Odium II: The Dead Saga by Claire C. Riley Page B

what should we do?” Emily asks, even as her hand dips back inside the can and rubs some of the leftover sauce onto her fingertips, and she begins to suck them clean.
    “I don ’t know. I guess we wait and see what happens.” Guilt consumes me. What if I’ve sentenced these people to death? I watch Alek scraping his fork around to get the last bits of tuna out, and the guilt washes away. They more than likely would have decided to eat this food regardless of me.
    “The food wasn’t poisoned.”
    We all look up at the young man —a kid, really—that stands in the doorway. He can’t be more than seventeen, with shaggy dark hair and worried brown eyes. A young girl stands close behind him, blonde, short, and paler than snow. She reminds me a little of Emily, actually.
    Mikey jumps up, lifting his knife up in front of him. “Who the hell are you?” he growls.
    The kid backs up. “Whoa, easy, big fella.” He waves a gun in front of him. “Gotta bigger weapon than you, see?” He smiles, even as the young girl clings to his arm and tries to hush him. He must think he’s some kind of superhero to be pulling that crap with Mikey.
    Alek stands up. “That do n’t mean shit.” He smiles, and gone is the calm and controlled young man that I’ve gotten to know over the last couple of days; in his place is a vicious thug, a man that would make Fallon proud. I shiver.
    I watch the encou nter, empty can of chopped tomatoes still firmly in my grip, without moving. The kid in the doorway stops smiling, his eyes flitting between Alek and Mikey. I know Mikey’s evil glare and, well, we’ve already discussed Alek’s.
    “If I wanted to kill yo u, I would have done it already,” the kid snaps. Neither Alek nor Mikey back down, both continuing to give him the stink eye. “All right, all right, we come in peace!” He backs up, stumbling into the blonde girl, who lets out a little yelp.
    “Put down your fucking gun,” Mikey shouts.
    The kid looks at the weapon and then back to Mikey. “I can’t do that!” His voice goes up an octave too high, revealing his youth. “You guys could kill me.”
    “Says t he kid with the gun aimed at us,” I quip.
    He looks down at his weapon and then back up to me before stuffing it down the back of his pants. He offers a nervous smile as he shows us his empty hands. “Better?”
    “Much.” I finally stand back up, leaving my can on the little coffee table. I place a hand on Mikey ’s shoulder. “Down, boys.” Mikey glares at me, Alek continues to glare at the young man in the doorway, and I glare at everyone. “And you are?” I point to the young man and his timid girlfriend.
    “I ’m Dean. This is Anne. We were the ones that left you the food.” He smiles hopefully. “And with due respect, I’m not a kid.”
    The tension in the air still hasn ’t broken.
    I cross my arms in front of me. “We ’ve been here since yesterday and only now you introduce yourselves. Why now—kid?”
    “Because you ’re going around and breaking into everyone’s houses.” He sounds angry as he continues. “I thought you would get bored after a while and decide to leave like everyone else, but you didn’t. You kept going around breaking things and making a mess. Do you know how hard it’s been keeping everything clean and tidy?”
    I snort out a laugh. “Sweetheart, I think a little dusting should be the least of your worries right now. And while we’re asking questions, where the hell are all the deaders?”
    Anne shuffles forward, tugging her bangs behind her ears. “You mean the sick people?”
    I look from Anne to Mikey and then back again. “Yeah, the really sick people—as in the dead ones! You know, the zombies?” My words make them both flinch. “Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to sound like such a bitch, but seriously, where are they?”
    Anne looks proudly to Dean. “He kept them away.” She grips his forearm and keeps on smiling with doe eyes, as if we’re not