After The Virus Read Online Free Page A

back, but then just as she thought she was out of sight, she dislodged some rock — shale , her useless brain offered — with a twist of her foot. In the endless second it took for rock to hit river rock, she wondered if she should put more stock in astrology and that doomsday horoscope she’d read before this bad run.
    He saw her.
    He shouted.
    She ran.
    She ran forward, not back, because she was miles past any decent place to hide. B.B. could barely keep up and wouldn’t be able to maintain this pace for long.
    She twisted her ankle, fell, and bloodied her palms. B.B. whined through her panting.
    She looked up to find her forehead inches from a trap.
    Fucking bastard. Fuck, fuck, fucking bastard with his little shriveled dick. She didn’t give a shit if that river was fed by a glacier or what.  
    This wasn’t the time to fall and stay down. That time had passed, years before this shit. If her mother hadn’t destroyed her, nothing would.
    So she got up.
    Only then did she see the path carved in the cliff. Unless he had a fucking elevator, they’d be gone long before he got here.
    ∞
    He came for them that night, reeking of rotting fish and human waste. He hadn’t bothered to dress; perhaps clothing would have slowed down the plan that was evident by his engorged dick. It was, she noticed, as puny as she’d thought it would be.
    He slunk in by the light of her embers, his belly low as he, crawling on all fours, stalked her. She’d expected him, but was still thrown by the sudden, full-body, vicious attack.
    Of course, not as thrown as he was by the bear trap in her sleeping bag.
    He screamed and thrashed, but still managed to show surprise when she swung down from the tree. Unbelievably, lust hardened his face even more than the pain. She didn’t take this as a compliment, knowing that any woman or maybe any warm body would do for this crazy. He considered himself a hunter, after all.
    She was sorry to see that the sleeping bag softened the teeth of the trap. Unless it got infected, he probably wouldn’t lose the leg. What a pity .
    “Get this the hell off me!” he demanded. “I wasn’t coming to kill you! I haven’t seen a… woman… talk… I just wanted to hear your voice.”
    “I believe the common way a living being is forced to get out of this sort of mess is to chew their own leg off,” she sneered. “Try that.”
    “Fucking bitch!”
    B.B. lunged for his throat and Rhiannon half-heartedly held her off. Revoltingly, he fear-pissed; the spray soiled her runners.
    “You’re right about the bitch part, on two counts, but certainly not the fucking.” And, leaving him to his hopefully dire fate, she pulled the still snapping and snarling B.B. away.
    She always did like a great exit line, though she mourned the loss of a perfectly good sleeping bag.

CHAPTER FOUR
    WILL

    The crinkle of wrappers drew his attention. He guessed she was about nine; huddled in an aisle at the Drug Mart and inhaling chocolate bars. The absolute terror in her eyes made his stomach knot. This was what the world had become: a girl, mortally terrified, when she saw any man. He couldn’t think what the hell to say or do that wouldn’t be a threat. Keep holding the rifle or put it down? Are you alone? Are you okay?  
    He was pretty sure that was blood caked underneath her ragged fingernails.
    He finally settled for, “Hey, sorry to sneak up on you. I was just gathering some supplies. I live the next town over. My name is Will.”
    She didn’t answer, but her grip on the Snickers bar eased. He continued, “Don’t mind me. I’m just going to pick up some shampoo and stuff.”
    He eased back and crossed into the next aisle to stare at the still-stocked shelves. He didn’t need shampoo, but he added it to his box anyway. He could hear her gathering chocolate bars into the sack she wore slung across her shoulders, then silence. He sidestepped to the soap.
    Aware of her tracking him, he slowly moved around the store. He