Read Eaters (Book 2): The Resistance for Free Online Page A

birthday gift for Mark. "I'll play for those," she said, scooting closer to the table. "You're on…"
    This game turned serious rather quickly. It was apparent that Marlin had only feigned incompetence in the first game. She found herself on the immediate defensive, and he had a counter attack for every one of her forward moves, including fork attacks where he challenged two of her pieces with one of his.
    Seeming to sense the heated exchange, a handful of patrons circled around the table. Cheryl did her best to ignore them, but felt a prickle of sweat dribble down the back of her neck.
    "I think I've been had," she said a few minutes later, after her king was surrounded and he gave the final battle cry of triumph. "You're a shark."
    Marlin chuckled and winked at her. "Sorry, my dear. You can take the snake out of the rat's nest, but a snake's still a snake."
    Cheryl glanced at the people around her. "Someone could have warned me!"
    A man with surfer-blond hair and a faded orange tank top that looked moth-eaten shrugged and took another sip of his beer. No one else commented, but they hung around as if waiting to see if there'd be any entertainment in the aftermath of the competition.
    She ponied up the earrings and set them on the board. "Here…can't say you won them fair and square though."
    "Tell you what…" Marlin said, sliding the dice across the table. "…I'll pass these on to you anyway. You're a good sport."
    "Are they going to explode in my pocket? Or are they safe?"
    "Regular dice, honey. They're just extra pretty. Kind of like you…"
    Feeling a flush come over cheeks, she took them and stood up. "Thanks for the games. I've gotta run. I've got early duty in the morning."
    Liar. Liar.
    "Any time you wanna play again—you can find me here."
    "Thanks," she said, knowing that she had no desire to be bested by him again.
    As she left, Marlin scanned the bar, looking for another victim.
    Back at the room, Mark was nowhere to be found. Having nothing better to do, Cheryl decided to clean her gun. The AK had been given a serious workout earlier and could certainly use it.
    She removed the action cover and spring assembly then lifted out the bolt assembly. Once she had the other pieces free, she sprayed them with solvent, laid them down to soak, and started to work on cleaning the barrel with a wet patch and a small brush. By the time she finished and put everything back together an hour later, she was concerned that Mark hadn't returned.
    Even though they lived together in the confinement of this fort, the days were gone when they could reach each other with the push of a button on a cell phone. It wouldn't matter if they still had phones anyway, because she hadn't seen a single working cell phone in months. She knew the military used ham radios to communicate with other shelters and walkie-talkies for dispatches inside the fort, but they weren't available to civilians, even those who volunteered for patrol duty.
    She tried locating him with telepathy. Where are you, Mark?
    That tentative mind meld that she'd had with him was finicky, so she didn't really expect a response.
    Then it came…
    Go to sleep.
    The whispering voice inside her head was curt, not like the supportive and tender coach that she'd tapped into during her journey to the fort. Mark had changed after their reunion. All of his energy went into his determination to be a hardcore defender of the fort…and his obsession with finding out what had caused the outbreak.
    She wasn't tired yet and had no intention of obeying Mark's ethereal command. Still wearing her day clothes, she reclined on the bed, picked up the book on the milk crate nightstand and escaped into the spirited 18th century romantic entanglements in Pride and Prejudice. She read a few pages before falling asleep and jerking awake twice. Then, she surrendered to the pull of The Sandman, set the book aside and turned off the lamp. As he sprinkled his powerful dust over her eyelids, causing