Apocalyptica (Book 2): Ran Read Online Free PDF Page B

this? Whatever the fuck is in our veins, it makes us burn hot.” In a surprisingly gentle movement that still induced an involuntary shudder, he placed the back of his hand against my face. It was hot enough to draw a surprised gasp from me.
    “Yeah,” Len said. “I’m averaging about a hundred and four.”
    I shook my head. “That’s impossible. You’d be on the floor, sweating yourself to death.”
    Len shrugged. “I been sick before. I know how it feels. This is different. Point is, it makes us hungry. We eat and feel like we’re starving an hour later.” He belted out a humorless chuckle. “Like all we eat is Chinese food or something.”
    I was beginning to regret leaving the house today.
    Look, I’m a pretty capable person, but I know my limits and my flaws. Evidence was pretty strong that I overextended myself, maybe let my cockiness overwhelm my caution. Being tied to a chair while being threatened by a sick, violent dude is solid proof things didn’t go my way.
    “I’m gonna be honest with you, Len. I’m scared shitless right now. I don’t know if that matters to you at all, but it’s the truth. I have a feeling I’m not going to leave this basement.” I paused, took a calming breath against the vise tightening around my entire rib cage. “Most people make it until the end of their lives before feeling the certainty of death. It’s not something you can really describe, that sense of crushing, inevitable finality. I’ve been there before. I’m there right now.”
    I fought back the tears trying their damnedest to brim over my eyelids. “You’re going to have to beat me, and you’re probably going to kill me, because I’m not giving up my friends easy. I saw what you did to that apartment complex.” I meant to keep going, to spew any number of words if it meant delaying the end of my life, but my throat chose that moment to seize up on me.
    Len, however, flinched. “That wasn’t how it was supposed to go. Things got...complicated. Messy.”
    “Yeah, I saw how messy it was.”
    He stood, backed away from me. His breathing went from the irregular, ragged inhalations to a deliberate and thoughtful rhythm. “You have supplies. Your Jeep looked packed with them. Give me what you have, and you can all walk away.”
    “I really want to believe you, but I don’t.”
    Len’s whole body tightened in a rolling spasm across his middling frame. It was the reaction of the bull when confronted with a waving flag. For a fleeting moment I expected him to fly at me in a rage, knock my chair backward, and turn my face into an example of abstract expressionism with his fists.
    Instead he took those measured breaths again.
    “Sign of good faith, then,” Len said, as if he’d forgotten his threats against me. “I’m gonna go upstairs and take a bath. Still have power and hot water for now. Might as well enjoy it. When I’m done I’m gonna come back down here and ask you again. I’ll have one of the others bring you some water if you want it.”
    I carefully maintained a neutral expression and tone. “Your sign of good faith is postponing a beating?”
    “Yeah,” Len said, his voice dry as dead leaves. “It’s the best you’ll get.”
    I sat quietly as he left, and paid attention to the muffled words he shared with someone at the top of the steps. Whoever it was wasn’t in the room, but standing guard outside it. I filed the fact away with the countless others sitting in the neat stacks of my memory.
    I surveyed the basement, looking for ideas.
     
    ***
     
    A twitchy woman brought me water in an old mason jar, which I drank judiciously. I was thirsty bordering on desperation, but I didn’t want to have to go to the bathroom. She said nothing as she tipped the jar to my lips and even wiped a drip from my chin, then went back to guarding the door.
    From the outside.
    I took stock of my situation and found it better than appearances would imply. My hands were tied behind me, but my ankles