Earth Zero: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller (Next Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

collective consciousness that would outlive them individually.
    “What’s so funny?” Rachel asked.
    “It’s going to eat you,” came the giddy voice of the infant.
    “It’s going to eat you first,” Rachel said. “Let’s see how you like being bait.”
    Now DeVontay understood. Rachel intended to sacrifice the infant so they could make a run for it. The plan had plenty of holes: the reptile might not care for mutant meat, the Zaps might act before she could carry out the plan, and the reptile might move swiftly enough to chomp off the baby’s head and still take both of them down as they fled. But DeVontay didn’t have a better plan, or any plan at all.
    Rachel walked toward the reptile, which paused about fifty feet away, its tail sweeping back and forth across the concrete with a scuffing sound. Rachel held the baby before her like a shield. The Zaps watching from above seemed to stir, and a low rumble arose behind the opposite door. Whatever power source churned out of sight, it seemed to be amping up its output.
    A soft humming arose in harmony with the drone of the engine, and DeVontay realized the Zaps were making the sound. Their voices combined like the choir of some profane and nameless church, their mouths parting in uniformity with their rounded hairstyles and silver outfits. It wasn’t music, exactly, nor was it pleasant.
    The reptile lifted its head at the sound. It had no visible ears, but DeVontay guessed the aural cavities were hidden behind the leathery folds of skin on each side of its skull. The nostrils flared and the gray tongue tasted at the air.
    The door had risen enough that DeVontay could see the cracked, flat avenue of concrete extending along another enclosure, although the floor inclined toward what was likely ground level. This was their chance to make a run for it, but DeVontay took two steps and nearly collapsed when his ankle flared with agony. Rachel kept walking toward the creature, and DeVontay couldn’t do anything to stop her.
    “Wait,” he called to her back, but she was nearly to the reptile now.
    Even above the humming and droning, he could hear her speak to the Zap infant: “ Tell them to end it .”
    The reptile took a giant step toward Rachel, the nails of its toes clicking on the concrete. It threw back its head and roared and then suddenly dipped its jaws forward like a hurricane full of butcher knives.
    Rachel shoved the baby headfirst into the slavering, protean maw and the reptile froze before its teeth could close, the tiny, wispy-haired skull trapped as fragile as a robin’s egg. The audience fell silent and the droning engine trailed away to a faint whir.
    DeVontay was afraid to move. The entire scene was like the still frame of a movie, with the only motion a viscid strand of clear drool leaking from the reptile’s mouth and splattering on the hard floor.
    The Zaphead giggled, its head scraping against the rows of serrated teeth and drawing fine red lines of blood as the skin parted.
    “You don’t want to kill us, Rachel Wheeler,” the Zap said, in a high-pitched voice that was eerie coming from a baby that was far too young to talk.
    “I’ll do whatever I have to do,” Rachel said. “You know that.” She raised her voice so that all the Zaps could hear, although DeVontay figured they’d already “heard” telepathically. “I’ll kill you all.”
    That’s pretty ballsy, considering the circumstances. But I guess you’ve never been one to back down from a fight.
    The reptile’s muscles tensed and trembled, as if every instinct was compelling it to bite down on the salty morsel. But some unseen force held it paralyzed. Its slit pupils darkened as if an inner light had been switched off. DeVontay wondered what kind of connection there was between the creature, the Zaps, and that throbbing engine that had now fallen away to a dying whine.
    “Put it down, Rachel,” he said, somehow knowing the baby Zap held sway over their fragile