Read The Other Life for Free Online Page B

and returned his gaze to the windshield.
    The car was going at a maddening speed. Every bump in the concrete catapulted me off the passenger seat, bringing my head dangerously close to the ceiling. The car was definitely travelling at
its limits, and there wasn’t any traffic to slow us down.
    “This was the car in the parking lot? The Lincoln. Why was your car in the parking lot?” I slurred like a drunk.
    “I was hunting. I heard gunshots,” he replied casually.
    Hunting? Maybe he’d been after the wild boars.
    I breathed deeply, but it didn’t help to clear my mind. “Where are you taking me?” I asked, my eyes half-closed.
    “Somewhere safe. Maybe you should close your eyes for a little while. You look like shit.”
    I stared at the windshield and listened to the noise of the engine. My hands were coated with blood, still sticky. Dad’s blood. My throat tightened. I closed my eyes. Images of him being
ripped apart, torn into tiny pieces, flashed into my mind.
    Dad.
    I’d abandoned him, failed him. My fault. All my fault. I swallowed hard, trying to stop myself from crying.
    After a while, when I felt steadier, I tilted my head to the side to look at the profile of the boy beside me. He had high cheekbones and tanned skin. “My name is Sherry.”
    He glanced at me. “Joshua,” he said with a fleeting smile, before handing me an old towel. “To stop the bleeding.” He turned back to the road and I pressed the towel
against my head.
    “What happened to my father?” I asked, though I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know.
    “I don’t know. But since I didn’t see a body, I guess they took him with them.”
    “Took him with them? Where?”
    “I’m not entirely sure. There are a few places where the Weepers live.”
    “Weepers?”
    “That’s what everyone calls the infected.”
    I stared at him.
    “They look like they’re crying. When you’re face-to-face with them, you’ll know what I mean.”
    An image of the dead mutant – Weeper – flashed into my mind.
    “But why would they take my father with them?”
    He shrugged. “They stockpile.”
    “Stockpile?”
    “Like squirrels.”
    I clamped a palm over my mouth to stifle a sob. Do. Not. Cry. I swallowed and dropped my hand. “You mean, they eat humans?”
    He nodded, his eyes focused on the street. A shotgun was resting across his lap. “Yes – easy prey. Humans have forgotten how to survive in a battle of the fittest. Our instincts are
dormant, and the Weepers prefer easy prey.” He pulled off the freeway and onto a smaller street.
    “But weren’t they like us once?” I croaked.
    He pulled his gaze from the windshield and smiled sadly. “But they don’t know that. The virus has turned them into predators without a conscience. They’ve lost their memories
of who they were.”
    I couldn’t stop myself from imagining that creature chewing on Dad. Horror exploded within me.
    “We have to save him!” I shouted.
    He glanced at me, studying my expression before he shook his head. Desperate, I reached out and tried to grab the steering wheel, but he knocked my hand away. “Have you lost your
mind?”
    “What if he’s still alive? I can’t let…that…happen to him!” Waves of terror for Dad washed over me. And what about Mom? How could I explain it to her?
She’d never forgive me. I began to hyperventilate as a new fear struck me. Mom! “My family – I have to get back to them! They’re still in our house, in a bunker. I need to
warn them about the Weepers!”
    Joshua didn’t slow the car. “We can’t go back now. Even if we could save your dad – and I’m not promising anything – it’ll be getting dark soon, and the
night is the time for predators. Believe me, you don’t want to be on the street when they’re on the prowl – they’ll sniff out your blood before you even see them, and then
you won’t be able to save yourself, let alone your dad. As for your family, as long as they stay in the bunker, they