Flesh Ravenous (Book 1) by James M. Gabagat Page B

my advice,” said Lawrence.
    “My armor still smells like stale beer,” said Sonya, “from when you spilled a pitcher of beer on me, Lawrence.”
    “You’re still mad about that? It was an accident.”
    “Accident? I remember you laughed and said to Kyle, ‘Hey, Kyle, I just soaked the bitch.’”
    Lawrence laughed. “Oh, yeah, I remember that. That was awesome.” He then stopped laughing, held a straight face, and tried to sound serious. “But that’s the least of our worries right now, me spilling an entire pitcher of beer all over you. We need to grab some weapons from the garage. Come on.”
    “Right.”
    Sonya walked off, with Lawrence following her through the family room and toward the laundry room. That left Kasey in an uneasy position, standing near the stairs with Ally and Tristan, who refused to look each other in the eye. Kasey wondered how the two would be able to work together later, how they’d fight and survive together.
    “Are you two nervous about today?” Kasey asked.
    “A little,” said Ally, nodding.
    “I won’t let anything happen to you, Ally,” said Tristan, gazing at Ally as if it added significance to his bullshit words. It wasn’t the smart thing to say, being that he caused something to happen to her not long ago.
    “Sure,” said Ally. It was a curt reply, but better than a snappish one. She still despised him. It was evident in her hard, impassive look.
    Uh-uh, Tristan, don’t be looking into her eyes like that, like you gonna be her hero. Ain’t nobody forgot what you did to her. Kasey hoped Charlene would come out of the bedroom at any second. It’d provide a needed distraction from the discomfort of Tristan’s presence around Ally. Where did Charlene go? I need her to be talking loudly right now.
    Charlene stuck her head out from behind the bedroom door. “Dat’s mah mama,” she said, imitating Lawrence’s black man impersonation. She let out a screeching laugh.
    Kasey, Tristan, and Ally also laughed.
    “I heard Lawrence earlier,” said Charlene. “What a dumb-ass.”
     
    Joni
     
    “Hello,” Joni heard a deep voice say. “Hello, little girl, are you up yet?”
    She rolled onto her side, freed her head from the blankets, and opened her eyes.
    She screamed.
    Before her was a small rainbow-striped entity with a long mouth and round black eyes.
    It took Joni a few seconds of rapid blinking to realize the rainbow being was a sock. The black eyes were buttons.
    Ally’s head lifted into sight. “Sorry, Joni, I didn’t mean to scare you with my voice or this multicolored sock.”
    “You scared the poor girl,” shouted Charlene from outside the room.
    “It was your idea,” Ally shouted back. “I told you your stupid sock puppet wasn’t cute.”
    “Hey, it took me a day to make that.”
    “Just to sew on two buttons?”
    “Yeah.”
    “It was kind of pointless, Charlene, now you’re short one sock and my right hand smells like your foot.” Ally peeled the sock puppet off her hand and flung the piece to the floor. “I don’t know why she spends time making sock puppets,” she whispered to herself.
    Joni smiled. “I thought the sock person was kind of cute.” She rubbed her eyes with her shirtsleeve.
    “Apparently, Charlene does too, which is why she has conversations with it.” Ally took Joni by the armpits and hoisted her off the top bunk, the blankets slid off her. Joni was small for her nine years, short and thin. People used to mistake her for a five-year-old.
    “I just wanted to let you know we’re leaving soon.” Ally set Joni on her feet and pecked the top of her head. “And check it out.” Ally pointed at herself, presenting her outfit to Joni. “Cool, huh?”
    Joni examined the colorful armor and smiled. “Wow, Titan Storm Brigade. ” She giggled. “That’s excellent.”
    “I knew you’d like it. It’ll actually work like real armor, against their teeth, when we go outside.”
    “You were gonna say goodbye?” Joni