Zero Days Without Incident

By J Jackson Bentley

J Jackson Bentley takes a different turn with a Short Story about real people in a fictional thriller. There is humour mixed in with the usual thrills.

Rick and Nikki are Vloggers, their YouTube videos are about theme parks and roadtrips but then they have the opportunity to take over a True Crime Vlog, and jumpo at it. Oh how they wish they hadn't.

Nobody follows you when you produce a Theme Park Vlog, nobody threatens you when you Vlog on Theme Parks, and most certainly no-one wants you dead!

When a serial killer emerges locally they perceive the True Crime Vlog as a threat. Suddenly the True Crime Vloggers go from being the pursuers to the pursued. Can they escape the clutches of a serial killer? Will they track him down first? When will the Mummy ride re-open at Universal Orlando?

Big questions, all are answered in Zero Days since incident!

• Language: English
• Publisher: J Jackson Bentley
• Release date: Jun 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201783013

Book preview

Authors Note:

In 2016 I was in Busan, South Korea on business when my attention was drawn to an article in an English Language newspaper. The article concerned a brilliant engineering science student at a University in Seoul who was expected to produce a practical working solution to a real-world problem for his Masters’ Degree.

It seems he chose to produce a web slinging device - yes, as per The Amazing Spiderman! The device was designed to effectively, and safely, disable an assailant carrying a weapon. The sticky web would confound the assassin and glue their weapon to their hand.

In the demonstration it worked reasonably well. The web was fired from the oversized barrel and the sticky web, constructed from fine carbon fibre veins coated with heated adhesive, bound the weapon to the hand and the hand to the body.

When it came to remove the web once it had cooled and set, the student experienced rather less success. The unfortunate mock assailant had to attend hospital, where the sticky web was removed over a period of hours with the liberal application of solvents. The volunteer had red blotches on his skin for the remainder of the semester.

A year later I watched a Vlogging couple (Rick and Nikki) in the USA introducing us all to the new Hagrid ride at Universal Orlando via a livestream, and I was hooked. Since then, this beloved couple have made a real difference to the lives of many people in lockdown around the world. For me personally their lively videos gave me renewed hope of returning to Florida and the parks. For my dear wife, Rick and Nikki brought her great joy when she was isolated from her family and friends by Covid shielding. And, perhaps more importantly, they distracted her as she prepared for her dreaded hospital trips.

This story is a departure for me as a thriller writer, it was written for the entertainment of that group of individuals who love and follow RixFlix. I hope my usual readers enjoy the diversion too. It is also an opportunity for me, and for Fidus, to help support RixFlix in their continued effort to provide entertaining content. Any money raised will be used to support the RixFlix channels, neither Fidus nor myself will accept any revenue or payment. So, enjoy, subscribe to RixFlix, and become a producer, let’s all keep the Universal ball rolling.

JJB/January 2022.

.....nothing is done in this world that is not witnessed by a camera of one kind or another.

Excerpt from The US Congressional Record August 4th 2021.

PREFACE

Mountain to Sea Trail, Durham, North Carolina. USA.

Dominic could feel the cold kiss of the north wind chilling his neck. The snow beneath his sodden feet was fresh and deep; it had fallen quickly, and it had taken him by surprise. He had chosen the spot for disposal with the utmost care a week ago. In the winter months this off-trail path was usually deserted, especially early in the morning.

When he had initially reconnoitred the area, he found many large fallen trees covered with dark green moss, teeming with hungry insects. There were also deep crevasses that housed all manner of hungry scavengers. Close by there were small caves that still bore the remnants of summer campfires. These caves were little more than rocky overhangs really, but they offered shelter from the summer rain. Today, in the snow, they were virtually inaccessible.

Without the snow the body would have lain undiscovered for weeks, by which time Dominic would have been long gone, and the forest animals and other critters would have eaten their fill.

Unfortunately, with a body in the back of the old Jeep Cherokee, bought anonymously at an estate sale, Dom did not have the luxury of being able to wait for a thaw. Hence the perilous depositing of Hayley Truett, former spinster of these parts, in less-than-ideal conditions.

He deposited the body closer to the road than he would have liked. He pushed it under a fallen tree trunk and covered it with loose snow, using the blanket in which her naked body had been concealed, to dust the virgin snow over the compressed and footprint ridden snow beneath. It could never be perfect, but at worst the body would be found when the snow melted. And that would not be until the weak winter sunshine penetrated this deeply into the wilderness, weeks from now.

Luckily, Dominic had chiselled the carving on the tree on his last visit to save time today. The Chinese symbol, depicting the number four, was obvious and apparent to anyone who looked. He never carved the symbols into a tree too close to the body; after all, the police and FBI deserved a challenge.

BY THE TIME DOMINIC arrived back at the road after his disposal of the girl’s remains, it was beginning to