Falling Apart (Barely Alive #2) Read Online Free PDF

to Dominic’s theoretical army might. They just want to eat, and once the meat gains a flavor they no longer want, they move on, ignoring what happens after. Like when I bit Heather. I didn’t know to watch for changes or death, but had I known, would I have stopped to check if she’d changed or died? Not likely. And the previous attackers hadn’t checked either according to the uncontrollable outbreak of Dominic’s virus.
    Travis shivered. He wrapped his arms around himself and rocked back and forth.
    I sidestepped Travis and motioned to Connie and James to follow. The expressions on their faces confirmed my insanity. I snapped my fingers and pointed at a spot behind the shaking man.
    James arched his eyebrow and Connie jutted her jaw to the side. Yeah, I was rude, but get over it. Hell.
    When they reached me, I motioned to Travis. “Look, he’s not going to do anything. It didn’t take much but he’s acting like a bee I saw on the windowsill this morning. He’s cold. He can’t do much. He might be fine in the sunshine, but in the shade he’s moving toward dormant.” I acknowledged the cold with my own goose bumps. It’d been more than a few hours since my last meal. I could handle the cold for a bit longer, but Travis hadn’t eaten as a zombie and his reserves would disappear in no time.
    James motioned toward Travis and kept his voice lowered. “He’s not even looking at them anymore. Paul, make him do something.”
    Kneel. But Travis didn’t move. I thought harder. Kneel.
    I barked the order, loud and clear. “Kneel.” But Travis didn’t respond. I widened my eyes, a plan forming.
    Connie bent over her husband, her words biting from the few feet that separated us. “Are you done playing with him? I’m going to get him something to eat and then we can discuss this. Stop treating him like an experiment. He’s my husband.”
    Yeah, who you experimented on, I wanted to add, but kept my comment to myself. The lady could be awesome one second and high-and-mighty the next. If I were Travis, I might have changed myself just for the chance to escape her. But Travis wasn’t going anywhere and neither was she, so his plan – if that had been it – had backfired. Now they were stuck together, no sleep required, and had a problem to figure out or they’d die in a few months.
    Like me.

Chapter 4
     
    Dominic would have to stay with his army to control them mentally.
    When Connie wasn’t watching, I tested Dr. Duncan to see what the distance of control was and just how far I could push him. James asked me if I could get inside Travis’s head, but I wasn’t ready to try. What if his hormones grabbed hold and I was there when his lust turned his mind into a porno show? Sick. I could barely handle my own thoughts, let alone a middle-aged man’s.
    But the hold, depending on how much food he’d had, didn’t reach further than a mile. James and I communicated with handheld radios.
    Connie joined me for dinner after James and I had tested three different runs. We’d killed a white-tailed deer and a mountain lion, interrupting the predator/prey game they were playing and claimed them for our own.
    Meticulous didn’t describe Connie’s eating habits. I didn’t try to copy her. I was too hungry. Plus, she was a chick. They cared more about that stuff. Between mouthfuls, she brought up the topic. “I didn’t alter your saliva like I’d planned.”
    “What?” I was engaged in my eating and not as quick on the uptake.
    “I said I hadn’t altered your saliva before Travis injected himself. You might as well have bitten him.” She placed a reddish purple chunk between her lips.
    I rocked back on my haunches as I processed the information. “Dominic doesn’t have a mental hold on me, but he has one on James. He synthesized the virus and injected me and a bunch of others, but bit James. Did you notice anything different between mine and James’s blood?”
    Taken aback, she thought for several seconds. I