INK: Red (INK Trilogy Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

was thirsty too!
    But if he drank then he'd need a pee again at some point, and there was no way he was ever doing that again. Never.
    Ugh.
    He waited it out, unable to move, his penis screaming in agony, his whole middle on fire, making everything else pale into insignificance in comparison.
    Some things are just too damn private and personal.
    He lay there for what felt like hours but knew was only minutes.
    Time to go. Where?
    It was impossible to think straight — there was too much hurt, too much exhaustion. Too much loss.
    Try to find a way into The Commorancy, right? Get safe, secure, away from the nightmare?
    That was a plan, that was something to aim for.
    To hell with that. I'm going to kill the bastards.
    He felt better already.
    Time to turn the tables and make them pay.
    Sorry Kathy, I know you won't approve. I know you'd say I should look after myself, try to become a better man. Awaken, stay safe. But I can't, not after what they did to you, what they did to me. They have to pay for what they have done.
    A terrible noise startled him; it was his stomach. He needed food, and he needed water. The canteen didn't have anything, the water cooler was empty — nobody had bothered to get it refilled.
    But maybe in the other warehouses he would have more luck. Surely some of them would have a vending machine or a simple cup of water for him?
    Time to find out.
     
    ~~~
     
    The Pepsi was sheer bliss. It was warm, probably out of date, although he didn't bother to check, and it roiled in his guts as the fizzy liquid met nothing but stomach acid — it was glorious. His first drink in more than a day and the caffeine and sugar buzz felt like nothing on this earth.
    "Aah."
    Leaning against the broken glass of the vending machine, Edsel tried to formulate some kind of a plan. His head began to buzz a little and it gave him some kind of clarity, for a few seconds anyway.
    Oh no, here it comes, here it comes.
    His head began to spin, his eyes lost focus, and there was something rising from within — his body moving away from him, like it no longer belonged to him at all. Edsel hit the floor but was already unconscious. The sugar load after so long without food had crashed his system. The final adrenaline come-down had caught up with him — he'd been running on a high for days now, the adrenaline from getting The Ink, his escape, and Kathy's death all kept him going at a ramped up speed, the rest and the drink had been the final straw.
    As he lay there the strange milky fluid called lymph, that was a result of the tattoos, slowly turned his skin a milky pink. Scabs continued to form, his skin bubbled in places where excess moisture was trapped and searched for release, and his body just kept on burning and burning.
    For just a few minutes he was free of it all.
    He came back to himself soon enough and finished off the rest of the drink, not caring what would happen, only that he had to get hydrated. Wandering around the huge warehouse he now found himself in, his joy could hardly be contained when he found a water cooler.
    Half full.
    He drank until he felt like he would pop, then searched around until he found what he was looking for — there was a half full milk carton in the canteen, the only vessel he could find. He emptied it best he could, then poured a can of Fanta — he hated Fanta — into it and put the cap back on. It fizzed satisfactorily, then he emptied it back out and rinsed it with water from the water cooler. A few sniffs and a few rinses later he at least had some portable water.
    He took a backpack from a peg at the entrance and after emptying it of a container of very moldy sandwiches and a yogurt he definitely knew no longer contained any good bacteria, Edsel filled it with cans of drink and his water bottle.
    With no better solution coming to mind he tied a towel around the backpack so it wouldn't chafe so much on his back. It hurt like hell to get it on, but at least it was a pain with a purpose