Blood Trilogy (Book 2): Draw Blood by Jason Bovberg Read Free Book Online Page B

their heads, but it’s Kevin who responds. “No one knows, man.”
    “I keep wondering what they’re seeing through those eyes,” Joel whispers. “Look at that.”
    The thing just stares with its flat eyes, obviously seeing them, regarding them … somehow … but there’s no denying the feeling that no actual human awareness remains.
    “ How are they seeing out of those eyes?” Joel continues.
    “And it looks like it wants to tear your face off, right?” Kevin says. “Yeah, that’s what we thought. But I bet if we unlocked him and got out of his way, and we left that door open … he’d run right past us and search for a way out of this place.”
    Michael looks at Kevin. “What do you mean?”
    “I think this thing is more scared than angry. It just wants out of here.”
    “He looks like he wants to murder me.”
    “I know. But Kevin’s right. I think it’s scared out of its mind,” Joel says. “The question is, who’s in control of that mind?”
    Michael flashes on the bodies he has seen attached to pine trees outside. The incomprehensible sight of those bodies. Just like those bodies, this man’s limbs are hyper-extended into what must be an extraordinarily painful position. The skin covering the shoulders is enflamed, speaking of damage to the sockets. And yet the one arm not fastened into handcuffs still works, scrambling for purchase on the slippery vinyl tiles.
    “Jesus, why is he—bent over backward like that?”
    “All right, so here’s what I’ve figured,” Joel says, keeping an eye on the prisoner. “I think what we’re dealing with is an alien invasion. I’m not kidding. And I’m not talking about little green men in flying saucers. I’m talking about something atmospheric. A presence coming down and taking us over. Something has inhabited these bodies, and it’s not from here. I don’t know if you’ve seen what’s going on in the sky, but that’s what’s clinching it for me. These are aliens. Aliens that have taken over our bodies. And wherever they’re from? This is how they get around. This is how they walk.”
    The three men watch the bald man squirm angrily, occasionally gasping.
    Finally, Michael turns back to Kevin. “Please tell me this is a joke.”
    “Heh,” Kevin says. “I’m not sure I’m on board with the alien-invasion theory.” He eyes Joel with eyebrows raised. “But this thing is no joke … and I know it’s not exactly the greatest thing to wake up to at a destroyed hospital, either.”
    Michael doesn’t really know what to think. Or how to respond. He stands there staring, finally bracing himself against the doorjamb, his eyes moving from the bald man to these two survivors. These two survivors, with whom his daughter apparently endured an honest-to-God apocalyptic event.
    He can’t think of anything to say.
    Then Joel is raising his pistol arm—the weapon is some kind of semi-automatic—for a kill shot. Michael starts from his daze.
    “Hey, hey hey!” He reaches out toward the policeman. “What are you doing?!”
    Joel is still aiming. “You don’t understand, Mike.”
    “What are you talking about? What the hell is going on around here?!”
    He moves forward to somehow prevent the shot, and then—
    Wait,” comes a voice behind them. “Don’t shoot.”
    The men turn to see Rachel behind them. Her face is pale and streaked with dirt and sweat. Several days’ worth of grief are evident in her expression.
    “Rachel!” Michael says.
    Behind her, Bonnie is heading in their direction from the end of the hall.
    Michael takes his daughter’s shoulders, automatically turning her away from the horror in the room, as if to protect her. Immediately he understands that she has already seen far worse. But she falls into the embrace, almost eagerly, as she keeps an eye on Joel and his firearm.
    “Are you all right?” Michael breathes into Rachel’s hair.
    A pause. “I’m far from all right.”
    “I’m here now,” he whispers into her