Chapter 77: The Burn Wounds
A high, ragged shriek split the freezing stillness of the avenue, rising from the snowbank where Warren lay twisted against the dead cedar. The electric current had knocked the wind and sense from his chest, but as his heart resumed its frantic rhythm, the scorched nerve endings across his palms and forearms ignited with white fire. He thrashed in the deep drift, kicking his boots wildly against the frozen crust, flinging powdery snow into the air as he clutched his smoking wrists to his chest.
Large yellow blisters had already begun swelling across the blackened meat of his palms, stretching the tight skin until it wept clear fluid that froze into beads against his charred flesh.
Caldwell threw himself sideways, scrambling through the drift on his elbows and
