Sundered Read Online Free PDF Page B

as he launched himself at me. I stumbled backwards with a grunt striking out with my knife and getting nothing but air. We hit the ground and I rolled, trying to remember my distant Judo lessons, failing miserably. The clerk ended up on top of me but didn’t pin my knife hand; I suppose he was too focused on eating me. Before I knew what I was doing I had my left hand wrapped around his throat, keeping his snapping teeth off me, and I slammed the knife upwards into his heart, blood spurting out around the blade and down the handle.
     
    Then he was yanked off me and Sebastian was staring down at me with a look of horror across his face. Dan stepped up next to him. “She’s got a good survival drive. That’ll serve you well. If she were a screamer you’d be dead in no time.”
     
    I lay on the floor staring up at them, my brain trying to process what just happened. I’d been attacked, and I’d killed a man. In a less time than it took to take a breath of air, my life had twisted itself inside out. My hands were slick with his blood, and as I stood a wave of vertigo washed over me.
     
    “ She’s gonna puke.”
     
    Hands were suddenly on me, guiding me outside where I did indeed puke, heaving till my stomach was empty and sweat beaded on my forehead. Dan turned the hose on and I washed my hands clean and sprayed the cool water over my face. I had killed a man. My stomach clenched again and I dry heaved.
     
    “ Oh shit,” Sebastian said, his voice off to my right, his hands tightening on my arms.
     
    “ I’ll be okay,” I said.
     
    “ Not you babe,” he turned me to the front of our property and the open gate, “them.”
     
    Maybe it wasn’t a horde, but there was close to twenty people walking our way, the distinct yellow of their skin visible even from here.
     
    Sebastian let me go and ran for the gate.
     
    “ Bastian, don’t!” I screamed at him and as a unit, every single one of the Nevermore’s heads snapped up, their slitted eyes focusing on the source of the scream. Me.
     
    “ Damn it girl, I told you no noise,” Dan growled as he walked past me, putting his gun to his shoulder and taking aim at the running horde, though he didn’t pull the trigger. Sebastian reached the gate the same time as the first of the Nevermores and he flung the heavy panels shut, slamming the lock into place as they hammered their bodies up against it, screaming and howling, their eyes wild and their hands reaching for Sebastian.
     
    I ran down the porch, jumped across the flowerbeds and ran to where Sebastian stood panting, staring at the horde in front of us. “Why aren’t they trying to climb the gate?” I whispered.
     
    Sebastian shook his head, breathing hard. That had been a quick sprint for a man of his size, faster than I’d seen him move in years.
     
    Dan strolled up next to us, casually, like he was out for a Sunday visit, and except for the gun slung over his shoulder and the horde of Nevermores at our gate, he could have been. “Interesting, that. They don’t seem to be able to figure it out. Like animals penned up.” But even as he spoke, one of the Nevermores pushed his way through to the front of the group and began to fiddle with the gate, his fingers clumsy and far from dexterous. He didn’t seem to be able to use the finer points of motor skills, which was better for us. All the same, he was still trying to open the gate.
     
    “ We’ve got to get out of here,” Sebastian said, pulling me with him as he backed away from the gate. I didn’t need a lot of encouragement. I was not interested in facing down that horde anytime soon. Thank God our place was fully fenced.
     
    “ We’re stuck here for a while, boy. Might as well get used to the idea, unless you’ve got a tank in that shed over there.” Dan pointed to the dilapidated chicken coop we’d partially knocked down in preparation for a garden.
     
    “ We don’t need a tank,” I surprised myself by speaking my thoughts out