Adaptive Instinct (Survival Instinct) Read Free

on him: she was a lesbian.  While Jessica was trying to kill Abby, he had stepped in.  For his trouble, he had been stabbed and knocked into a river by Jessica, which eventually killed him.  Jessica continued trying to kill Abby, but then Tobias Mackenzie stepped in.  He managed to get the better of Jessica and drowned her in the river.  His knuckles still bore the cuts from where Jessica had slashed him with her knife.  Riley took from that story, that everybody needed to get along.  If they didn’t, they could end up with another Jessica on their hands, which was twenty times more dangerous than a zombie could ever be.
    “Yeah, I guess.”  Mathias hung his head, looking down at Shoes.  He had heard the story as well.
    There was a silent pause between them when only bird song could be heard.
    “I’m going to check my traps before breakfast.”  Riley broke the pause.  “Want to come?”
    “No.”  Mathias shook his head.  “Danny might be getting up soon, and I don’t want him wondering where his big bro is.  Take Shoes with you, though.”
    “I’ll try, but he’s been very lazy lately.”  Riley slung her rifle’s strap over her shoulder and placed a gentle hand on Mathias’s arm.  She didn’t want to hurt him, but she couldn’t see any other choice.  It hurt her too.  She then headed down the stairs.  “Come on, Shoes, let’s go see if I was able to catch anything.”
    ***
    Riley sat down at the kitchen table, wh ere everyone else had already gathered around.  It was now just past 7 a.m., and Abby had made breakfast.  They were having pancakes made from a mix, and they were delicious.  The kitchen was part of the main room, distinguished from it by its different tiles, and a half wall spanning half way across the space.  The fire in the fireplace had been built higher, the porthole window had its metal cover opened, and a large, battery-powered lantern sat in the middle of the table so that they could all see their food easily.  The table was really meant to hold only six people, but they managed.
    “You must have been up late last night, Misha,” Riley commented as he passed her the margarine.  They would run out of it soon.  “The fire was still burning when I got up.”
    “I was keeping an eye on it,” he said defensively.  “I didn’t really sleep much.”
    “That’s fine.  I wasn’t accusing you of anything.”  Riley liked Misha.  He did as he was told without complaint, but he always took a defensive stance.  Of everybody there, the skinny, young Russian was the closest thing to an outsider.  On the Day, the only one he had to rely on was Rifle, the German shepherd.  He had gone through the worst day of anyone’s life almost completely alone, and it made him distant.  Even after a week, he didn’t seem to trust them completely.
    “Catch anything in your traps?” Mathias asked Riley as he passed the pancake plate to Danny.  Danny Cole was Mathias’s younger brother; the Coles were the only ones with a relative present.  Throughout the Day, Mathias had been desperate to locate his younger brother.  It was by luck and chance that they had found one another.
    “Only one rabbit.  It’s on the deck right now.  I’ll probably show some of you how to skin it after breakfast.”  Riley put just a small dabble of syrup on her pancakes.  She knew syrup was something they would run out of eventually, and did her part to conserve what she could.
    “Are you sure after breakfast is a good time?”  Tobias raised an eyebrow at her.  “I mean, that might be something that brings breakfast back up.”
    Tobias Mackenzie was the tallest of the group, but beyond reaching high shelves, he had the least number of useful skills.  He grew up a city boy who went camping only one weekend a year.  When they had first arrived, he had been more useful.  They had to set up the gas generator, the solar panels, and the small wind turbines, and Tobias knew a lot about