Empty Bodies (Book 2): Adaptation Read Online Free PDF Page B

and narrowed his eyes at the man. “You scared the shit out of me.”
    “Sorry.”
    David shook his head, then glared at it. “Why is it here?”
    Lawrence looked over at David. “See, we got lucky. This woman was actually a very bad person. She was a criminal, a drug dealer. She had OD’d, and they had her strapped in so that, when she came to, she wouldn’t be able to escape and the police could arrest her. There was so much going on up here after everyone fell, that she was basically forgotten about. So, she remained unscathed. Once the rest of the area had been cleared out, Kristen—one of the nurses who is still here now—left her in her room and shut the door. When I got here, they wanted me to go in and kill her, but I figured we oughta keep her alive. Study her. So, we cleared out this gift shop and put her in here so we could look in on her through this large window.”
    “Shit,” David said. “Have you found out anything?”
    Lawrence raised his eyebrows and put his hands in his pockets, bouncing up and down on his toes. “Unfortunately, I’m not a doctor. While I have studied to become one, there are only so many things I know to do. The only thing we know for certain is that it’s not viral. We ran some tests, but couldn’t find any kind of strain. Other than that, we honestly don’t know much.”
    David rubbed the stubble on his chin, and the creature made eye contact with him. He wondered if it actually knew that he was standing there, or what he even was. He’d assumed that whatever had caused everyone to change was viral, and was perplexed to find otherwise.  
    In regards to Lawrence, David was starting to see some value in him. The man was learning things about these new beings, and David decided it best to lay low and play along, at least for the time being. As hungry as he was to be in control and to obtain power in the new world, he knew that he first needed to survive, and blending in and understanding these monsters would go a long way toward reaching that goal.
    “You can’t tell the others that you were here. Not everyone knows Joanne is here.”
    David nodded.
    “Can I walk you back to your room?” Lawrence asked.
    “Sure,” David said, and the two men stepped away from the glass as the thing’s snarls faded behind them.

CHAPTER FIVE

    Will
      “Thank you for inviting us in here, Donny.”
    “Don’t mention it.”
    Will looked over at Gabriel, who was standing at the other end of the room, and then back to the shop owner. “And sorry my guy went all cowboy on you.”
    Donny, the store owner, spit his dip into a plastic bottle, then said, “It’s okay. The way things been goin’, made folks a wee bit crazy. I understand. Hard to trust others.”
    Donny had taken the group into a cellar located under the shop. There was a back room with a door in the floor that led down to it. Will was now sitting next to him with his back against a wall.
    “He’s got a wife and kid in D.C. he’s had trouble getting in contact with. He’s pretty high strung, as you might imagine. You got any kids? A wife?”
    Donny removed his cap and wiped his brow. He had his elbows over his knees, and his gut protruded further over his waistband because of how he was sitting. He put his cap back on, and then looked over toward Dylan. The boy had finished eating his portion of the canned soup that Donny had shared with the group, and was now sitting with Holly playing a game of Connect Four that Donny had had for sale in the shop above them.
    “Cathy, my wife, she died four years ago. The cancer got her. And my daughter, she was fourteen. She got caught up in all this shit a few days back.” He began to cry now. “I left her in the double-wide we were livin’ in. She attacked me, but I couldn’t bring myself to put ‘er down. She’s still locked up in there now, I ‘magine.”
    Will shook his head and put his hand over his eyes. “I’m so sorry, man.”
    “Yeah.” It’s the only