Read Online Devour: Death & Decay Book 1 by R. L. Blalock - Free Book Online

away and replaced by a quiet calm. These trees, however, hid dangers. They offered shelter not just for her but for them as well.
    One of them stepped from the shadowy tree line directly into Liv’s path. He shrieked as he spotted Liv, a sound that jarred Liv to the bone, and broke into an all-out sprint that stopped her in her tracks. He moved so fast.
    Liv wrapped one arm around Elli, as much to protect the child as to comfort her. She backpedaled a few steps and pulled back the wrench for a swing. As he closed the gap between them to a mere few feet, she swung, her aim high. A loud crack rang through the air as the wrench connected to his temple. The man crumpled to the ground in a motionless heap.
    A surge of energy pulsed through her body. They weren’t unstoppable. She could fight back. Maybe she could pull both herself and Elli through this scourge.
    The wave of joy quickly washed away as countless more of them moved in to take his place.
    Liv ducked into the cover of the tree line. Thick though the trees and shrubs were, they would not hide her from the hungry maws of the infected. Elli’s wails alerted every one of them in the area to their location. They swiveled and reached for her, their arms extending out of the trees and bushes like those of phantoms. She bent her head down next to Elli’s ear and sang quietly, her hasty steps automatically falling in time with the song.
    Slowly, Elli’s cries abated, replaced with little gasps and hiccups. The sound tugged at Liv’s heart as she planted a gentle kiss on top of Elli’s head and lightly traced her fingers along Elli’s arm.
    The small child in her arms was amazingly resilient. Whenever Elli fell, instead of crying she would often simply roll over and kick her feet, as if pretending it had been on purpose. Still, Elli’s little fingers were latched onto Liv’s shirt like a vice.
    The day had been a blur of confusion. Liv still struggled to juxtapose the world before her eyes with the world that she had known just yesterday. She couldn’t imagine what Elli thought of what was happening. Though Elli seemed to prefer gestures to actual words, time after time, Elli had astounded Liv with her ability to comprehend what was said to her, what was going on around her, or simply how things were supposed to work. She easily carried out commands and grasped concepts that Liv thought would have been outside of her capability. However, the events of today must have been all the more confusing and terrifying to Elli because of her limited knowledge of the world.
    Eventually, Liv came across another road lined with houses. Elli had fallen asleep as she walked and now hung limply in the carrier, only twitching on occasion to grasp for her binky. Liv envied Elli’s ability to sleep. She had passed a few other roads with houses but couldn’t bring herself to stop. Instead, she pushed on forward, her mind refusing to let her rest.
    Nonetheless, her feet ached and with each step her exhausted body cried out for rest. She crouched along the tree line and watched the houses. Nothing stirred on the street except for the leaves that rustled in the breeze.
    Despite the calm appearance, the neighborhood still felt ominous. Too many porch lights remained off. It was too quiet.
    In the middle of the street, a car sat with its driver’s-side door open. Across the street, the front door of a house stood partially open.
    The infected were there. Eerie in their stillness. There were three that Liv could pick out among the dark shapes. None of them had moved. They just stood there, gently shifting from side to side, in the darkened street.
    In the roughly thirty minutes that Liv had watched the street, the infected hadn’t taken a single step. One had sunk to his knees only to fall forward on his face. He didn’t try to rise. Liv had hoped they would move on to somewhere else, but they didn’t show any interest in going anywhere. If she was going to move, she would have to stay