Read Online Evolve Two: Vampire Stories of the Future Undead by Unknown - Free Book Online Page A

Melissa.”
    “You don’t have to go outside. Just up and down the halls.”
    “But I have to do it during the day, when the physio staff’s here. You know that, Dr. E.”
    She closed her eyes and saw Melissa stepping out through the front door of the hospital like it was happening at this moment and not three months before. The late afternoon sun touching her. Igniting her. Her screaming and screaming as Roslyn fell backwards into the safety of the shadows. And then Roslyn screaming as Melissa finally fell, finally silent, to the sidewalk, and burned to ash. “I’m not doing that again.”
    “But you have to walk.”
    She shook her head. “Tell me what happened in New Hampshire.”
    For a moment she thought he wasn’t going to answer her.
    “Please?” She let her voice wander up to little girl young, because it worked on him sometimes.
    “They removed the implants from two of the patients there,” he finally said.
    A chill, like a puff of winter, and she pulled the blanket up to her chin before she realized it was fear and not cold. “Successfully?”
    “More or less.”
    The chill trickled over her like ice water. She shuddered. “What does that mean?”
    “The good news is, both survived, this time. And it appears that some of their internal organs are regaining viability.” He smiled. “We are very hopeful.”
    “Their hearts?” she asked.
    “No. The appendix. But it’s a start.”
    “And the bad news?” There was always bad news.
    “There was some loss of brain function—”
    She touched the scar that ran along her hairline. “How much?”
    “Some cognitive ability, and for some reason, scent recognition.” He shook his head, as though that was the real puzzler. Then his eyes slid from hers and settled on the thin blanket covering her belly. “They only lost a few IQ points, though. Nothing to worry about.”
    “How many’s a few?”
    “Not many.” Erickson’s eyes did not leave her midsection. He was lying. “The results were positive enough to warrant phase two. A slight variation on the chemical mixture. And then extraction.”
    “So, who’s your next victim?”
    Erickson’s face tightened and his eyes swung up to hers.
    “Not me,” she whispered.
    “You don’t have a choice.”
    “But that’s not fair!” Roslyn looked around the room as though trying to find something in all that sterile white with which to protect herself. She clicked on the V-Link and thought/screamed 911, 911, 911, as if it would do some good.
    “We’ll start the next round of chemical therapy tomorrow night,” Erickson said. “It’s for your own good.”
    The V-Link came alive. Through the noise of everyone asking what was wrong, she tried to focus on him, on his words.
    “I don’t want to die,” she finally whispered. “Please tell me I’m not going to die.”
    “We won’t let that happen, Roslyn.” He smiled, and she tried to smile back. “I won’t see you until the day before the extraction, but I want you to be brave. Think of it. You’re about to get your life back.”
    He patted her hand and walked out of the room. As the door swished shut, she was left alone with her own thoughts and those of the twenty-eight people left of the Link experiment. She was so afraid; all she could do was cry like a little girl.
    She was next. They were going to disconnect her next.
    Before she was hooked up to the blood/heart machine to pump the new chemical stew through her system, some of the other Link patients almost convinced her that having the implant taken out could be a good thing. If she went through with this, she could go back to normal. So what if she lost a few IQ points, and the only organ working in her body was the hugely useless appendix? She could go back to her life. Her friends. Maybe even her mother.
    The machine clicked and slurped to life beside her and she tried to hang on to that thought. Then the toxic liquid boiled through her veins and she couldn’t think anymore. All