Read Online DISEASE: A Zombie Novel by M.F. Wahl - Free Book Online Page B

doesn’t answer immediately, pausing to take stock of the tiny, woman with wavy grey hair that’s pulled back from her brow with bobby pins. This woman with the power to mutate men. This woman from whom confidence and mettle ripple away in waves.
    “Of course,” Casey finally responds.
    The woman seems curiously surprised, only for a split second, before it’s covered with a warm smile. Casey notices Opie is back, lurking in the background, listening and watching. Her stomach begins to knot.
    “You must be Lot,” she says.
    “You’ve heard of me!”
    “In brief.”
    “I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage then. What may I call you?”
    “Casey.”
    An older man with a withered face arrives, holding a tray with two steaming mugs. He quietly sets the mugs on the table and leaves without a word.
    “And the boy?”
    “I call him Alex. He doesn’t speak, or even write for that matter.”
    But he sure knows what’s going on, Casey thinks, as Alex snags up the mug of hot chocolate with no attempt at politeness.
    “He’s touched,” Danny pipes in.
    “Interesting. Touched children are rare for this new world,” Lot says.
    “Casey will more than make up for the kid’s burden here. She’s strong. She’s already saved my life—”
    Lot shoots Danny a nearly imperceptible look and it shuts him down, silencing him. He’s like a puppy at her feet, Casey thinks,
a beaten puppy
.
    “You’ll have to forgive Danny. He can be presumptuous, but I’m happy to see you were able to make it to us safely. Despite his—standoffishness, you and Alex could not have been in better hands. Ultimately Danny always does the right thing, but he’s had trouble with people ever since his father died when he was a child. I raised him myself, did he mention that?”
    Danny is on his feet the second the words leave Lot’s mouth. Instinctually, Casey reaches for her bat, and then remembers it was taken from her when they entered the building.
    “She doesn’t need to hear that!” Danny says, raising his voice.
    Lot raises an eyebrow. “Stop being so temperamental, Daniel, and sit down.”
    Danny crosses his arms like a pouting child. Alex jumps from his chair, suddenly interested and already finished with his hot chocolate. He copies Danny move for move. Danny turns and shouts at the boy, his anger finding a convenient outlet. “Stop that, would you?”
    Alex continues to look fixedly at Danny, doesn’t bat an eye. It’s as if Danny’s yelling at a rock. Casey gently takes Alex’s hand and pulls him to her. “Quit that, honey, it’s not nice.”
    Lot lightly laughs, completely ignoring Danny’s outburst. She reaches over and tenderly pushes Alex’s unkempt hair from his eyes. There’s something about the way she does it that sets Casey’s teeth on edge. Her eyes fall on Lot’s necklace, a blue, spiraled triangle. It makes her uneasy. She’s sure she’s seen the design before, but she can’t quite place it.
    Lot smiles at her, catching Casey’s gaze. “Children are such treasures, aren’t they?”
    Danny’s furrows his brow; he’s high-strung and Casey wonders how much of his bad attitude has to do with Lot. The woman seems cordial enough, but there’s something that doesn’t sit right. Maybe it’s the way everyone around the place kowtows to her, even Danny—especially Danny. Casey hasn’t known him long, but it’s odd to her that for all his macho grandstanding, he’s like a starved, neutered whelp when it comes to this woman.
    The creeps leak down Casey’s spine and she curls her toes inside her shoes. She’s beginning to have serious second thoughts that can’t be soothed by the promise of a hot meal, conversation, and a safe bed to sleep in.
    Voices rise above the low hum of activity in the hotel lobby. Shouting. There’s someone in the caged-in foyer, soaked in blood. Casey can tell, even from where she sits, that he’s panicked, calling for a nurse. The guards are jittery, the stocks of