Read Wormwood Dawn (Episode IV) for Free Online

uncharacteristic of a survivor, which makes you an anomaly.”
    Dan sipped his whiskey again. What the fuck was this guy talking about?
    “You have gone through life with such an ‘ I don’t give a shit’ attitude, that you have defied all logic. People like you aren’t supposed to survive. You’re supposed to fade into the woodwork; fall into the cracks, as it were. Yet here you are; a survivor of this apocalypse that has taken so many lives and turned the world into a shit hole.”
    “The world was already a shit hole,” Dan spoke finally.
    The man stopped his writing, turning his cowled head slightly to the left. “Indeed,” he said. “An astute observation if I ever heard one.”
    “What do you want with me?” Dan asked. “Why am I here?”
    The man laughed. It was a hissing, growling laugh. “I think you know.”
    Dan shook his head. “No,” he said.
    “You read my journals,” the man said. “You read the entry about you and your friend.”
    He had.
    “Where are my friends?” Dan asked.
    “That is a good question,” the man replied. “But I think you know the answer. They are alive, I would assume. But where? I would say they are in some compound being held captive by those wannabe grunts. You know the ones.”
    Gephardt. “Yeah, I do.”
    “You could probably save them,” the man said. “If only you weren’t my guest.”
    Guest. Yeah, right. Dan grunted out loud.
    “Fear not,” the man said. “Your ordeal will soon be over.”
    Over? What did he mean by that? Dan sat forward. “So, you’re planning on killing me then?”
    The man chuckled; that odd tone returning in his voice. “Of course,” he replied. “That’s what I do. But not without having a little fun first.”
    So, “R” planned on torturing him even more. As if the withdrawal game wasn’t bad enough. What else did he have in mind? Dan glared at the leaking blocks near the window, hoping that the flow was still there and that his captor hadn’t noticed. It was his only hope of escaping, and his only salvation from torture.
    Thankfully, the blocks remained where they were, and leaked steadily with the rain outside. Soon, they would be loose enough to remove, and he could begin his escape. He decided to change the subject.
    “You killed Shirley,” Dan said. “Why?”
    “Shirley was already dead,” the man said. “She had cancer; a disease that would have been cured had she been infected. I merely expedited her end. Besides, I had to get to her flesh before it became corrupted.”
    “For what?”
    “To wear, of course,” the man said. “Though it was wrinkled with age, it looked nice. My size stretched it out enough to cover me and straighten out those wrinkles. I wore it for a while, I did, but eventually it faded away. All things fade away.”
    So, he wore her skin. Was he some kind of Ed Gein weirdo?
    “Tell me, Dan,” the man continued, “how do you feel right now?”
    “Why?”
    “I want to know how it feels to be unfit for this miracle.”
    Miracle? What miracle? “I don’t understand,” Dan said.
    “This miracle from Heaven,” the man explained. “Surely you know what is going on.”
    “It’s some kind of killer virus,” Dan guessed. “Something that some of us are immune to.”
    The man chuckled again. “Not quite,” he said. “Not immune; unfit for.”
    Dan shook his head, settling back down in his chair. He shook his head, unsure as to what the psycho was saying. “Unfit…” he repeated.
    “You know what a virus is, correct?” the man asked. Dan grunted. “A virus reproduces by invading a cell and altering its DNA to become a factory that churns out more viruses.”
    Dan nodded to himself. He did know that.
    “Knowing that, you can imagine how perfect a vessel a virus could be for introducing new strains of DNA into the lifeforms of Earth.”
    “I suppose so,” Dan said.
    “Unfortunately, there was a slight barrier to the virus’s invasion.”
    “What was