Intruders: The Invasion: A Post-Apocalyptic, Alien Invasion Thriller (Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

leached out of it.
    Spooky.
    “Have a seat, Danny. Would you like something to drink? A
juice box? Milk? Water?”
    Danny sat on the couch next to Jessica, who ran her fingers
through his white hair.
    “Nana, Danny?” Jessie asked him.
    He looked up at her and said nothing, but Jessie stopped
moving, staring back into his eyes. In a moment, she nodded, then climbed off
the couch and toddled off into the kitchen.
    I frowned, following her. She opened the fridge and grabbed
a juice box in one small hand, then closed the fridge and toddled past me, back
into the living room, and handed the juice box to Danny.
    Again, he looked into her eyes.
    Jessie smiled. “Yo welcome, Danny.”
    Danny hadn’t said a word to her.
    “How did you know what Danny wanted, Jessie? Did you guess?”
I asked, already dreading her answer, because I knew what it would be.
    “I just knowed.” Jessie resumed playing with Danny’s hair as
he watched me silently with those eerie, pale eyes.
     
    * * *
     
    The creepy kid wasn’t talking. Not so that I could hear him,
anyway. I found some cookies in the cupboard and put a bunch on a plate,
putting it on the coffee table for him and Jessie.
    Jessie beamed. “Choca ship!”
    Danny looked down at the plate, then back at me.
    I backed into the kitchen. Whatever his dealio was, he
seemed to really like Jessie, and even be protective of her. But he looked at
me like he didn’t trust me.
    Given current events, and God knew what else had happened to
him, I didn’t really blame him.
    No. He’s looking at you like he knows
something you don’t.
    Just hang in there. Check the news. See
what’s up. You can figure out what to do with him later.
    I tried my cell and got a message that the provider was
experiencing technical difficulties. Wonderful. So even if I got a phone number
from Danny for his grandparents in Connecticut or Vermont, or wherever it was
he and his mother had been, I couldn’t call them.
    I googled ‘vanished kids return’ and got a ton of hits; blog
entries, videos, and people posing questions on forums.
    All saying the same thing.
    My kid is back but is different.
    I viewed several videos of people recording their returned
kids with their blank expressions and their eerie smiles. Kids seeming to talk
to each other without moving their lips. Siblings having entire conversations
without opening their mouths.
    Parents were scared.
    I saw more videos of white haired children walking the
streets, some alone, and some in groups, amongst the dead.
    The kids acted like the dead weren’t even there, and the
dead did the same with them.
    But the most frightening thing I saw were videos, more and
more of them, of children watching, completely emotionless, as the dead tore
the living apart before their eyes.
    With my hands pasted over my mouth, I watched in utter
horror as a group of four siblings watched their parents, who were rushing them
to the family car in their driveway, overcome by a large herd of the dead,
tearing chunks from their flesh, taking them down as they shrieked in terror
and agony.
    The kids simply stood and watched, completely unaffected.
    The person filming was a neighbor across the street, who
kept saying, “Oh, my God. Oh, God. What the hell is wrong with these kids?”
    I heard a gasp as one at a time, each of the four children
lifted their shocking white heads, looked straight into the camera, and gave
the same, creepy smirk.
    As if they’d heard him.
    “Jesus Christ almighty,” the man recording said. “Save us
all.”
     
    * * *
     
    Where the hell were Derek and Kelly?
    Deep down, I knew that something had happened to them.
Rayback had said that he’d come back and check on me and see if Jessie had been
brought back, by some miracle, sometime today. Unless I’d slept through his
knocking earlier, he hadn’t come. Neither had Derek and Kelly.
    They aren’t coming. You’re on your own.
    I sat in a big, fluffy chair in the corner of the living
room while