Love and Decay Read Online Free

tear into fresh flesh too? Or would they wait to drag them
back to their caves and cook them first?
    The thought sickened me, but finding
differences between these monsters and the normal, everyday kind I
usually fought was hard. Both were addicted to flesh. Neither
should exist. And yet this was my reality. My life.
    The only one I’d ever known.
    I acutely remembered the time when I was a
child and we’d wandered unknowingly into the cannibals’ caves. We
thought they meant to help us. We were wrong.
    We’d just barely made it out of those caves
alive and now, the second we stepped back into the Mexican
Territories, we were face-to-face with this nightmare again.
    I realized the fire had drawn them out and
signaled our arrival. We should have known better than to announce
our presence or trust our surroundings. But we’d all breathed a
sigh of relief when we’d made it back to friendly territory. We had
been expecting Diego, not these monstrosities.
    Frustrated, I swung harder, faster. We hadn’t
even been worried about Feeders because we knew they were kept
locked up here. We should have known better.
    Nothing was easy in this world.
    Not even dinner.
    As my blade cut through the gut of a man
ghostly white and ripe with red blood, I tried to keep from
flinching. His skin had yellowed and a fine sheen of something
gooey spread all over him. But he was still human. His brain should
still work. His conscience should still speak up.
    Or maybe not.
    Even before he fell to the ground, his eyes
stared blankly ahead. His drawn face remained expressionless and
unconscious to the pain.
    My heart beat faster the longer I was exposed
to these unnatural anomalies. They closed in on us, tightening
their circle and working in unison to beat us with their clubs and
stick us with the pointy end of their handmade spears. We dodged
the blows as best we could and stabbed and cut whenever possible.
But we were outnumbered.
    “Where the hell are your brothers?” Miller
shouted over the battle.
    I was just about to answer him, when Harrison
spoke up from behind us. “We just wanted to see what you two were
made of,” he yelled.
    Miller growled something creatively
profane.
    King’s chuckle floated down to us. I glanced
up and saw him standing on a large boulder. “We were getting
reinforcements!” he explained.
    Miller looked up just as a shadow fell on our
tight circle of death. A man appeared. His smooth face contrasted
with the rough beards on either side of the battle. His dark hair
was peppered with gray, but it didn’t make him look old. Instead,
he gave off a distinguished vibe.
    I squinted at him. The sun set just over his
shoulder, blocking a clear view of his face and his identity.
    But Miller somehow relaxed and grew more
alert simultaneously. He took a step back, hiding me from the man,
but his blades dropped to his side and his shoulders relaxed.
    The man shouted something in Spanish and the
cannibals jolted to attention. They stepped back from us, lowering
their weapons and glancing around the clearing with cautious eyes.
The man shouted again, telling them to leave now.
    I didn’t think they would listen. But they
did. I felt their eyes take us in for one long moment, mourning the
meal they had set their hopes on. Then they turned in unison and
ran off. They loped off together like a pack of wolves, lifting
their faces to the sky as if they could scent the air.
    I turned to the man on the rock. “Thank
you.”
    He stared at me. “Who is this?” He directed
his question at King.
    I resented his question immediately. I could
answer for myself. “I’m Page Parker,” I told him with all the pride
that sentence demanded. “Who are you ?”
    Despite the shadows over his face and the
burning sun over his shoulder, his wide smile split his face and
flashed down at me. “The little girl?” He laughed as if that were
the funniest thing ever. “Well, child, you should remember who I am
then.” I raised an eyebrow at