouch and JA Konrath
Flee by JA Konrath and Ann Voss Peterson
Pines by Blake Crouch
Mummies
Wolfmen
Draculas 2
Compilation copyright © 2011 by Blake Crouch & Joe Konrath
SERIAL KILLERS UNCUT copyright © 2011 by Blake Crouch & Joe Konrath
Cover copyright © 2011 by Jeroen ten Berge
SERIAL KILLERS UNCUT is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the authors’ imaginations or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from Joe Konrath & Blake Crouch.
For more information about Blake Crouch, please visit www.blakecrouch.com.
For more information about JA Konrath, please visit www.jakonrath.com.
For more information about Jack Kilborn, please visit www.jackkilborn.com.
For more information about the cover artist, please visit www.jeroentenberge.com.