Hunger (The Hunger Series Book 1) by Jeremiah Knight Read Free Book Online Page A

it.”
    “But—”
    “Now, damn it.” Peter’s patience was worn razor thin, not because of anything Jakob had done, but because Ella had been carrying a person around in a bag. A young person by the sound of it.
    Peter stood, lifting the unconscious woman with a grunt. While Peter was strong and Ella small, the camouflage she wore... the camouflage . It was covered in vegetation. Covered in seeds. In pollen.
    “Dad...” Jakob said, as he unzipped the bag, revealing an unconscious girl, no older than twelve. Her hair and face were matted with mud, like Ella’s, and her clothing was covered in blood. These two had been through a torturous journey. “Should I take her inside?”
    “Yeah,” Peter said, looking at the door to the house. If any seeds got inside... Even if they stopped in the foyer, the RC-714 laden crops could take root in a rug. In a dusty corner. And once they took root, sending shoots down through the floor, through the basement, there would be no stopping them.
    “Take off her clothes,” Peter said, lowering Ella to the ground and following his own order.
    Jakob’s eyebrows rose as he locked in place. Peter met his eyes. “It’s the seeds.”
    “But—”
    “Take off everything.”
    “Aren’t we contaminated now, too?” Jakob asked.
    Peter looked down as his clothing covered in loose, dry bits of grass and dangles of nature. He quickly peeled off his flannel shirt and tossed it away. Then took off his shirt. “Let’s do this quick, son. It will be a lot less awkward for everyone if we’re all dressed when they wake up.”
    If they wake up.
    The pair quickly removed their clothing and then the women’s. Carrying their weapons and visitors, they hurried back to the house and out of the night, neither one of them aware that they were being watched...
    That they were being hunted.

 
     
    8
     
    Ella Masse opened her eyes, and for a moment, she forgot she was responsible for the deaths of seven billion people, give or take a million. While she hadn’t developed RC-714 personally, she’d overseen the man who had. She had taken it to her superiors, lauded it as the miracle gene they’d all been searching for and pushed it through to mass production. While the blame technically fell on ExoGen, she didn’t buy the whole ‘corporations are people’ scapegoat. Real people worked behind the corporate names, making decisions that affected the world, or in her case, killed it.
    But for a moment, looking at the sun filtering through a shade, illuminating flecks of dust dancing on breezes too subtle to detect, she felt human again. Protected. Safe.
    Pain pulled her from the daydream. Her gut was on fire. But pain meant she was alive. Meant her encounter the night before hadn’t been a hallucination brought on by exhaustion.
    We made it , she thought. We found Peter .
    She looked around the bedroom, but saw nothing familiar. She’d never been in this house. Her eyes settled on a photo on the bedside table. She recognized Peter right away, and the woman standing next to him—his wife, Kristen. A boy stood between them. His son. Jakob. The last time she’d seen him, he was just six. Her eyes lingered on Kristen. Coming here had been a gamble. She didn’t know if Kristen would welcome her or put a bullet in her head. But it seemed the sins of old had been forgiven. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be lying in the woman’s bed—Ella lifted the comforter—or wearing the woman’s clothes.
    She’d been dressed in a matching set of white underwear and a white tank top. For a moment, she felt violated. Without granting permission, she’d been stripped naked by a man she hadn’t seen in twelve years, and his son. She chastised herself a moment later. If Peter Crane was anything, it was honorable, and the only glaring flaw in his character had been her. Plus, she’d been covered in vegetation, both natural and the ExoGenetic variety. She wouldn’t be surprised if the clothing had been incinerated.