The Rabid: Rise Read Online Free PDF Page A

flesh at the front of my skull.
    “ We didn't rescue you and we didn't rescue her. We came for the USB. For the information on the USB. That's it. You were just porters. A source of transportation. We decided to help you. To bring you along with us. To give you two a secure place to bed down and get a hot meal. But, if that's not good enough for you, well, we're happy to drop you off here. What's it gonna be?”
    Bethany 's fingers are turning white against the pistol grip and her index finger is dancing precariously close to the surface of the trigger. But, it's the look on Katia’s face that scares me the most. If she can get to a sword, something tells me, Bethany is finished.
    I can see the scene playing out in my head.
    Bethany shoots Ruiz in the neck.
    I catch one in the skull.
    Bethany gets decapitated.
    Katia is left distraught and alone.
    “Okay, we're cool, I apologize. I was out of line. Let's just...start over.” I hold my breath. My words hang there.
    Thick.
    The tension of it all, palpable.
    Christ, he might pull the trigger .
    His face is a wrecking ball of emotion.
    A smile suddenly cracks the darkness. He cocks his wrist and swings the muzzle towards the roof. “I probably overreacted.” He lowers the gun and pulls it back around the seat, tucking it away in his vest. “Could you have your sister do the same?”
    “ Bethany, ease up, it's over, sis.” I grab her arm and pull it down, slowly, not wanting her finger to jerk against the trigger.
    She wavers for a moment before dropping the pistol on to the seat. “Bullshit,” she mutters, tucking her knees up beneath her chin and retreating into the corner.
    Ruiz turns back around and exhales loudly. “Shit, man that was crazy. I think this whole thing has us all on edge.”
    Some more than others, apparently.
    Katia's attention is back on the road.
    “ Listen, Tim, is it okay if I call you Tim?”
    “ Yeah, it's whatever.” I'm too busy trying to rub the muzzle indent out of my forehead to care about what he calls me.
    “ We need to find out what's on this drive. If it's something we can use to help us with our fight, we need to know, could be the difference between winning and losing this deal. And who knows, it could be something that helps us reunite ya’ll with your Ma. Let’s see what the information is and then we’ll go from there, sound fair?”
    I look to Bethany for some sign of solidarity. She 's still staring out the window. Still too worked up to hear or speak. “Yeah, sounds fine.”
    Silence fills the air around us as Katia maneuvers the truck up the steep incline of the Dallas Tollway overpass, giving us a bird's eye view of the breadth of the destruction around us. The city of Dallas is to our South. Skyscrapers, once the pillars of commerce and the American Dream, lie crumbling in the chilled morning air like pieces of aged parchment paper.
    I lean in between them. “Can I ask, where are we going exactly?”
    “ We have a little...what would you call it, Katia?”
    “ Community.”
    “ Yeah, we have a little, community, set up in Plano, you'll like it.”
    “ Neighbors are real quiet.” Katia grins.
    “ Ah, and might I also ask, why the swords?”
    “I ask her that same question all the time.”
    Katia consider s both of us. She arches her eyebrows and sighs. “I'll answer like I've always answered. The ammo is going to run out and those of us that know how to kick ass without it, like me, are going to continue to thrive. The rest of ya'll bitches are going to get eaten.”
    I nod. “Fair enough.”
    Katia looks to m e. “Let me ask you, why the hat?” She lifts it off my head, twirls it on one finger, and then drops it back in place.
    I wink at her and tip the brim. “Why not?”
     

 
    6
     
    The community is a large apartment complex situated across the street from a neighborhood of post-modern style mansions. The mansions are all straight lines, with floor to ceiling windows and black on white paint jobs.