This is the End (Book 2): Not Dead Yet by Lisa Biesiada Read Free Book Online

reflection stopped me dead in my tracks.  My hair was still a tangled red mess and my face still looked tired and drawn, but the circles under my eyes were sunken in and I was paler than I’d ever been in my life, which was saying a lot.  I looked dead.
    “I look dead!  Why do I look fucking dead?! ”  The panic spilled out in earth-shaking waves from me and I thought I might faint.  Did I die?  Was I some sort of living zombie?!
    Jack walked up behind me, grabbed my shoulders and turned me to face him.  He didn’t say anything, just stared at my face a moment before putting his hand on my chest.
    “Jack, now isn’t really the time to cop a feel-”
    “Shhh,” Jack whispered, effectively cutting Chloe off.  He just stood there; hand on my chest, staring into my eyes.  “You’re not dead.” He finally said after what I was sure was eternity.
    “Heartbeat?”  I looked over at Ty as Jack nodded at him in answer.
    Jack turned and looked back at me.  He looked tired, but he didn’t look dead, no, that honor was reserved for me.  Seeing the fear in my eyes, he smiled his crooked grin and winked at me.  “You’re not dead yet, kitten.”
    “Pssh.  Says you ,” I snarked back as I turned and stalked down the little hall to stretch my sore body.  It hurt, but nothing that would keep me from running and killing, which was likely to be the bulk of my day.
    “Ok, well we know she isn’t trying to eat us, even though she looks dead and she has a heartbeat, which also makes me lean towards “She won’t try to eat us.”” I heard Ty say as I stretched my hamstrings.
    Pressing one hand against the wall, I pulled my foot up towards my butt and felt the stretch all the way in my abs.  Looking down, it was hard to not notice how easy it was to see my foot compared to what I’d been used to.  I was losing weight, which had to be a good thing.
    “Here’s the deal,” I started turning to face the group as I stretched out my other leg.  “I can hear your blood in your veins, hear your hearts beating and you all smell good.  I may or may not be a vampire at this point, but I will definitely not eat anyone, although I do need to eat something, and soon.”
    I stood silent and evaluated the emotions playing out over the faces around me.  The shock of hearing what I could hear was wearing off and curiosity took its place.  I knew they all had questions and so did I, but we didn’t have any answers now and probably wouldn’t.  At least not for a while.
    Finishing up my stretches, I walked over to my pack and pulled out a can of pears, some jerky and the can opener.  Peeking out of the corner of my eye, I breathed a sigh of relief as everyone dispersed to gather themselves to leave.  I looked back down and paused for a moment before grabbing the pocketknife from my pants and jabbing the blade into the can and dragging it across the metal like it was pizza.  The can split from the force and juice started to run down my hand as I quickly brought the can to my mouth and downed the whole thing in one gulp.
    Reaching next for the jerky, I tossed back a few pieces and washed them down with an entire bottle of water.  The growling in my gut had ceased to the point I could think again.  We needed a plan.  Leaving the Hummer had been a bad break but we might be able to get another vehicle running long enough to get us to the coast.  I was so fucking tired of Texas I couldn’t wait to get out of here.
    I pulled my toothbrush out and squirted some paste on before jamming it in my mouth and turned to watch the others.  Ty was taking inventory of his ammo and Chloe was playing fetch with Roscoe.  Looking to Jack, I could see him pouring over the maps, obviously thinking the same thing I had been.
    He looked up when he felt me watching.  “I think we should get back on the overpass.  It’ll be tough with the cars, but it’s better than worrying about things coming at us from alleys and doorways as we