Read Online Contact by Sean Platt, Johnny B. Truant - Free Book Online

probably be attracted to him.  
    “I told you, no hollow points!” said a voice.  
    Piper felt her mouth open, wondered if she was still screaming, and decided she wasn’t. She closed her mouth, tasting unwanted moisture, wondering if she was swallowing Morgan in a different way than she’d so recently offered. She managed to turn and saw the kid — the one with the long hair on top that swung in his face. He wasn’t really a kid, she realized. He might be around her age. And now that he wasn’t affecting his earlier vacant, crazy expression, he looked more seasoned, less insane.
    “It’s fine,” Christopher told him.  
    “Jesus Christ , Christopher. You’re cleaning this up since you insisted on fucking hollow points. You hear me? Every fucking drop. And you’re dragging his ass outside.”  
    Christopher looked over. “Bullshit! I kill him, you guys haul him! That was the deal!”  
    “If you’d used a normal slug maybe! Half his fucking head is gone, Christopher! You think I want that shit all over me?”
    “Look,” Christopher continued in an eminently reasonable tone of voice, “I’ll clean up the blood. But I’m not dragging the body.”
    “You’re doing it all!”  
    “How is that fair, Cameron?”  
    “How is you using fucking hollow points fair, Christopher?”  
    “That’s just what I had!”  
    “Nobody just has those!”  
    “Well, I did,” Christopher said, crossing his arms.  
    Across the room, Lila slipped in a puddle of blood and almost struck the ground. The big-armed man caught her. Raj came at him, apparently meaning to protect his woman, but the big man cuffed him away. He set Lila down and turned toward Raj instantly, apologizing, mumbling that the strike had been force of habit.  
    “Okay, everyone. Calm down! ” Cameron said, raising his arms.  
    Lila was ranting and screaming, not hearing at all. Heather was mumbling.  
    Cameron put his fingers in his mouth and loudly whistled. Lila shrieked one last time and fell silent. All eyes turned to the group’s new leader.  
    “It’s over,” Cameron said. “ Over. Okay?”  
    He looked around the room to make sure everyone planned to remain quiet then continued.  
    “I’m sorry to have put you through that little bit of drama and violence, but it’s over now, okay? It was an unfortunate consequence of how we found things when we arrived.”  
    Piper found her speech. It was, apparently, right where she’d left it: under her terror.
    “Who are you?” she asked.
    Cameron put his right hand on his chest, fingers splayed.  
    “My name is Cameron Bannister.” He pointed around the room at each of the new arrivals in turn. “And as Morgan kindly informed you before losing his mind, that’s Vincent, Terrence, Christopher, and Dan.”
    Piper blinked. Her eyes wanted to water, but at least she’d stopped screaming.
    “It’s okay,” said Cameron, giving her a too-big smile. “We’re the good guys.”

CHAPTER TEN

    The Dempseys were upset. Cameron could understand.  
    Until a few months ago, he’d never seen a dead body — not even at a funeral, because he’d assiduously avoided them. He always gave spiritual excuses (“we should celebrate her life, not remember her earthly remains”) that hid his own fear of death. Until two months ago, he’d never seen a body in plain sight, discarded like litter. Even during the first weeks of occupation, Cameron had stayed in America’s guts, keeping to the little villages where drinking and music made people forget the skies, despite the ships. It had been easier to find those places than he’d thought. At first, there had been nothing but fear. And after a few weeks of nothing, burgs with only clouds above almost seemed to forget.  
    No ships. No abductions. Might as well get back to our business.  
    In retrospect, Cameron supposed he’d been rationalizing. The bands of people he’d found those first weeks — those who sometimes knew his music and