Feast Read Online Free PDF

stall, face twisted in concern. “I flushed. I didn’t mean to. It just—”
    The wall between them shook. A long hooked talon punched through, separating them. Alia screamed and reeled back. The hard shell was green, and its bottom side was serrated like a massive knife.
    Jakob fell back out of the bathroom, raising his rifle to fire. A second exoskeletal appendage slammed through the wall and struck the door, slamming it shut.
    Alia scrambled away, slipping on the smooth tile floor, grasping for the silenced handgun she had holstered before sitting on the toilet.
    The massive limbs moved in and out, sawing through the wall with frantic jerking motions. Alia’s screams were drowned out by a loud chirping that tore through the air like an alarm. It was the most noise she had heard since the battle at her parents’ farmhouse, and if anything else was around, it would already be on its way.
    The wall gave way, coughing a cloud of drywall into the room. Support beams bent and broke. And then a head slid into the room, insect like, but unidentifiable. It had massive oval eyes that shimmered under the glare of Alia’s headlamp. Three sets of mandibles opened and closed, while smaller grinding mouths twitched. The thing lacked any kind of expression, but exuded menace, and hunger.
    Alia drew her weapon and pulled the trigger. The first three rounds missed, despite the creature’s size. But the rest struck the oversized insect’s head and forelimbs, ricocheting into the ceiling and walls. The 9mm weapon, about all she could handle, was ineffective.
    Through the frenzied chirping, she thought she heard voices. The bathroom door shook from the far side. It opened an inch, but when it struck the creature’s leg, it was pushed back, sealing predator and prey in a fifteen-foot-long space with no other exit. Not even a window.
    A claw snapped out and cracked the tile floor, just missing her legs. She pushed back further, but stopped when her back struck the wall.
    The insect pushed deeper into the room, incensed by its failure.
    Alia tried to reload her weapon, but she only managed to drop it and the spare magazine.
    When the creature struck again, so fast that the limb looked like it had teleported from one spot to the next, Alia pushed herself up onto her feet. She screamed, again and again, but the sound was lost in the insect’s chirping, a symphony of life and death.
    With nowhere else to run, Alia dove into the stall, yanked the door shut and twisted the lock. She huddled atop the toilet, clutching herself, sobbing.
    The metal walls vibrated. The tip of a claw stabbed through. It pulled free with a shriek of carapace on metal. The next strike would be hard enough and deep enough to find her.
    A cacophonous boom shook the air.
    The floor trembled.
    A second boom rang out.
    The chirping fluttered and stopped.
    In the silence that followed, Alia wept. Then something moved.
    It’s coming back!
    Walls crumbled. Tiles crunched. It was right outside the stall.
    The door shook.
    She heard voices shouting her name, but she couldn’t hear who, over the sound of her own ragged screams.
    The door was torn open.
    It was Peter, shotgun in hand, face covered in white gore.
    She fell into his arms, vision fading. She remembered being carried. She saw a large number of empty shells lying on the hallway floor as she was rushed out of the bathroom. Peter had resorted to using the loud shotgun when normal bullets had failed. The rest of the retreat from the grocery store, and then the area was a blur. Somewhere along the line, she fell asleep.
    When she woke up again, everyone was quiet. She said nothing, but started crying when she found a jar of peanut butter in her lap. She could have gotten them all killed, but they were still showing her kindness. Alia wondered how long that would last. Sooner or later, she was going to get someone killed.
    Sooner or later, she was going to have to leave.

 
     
    5
     
    “Are we there yet?” Anne