Duality (The Hitchhiker Strain) Read Online Free PDF Page A

you. I was over at the medical wing…”
    I groan sympathetically, but my heart has already started racing. I have a pretty good idea what he’s brought me.
    “ I have to go by there every time I come back in,” he continues. “Pretty much twice a week I’m subjected to a very up-close-and-personal inspection of my entire body. Apparently no one can be trusted to report injuries or bites by themselves, even though we know it’s not a death sentence anymore.”
    I clear my throat to cut off his rambling. “ And…”
    “ And I think they’re looking to send someone else out with us on our next run.” Liam reaches behind him and pulls something out of his pocket with a flourish. “I believe you were waiting for this?”
    It ’s an envelope. Exactly the same kind I always see sitting around on desks and counters in the medical center.
    I snatch it out of his hand. He trie s to duck out of the way at the last second but I know how he works and I want the answers to my test too badly to draw out this game.
    “ Nice try,” I say before ripping open the small manila envelope, holding my breath.
    It takes an infuriating minute of ski mming through medical terminology before I find what I’m looking for: Savannah Marie Cooper is officially infection free.

Chapter 5 - Chelsea
     
    Unfiltered sunlight burns my eyes, forcing me awake the next morning. I still check my wound before doing anythi ng else. Dried blood sticks to everything as I pry the fabric off of the bite, which sends waves of pain through me all over again, but it has stopped bleeding. That’s all I can ask for at this point.
    I feel better, but raw. Mentally and physically exhaust ed.
    I couldn ’t do it. I couldn’t speak. And I have no interest in trying again.
    My body is still slumped against the wall directly across from the window, in spite of the twin bed that takes up nearly a third of this small room. Instead of using it, I fell asleep on the floor. Now I’m going to have to spend the day with stiff muscles as well as an injured arm, and I have no one to blame but myself. So much for my superior decision-making skills.
    I ’m barely in control anymore as the beast stirs awake within me. It takes so much effort to snatch down another shirt from the closet and rewrap my arm, but before too long, I’m stalking down the stairs and back into the living room.
    I still feel strange, slightl y off, and I can’t seem to untangle my thoughts enough to figure out what it is that’s bothering me. It’s probably hunger. Now it’s always hunger. My body just needs more fuel than usual in order to get back into peak physical condition. Healing takes energy, even with super-powered antibodies fighting alongside you. And these days, each meal needs to last longer than the one before as my prey becomes smarter and more wary of the dangers that face them.
    I ’ll still occasionally luck into someone stupid enough to try and scavenge for supplies on their own, but they’re always armed. I sometimes spend whole days waiting for the right moment to strike, minimizing my risk of injury. If needed, I can go almost a week without eating, using the time to analyze any holes in the defenses of small camps. I haven’t needed to go much longer than that, but I suspect that if it comes down to it, I’ll have no issues with killing my own kind in order to give my body what it needs to stay alive.
    But it hasn ’t come to that yet. And I doubt it will. As much as the non-infected have become better at saying alive, I’ve become better at hunting and killing.
    Go for the throat first so they don ’t scream.
    A blow to the head is fatal to everyone.
    Control your breathing, your steps. Don ’t let them hear you coming.
    If given the choice between an adult and a child, always choose the adult. They fight harder for their young than they do for themselves.
    Yes, I may not have had the best night’s sleep, and still I’m more than ready to get back to the