The Fall (Book 2): Dead Will Rise Read Online Free PDF Page B

her features. “I joke a lot. I know it's hard to take me seriously. But I want you to deal with whatever is eating you up. If talking about it helps, I'm all ears. No matter how bad it is.”
    Closing his eyes, Kell breathed deeply. In the darkness behind his lids, thoughts and memories swirled in chaos through his normally highly ordered mind.
    “I haven't been sleeping well,” he began. “You know it. I go to bed late, then lay there and read until my eyes can't stay open any longer. I wake up early and stay busy all day. Anything to occupy my brain.”
    Eyes forward, Kate flipped a hand on the steering wheel. Go forward, the small gesture said, but at your own pace.
    “I dream about them, of course. About Karen and Jennifer. I see them alive sometimes. Others, not.” His voice creaked, stopping him for a breath. “It's on me, you know. It's my fault. My research. I did this, and I killed them.”
    “No, Kell, you--”
    He raised a hand, cut Kate off. “I'm not blaming myself entirely. Men took the work I was doing and ran with it before it was ready. I was the one pushing for primate testing. I was the one creating three or four variations of Chimera when whole teams struggled to make one. I made it seem viable. Without that, the idiots who made this mess happen wouldn't have had the ability. I know it's not entirely my fault, but I'm not blameless.”
    “Okay,” Kate said slowly. “So you feel responsible. That's natural. But you were trying to help people, Kell.”
    He shook his head. “You don't understand. I know I had good goals. That's not the part driving me insane.”
    Closing his eyes again, he sighed. “I keep having this recurring dream that I have to choose between you and Laura or them. Sometimes it's just a choice about who lives and who dies. Other times they're already gone, but I have the ability to trade you two for their lives.”
    Kate frowned. “Okay, a little disturbing, but still. It's a dream. Your wife and child were your world, of course you'd want to save them.”
    His eyes opened halfway, hooded in exhaustion. “I love you, Kate, and I love Laura. I'd kill for both of you. I'd die for you. Without your support I'd have been dead long ago. If not from enemies, then at my own hand. You've made my life worth living.”
    Kate shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “We love you too, but--”
    “The thing bothering me,” he said, voice like a knife. “Is that I'd do it. It's terrible and I hate myself for it, but every morning when I get out of bed, I wake up knowing I'd kill both of you to get them back. I'd murder half the survivors in the world. Anything. Anything at all to have them alive again.”
    She said nothing. Loudly.
    Kell grimaced as the RV trundled slowly down the highway. “You asked.”
    After several minutes, Kate said, “I'd do the same.”
    “What?”
    “I'd sacrifice anything to get him back. It was unfair and stupid and hateful, what those men did. I don't blame you at all for the way the world is now, but if it came down to you or him, it wouldn't even be a question.”
    Kell smiled. He couldn't help it. “I don't know if that means we're both normal, rational people who deeply miss our families, or if we're just crazy as shit.”
    She laughed, weak but real. “Probably a little of both.”
     
    Lunch was an event.
    The group halted at the state line between Michigan and Ohio; this was where the escort from North Jackson was to leave them. The soldiers spent the first half of the day dipping in and out of the line, taking turns between scouting and guarding. A group of them waited at the state line, having gone far ahead of the convoy to clear obstructions.
    It had always been the plan to stop while the guard refueled and readied themselves to leave their charges to the journey ahead, but the migrants not in Kell's group caught him pleasantly by surprise. While the soldiers checked their vehicles, topping off fuel and fluids with practiced efficiency, the