Read Online A Dark Evolution (Book 2): Deranged by Jason N. LaVelle - Free Book Online Page B

Kala gasped. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” Her chest was heaving. She came out of the nightmare hard, like she had just run a race.
    “It's okay,” Dylan said, moving away. “We all have nightmares sometimes.”
    “Sometimes I cry when I’m sleeping,” Sophie chimed in.
    Kala scooched herself into a sitting position. The axe was still on her lap. The car keys were still in her pocket.
    “So we need to talk,” Dylan said.
    Kala set the axe on the ground and leaned forward, elbows on her knees.
    “I have to get Sophie out of Florida. I want to head north, as far as I can get.”
    Kala nodded, her head finally coming clear of the ruinous nightmare that had fuzzed it up.
    “Is it better up north?”
    Dylan cleared his throat. “Well, we haven’t had any news since the power went out, but at that time, Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana were the worst off, but it was popping up everywhere.”
    “So you figure it will be at least better north of us?”
    “It makes sense doesn’t it? It started here, then they quarantined the state, which failed, but served to get as many of us infected as possible. You can't go down the street and find a real person, but the dead ones are wandering all over, just looking for something to kill.”
    Kala was quiet for several minutes as she rolled the situation around in her head. Dylan waited patiently for her, his long arms draped over his knees, his brown eyes watching her.
    “I agree with you that this epidemic is worse here in the south, but not necessarily for the same reason. Sure it started here, but the real reason is that the disease vector is the mosquito, and the southeast United States has more mosquitoes than any other part of the country. So, more vectors to carry the disease, more infected. You follow?”
    “Yes. I know you were out of it, but before we lost TV, they had identified some other bloodsucking bugs that were carrying the disease too, body lice and a couple other ones.”
    “Awesome.”
    “So I was thinking that if we head north, get out of the Florida heat, maybe we could find help, maybe -”
    “We? Look, Dylan, aside from the fact that I don’t trust you, I’m not looking for any travel companions. I would rather be alone. I can move faster that way, besides, my last companions didn’t work out so well.”
    Dylan sighed, looking desperate. He looked over to Sophie, who was playing with some broken and dingy Barbie dolls.
    Kala watched her too. She tried not to let her feelings get in the way of logic. But she was just a little girl, and Dylan, well he was just a boy, probably not more than fifteen. How was he going to take care of them both? There’s no way they would survive.
    “Look, you can ride with me until we hit the state line, then you find another car, deal?”
    Dylan looked from her to Sophie again, and nodded his head. “Thanks. Just don't leave us at some redneck truck stop or something okay?”
    Kala laughed, “I think there's more black people in Alabama than white people, you shouldn't have to worry. Still, we will have to be careful where we go. I don’t know how desperate people will be for an automobile or anything.”
    “Okay, cool, whatever. Thanks.”
    “When do you think we should leave?”
    “It's evening now. Do you want to wait until morning, get some sleep first?” he asked.
    Kala looked over to Sophie then at their makeshift beds. “Do you think she would sleep in the car?”
    “Definitely, my parents used to have to drive her around just to get her to fall asleep at night.”
    “Then let's leave now. I’ve done all the sleeping I want to do for a while.” Kala rose and stretched her legs, pushing up onto her tiptoes to stretch her calves. “Pack up all the food and water into our bags. Grab the lanterns and anything else that might be useful.”
    Dylan rummaged through the basement with her. Together they found a mostly intact tent that even had a rain cover, some raincoats, the small camp stove he and