Read Online You and Me against the World: The Creepers Saga Book 1 by Raymond Esposito - Free Book Online Page B

Rosa said and waved her hand through the air.
    Susan looked at Rosa with a mixture of concern and disbelief.
    “Rosa, they bombed downtown not an hour ago.”
    Rosa ignored her and said, “If I wasn’t such a good friend, I’d stop playing house with you two and be on my way to Miami.”
    Susan had been so occupied with the shutters and supplies that she hadn’t taken a close look at her friend. Now that she did, she saw the pallid tone and the dark circles under Rosa’s distant stare.
    “Rosa, I’m sure Michael and Miguel are just fine. There’s no reason to think anything has happened in Miami.”
    “Oh, I’m sure they are fine, and so are we. Dr. Thorn just needed an excuse to get you to his house.” She made a sick little sound that was supposed to be a laugh. “He could have just asked you for a date.”
    Rosa began to sway slightly, and more color ran out of her face.
    “Rosa, maybe you should rest.”
    “No, no, I am fine,” Rosa said. Then her legs went out from under her, and she fell, unconscious.

    Susan sat next to her friend, who now lay covered with a blanket on the sofa. Whether Rosa was sleeping or unconscious was difficult to tell, but her breathing was slow and steady and she looked peaceful.
    “It was just the shock of everything,” Susan said.
    Thorn watched them from the center of the room.
    “Did she have any signs of flu this week? The sniffles, congestion, any aches, or pains?”
    “She is not sick, Russ, just in shock. She doesn’t even have a fever. Her skin is cool and dry.”
    “The virus presents as hyperthermia, Susan.”
    Thorn opened the chamber of the .357 he held and began to feed it gold-jacketed bullets.
    Susan stood and put herself between Thorn and Rosa.
    “You don’t know that she’s sick,” she said, her voice a mixture of anger and fear.
    “We have to be careful, Susan.”
    He slid in the last bullet, spun the chamber, and snapped it closed. When he looked up, Susan’s eyes stared at him, angry and defiant. His confusion became amusement as he looked again at the gun and realized that for all Susan knew, he was a guy who went around punching chubby, old pediatricians.
    He laughed and then offered her the gun grip first. She faltered for a moment and looked from the gun to Thorn.
    He laughed again.
    “Did you think I was suggesting we should shoot Rosa right there on the sofa?”
    Susan blushed and looked down. When her eyes met his again, he would have sworn there was a subtle shift in their deep color.
    She laughed and took the gun. “I’m sorry, I-I just thought.”
    “It’s okay, really. It’s been a tough day. But seriously, we need to watch her closely. If it’s shock, fine, but if she is sick, we can’t afford to be trapped in here and unprepared.”
    Susan looked at her friend and tried to recall if Rosa had been coming down with a cold. She couldn’t remember.
    “Okay, I need to go out for a minute,” Thorn said.
    “What? You can’t go out there. We don’t know what’s going to happen.”
    “I know, but I have to at least warn some of my neighbors.”
    “Then I’ll come with you.”
    “We can’t leave Rosa alone. Plus I can move quicker on my own.”
    Susan considered it, knew he was right, but still didn’t like the idea. What if he didn’t return?
    “I will come back,” he assured her as if reading her thoughts.
    “Why can’t you just call them?”
    “I don’t actually know many of my neighbors, and I don’t have their numbers.”
    It was true. There were several life cycles to these developments. In the first wave, everyone tried to create that neighborhood community they had left back home or one that maybe was just some fond wish for earlier days. At first, there were barbecues, nightly walks, holiday block parties, and beer shared in the backyards and driveways. Then, in time, life moved on. Divorces, upgrades to better neighborhoods, the death of a child, the death of a spouse, lost dreams, and new opportunities. In