Chapter 5
Chapter 5 — Dead Fuel
Michael and Rita shelter on the fuel barge through the pre-dawn hours. Rita reveals she saw shipping documents in the warehouse office — names, routes, buyers — before Loc moved her. The barge's engine wakes: a deckhand arrives to start an early delivery run, forcing them off the barge and into the river again. They reach a fishing village downstream where an old woman shelters them briefly, but Rita's photograph arrives on a man's phone — Loc's network is already circulating her face. Michael understands the stakes have changed: it's no longer just about escaping Da Nang. Loc will hunt them across the country unless Michael uses what Rita saw to burn the operation down.
The barge smelled like old diesel and rust. Michael pressed his back against an oil drum and felt the cold seep through his shirt. His ribs sent a dull report with each breath — not broken, but bruised deep enough to remind him every time he inhaled.
Rita sat beside him, arms wrapped around her knees. She'd stopped shivering. Her hair hung in dark ropes against her neck and she'd tucked her feet beneath her to keep them off the deck. She was tougher than most people he'd pulled out of bad situations. He'd seen it in the way she moved through the gap in the wall without hesitating, the way she swam without panic, the way she'd cursed Loc while he had a gun and she had nothing.
The searchlights on the bank had gone dark. The voices faded an hour ago or more. The river settled into its own sounds — water against hull, the groan of the barge's mooring lines, something stirring in the reeds along the far bank.
Keep reading "Chapter 5 — Dead Fuel"
Open the same story in AIBookCraft. Later chapters may require an active subscription.
Free on iOS & Android · No signup to read