Read Online The Harvest (Book 1) by Anne Ferretti - Free Book Online Page B

trying for over a month now to communicate with her, but still saw no signs of intelligence. The only thing she seemed to understand was feeding time. Roth held up the bag. Her nostrils flared and he thought her finger twitched, but couldn’t be certain.
    “It must be hungry.” Captain Chase commented, not caring one way or another. If it had been up to him the abomination would have starved to death.
    “Don’t talk.” Roth ordered. He had noticed after reviewing the surveillance video over and over again, she did not like Chase. The signs of her dislike were so subtle, he had overlooked them the first fifty times he watched the footage. Video that, at first view, appeared to be of her sitting or lying down, motionless for hours upon hours. He’d poured over the videos, every minute detail and knew better.
    “I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner.” Roth held up the bag and walked over to a small revolving door that was on one wall of the enclosure about four feet up. She followed Roth. He punched in a code and the door on his side slid open. He pulled a needle attached to a vile from his pocket, and placed it on the tray. The door slid closed opening again on the inside “I need another sample.” He looked into her eyes, something as a rule he tried to avoid, but he wanted to be certain she understood.
    She stared at the vile, not picking it up, and looked out at the general. Behind her blank dead stare she was wondering what the general might taste like. She knew because of the disease in his blood that he would probably be more bitter than sweet. She cast her gaze down onto the sniveler. His blood, however, would be very sweet, but that was the way his type always tasted. Without looking, she took the vile from the tray and jammed the needle into her leg drawing a bluish black liquid from her veins. Once filled, she placed it back on the tray.
    “Thank you.” Roth replied, relief obvious in his tone. He thought he might have to re-teach the process to her. A task arduous enough the first few times around, but one he hoped she’d learned by now.
    “Can we go? It creeps me out.” Chase sniveled.
    “I think she feels the same about you.” Roth commented, watching her for a reaction. There was none. Disappointed, he placed the plastic bag in the tray. When the door opened on her side, she didn’t lunge for the bag, or snatch it up, tearing it open as a starving person might do once they’ve been given food. Rather, using care she picked the bag up, walked to her bed, sat down and waited.
    Roth knew her habit was to wait for several minutes after his departure before taking a sip. No matter how long he went without feeding her, this was always, without the slightest deviation, her routine. Today appeared to be no different.
    She held the bag against her frigid skin and found by doing this for several minutes brought the temperature down to a palatable level. The blood felt warm to the touch, more so than usual, which indicated freshness. It amused her knowing the general assumed she was shy or embarrassed. He would not have thought it so amusing to know these were feelings she was incapable of experiencing. She was relieved to see Roth and the sniveler were leaving.
    Roth glanced back at her once before closing the door behind him, thinking he might catch her in the act, but she hadn’t moved from her spot. He shrugged, letting the air out of his lungs and stiffness from his shoulders. At times he almost agreed with Captain Chase. Maybe they should let her starve to death. After all, she’d offered up nothing to give him reason to believe she had any useful abilities or even average intelligence, which was disheartening to say the least.
    When they first brought her to the Section, his imagination went wild with the possibilities of having an alien creature in their midst. Was she intelligent? Where was she from? Were there others? Gossip amongst the section staff speculated that she was a vampire. The general