The Frenzy Series (Book 2): Frantic by Casey L. Bond Read Free Book Online

Mercedes became an Infected. She took it out on Porschia more than anyone, and I know I shouldn’t have let it happen. I found out that Mother had been sneaking to the barn and taking animals. She would slaughter them, wade across the river, and throw them over to Mercedes. I assume she’d been doing it since my sister fell, but I don’t know for sure. I caught her sneaking out of our house in the middle of the night and tried to follow her. One time, I lost her. But the next time, I was able to figure out what she was doing.”
    “She became bolder, and even started feeding Mercedes during the daylight. I was trying to stop her on the afternoon Porschia found us. I’d been digging graves and was thirsty, so I went to the river. She had been muttering all morning about feeding her eldest, so I knew she’d be there at some point, but until then, she’d only approached Mercedes at night. I heard Mother singing and saw two lambs tied up on the branch of an old fallen stump. That’s when I noticed she had a butcher knife.
    “Mercedes came, but I don’t know if Porschia saw her at first. Porsch was entirely focused on Mother, who was covered in lamb’s blood at that point. She made sure I was okay, and then tried to stop Mother from going across the river. She’d never tried to cross the water before, but the river was lower than normal and Mother was strong. She made it across. When I waded in after her, Porschia came after me. Mercedes and Porschia had always gotten along, but for some reason, Mercedes attacked Porschia.”
    I cut in to add my side of the story. “I followed Porschia to the river. She yelled at me to help her mother, so I dragged Mrs. Grant back across the water and went back for Ford. Mercedes and Porschia were fighting by that point, and I saw Mercedes bite Porschia on the leg. I knew I couldn’t get to her, so I yelled at her to use her ring. My only thought was that I didn’t want her to become infected. Luckily, she was able to get the blood from the ring into her mouth in time. She turned.”
    Father steepled his fingers while my mother swiped tears away. “You could have been infected, Saul,” she cried.
    I shook my head. “Porschia told me to get Ford. She kept me safe.” And that killed me. I should have protected her first. Their mother didn’t deserve to be saved first. She had created the whole damn mess in the first place.
    Father took in a deep breath. “We won’t tell the Elders, but you know they’re going to find out, Saul. I know how you feel about her, but when they learn that she’s changed, they’ll order the night-walkers to kill her. Have you seen her? Is she in Frenzy?”
    Ford and I nodded affirmatively. The left side of my neck still throbbed with the memory of her feeding from me. Part of her was damn near feral at this point. And the other part? It was like she hadn’t changed at all. Porschia, my Porschia was still in there.
    “There is a night-walker in the Colony who is relatively new, who just came out of Frenzy. He’s promised to help her learn to control herself.”
    Father’s kind gray eyes bored into mine. “I hope he can, son. I hope he can.”
    “I have to tell Mrs. Dillinger something, and I was hoping I could tell her that Porschia is ill and staying with us for the time being. It might buy her some time.”
    “Of course you can,” Mom said. “We will stand behind you one hundred percent, Saul. But if she puts you in danger, I will kill her myself.”
    “Mom!”
    “You are my son. Now, I know you love her – though it happened faster than I would have liked, I know it’s true. I know you’ll try to help her. I just ask that you be smart about it. Don’t put yourself in danger. And please understand that if she’s in Frenzy, she is dangerous. It’s as simple as that.”
    Father grunted his agreement and pushed his chair away from the table, the legs scraping across the wooden planks underfoot.
    “Don’t you have to get to the