Lycan Fallout (Book 2): Fall of Man Read Free

from me. It had been replaced with an acute pain, especially this close to Tommy.
    “We are still on the same path, you and I. How we walk it is the only difference.”
    I nodded to her in thanks for the clothes and the axe. “Oggie, let’s go.” This time I did make it back down the hill without stopping. I had no more tears to blind my way.
    “Was it wise to let her go?” Bailey was following a few steps behind.
    “How long could you have stood there with a bayonet to her neck?” I asked without turning around.
    “Is she right, Michael? Are you going to get me killed?”
    I didn’t answer.
    “Now you choose not to talk.”
    “What’s in the bag?” I asked.
    “Bullets.”
    I was almost dumb enough to ask where Azile had gotten bullets. Obviously she’d gotten them off the dead bodies of the Talboton riflemen and women who had died before firing them all. It was a boon for us; though at a high cost. If I thought Bailey looked mad previously, she had become a statue of anger. We both stayed up the remainder of that night staring into the fire. Her teeth were clenched so tight I didn’t think air could penetrate.
    Bailey and I were on the move the following morning. We were heading into the Lycan lands.
    “Perhaps Azile was right. I just did not think it would happen so fast,” Bailey said as we approached Xavier’s high rise.
    “What are you talking about?” I was scanning our area.
    “Getting me killed. I did not think you would get to it so quickly. What kind of plan is walking straight into the Lycan stronghold?”
    “Plan? I never said anything about a plan. My thoughts are usually whimsical notions at best. Plus, they’re gone.” I was not relieved—I was pissed off. I’d been hoping for an immediate confrontation.
    “Is that not a good thing?” Bailey was still on high alert. “And how can you tell?” Her head was on a swivel.
    “I don’t smell any mange. Oh, and we’re not being attacked.”
    “You are not one for tactics, I see.”
    “Nope, can’t ever say that was a strong point of mine.”

Chapter Two – Mike Journal Entry 2
     
    For fourteen days we hunted the Lycan in vain. They were moving fast; a lot of times driving their infected humans to the breaking point. We began coming up on more and more of them who had died from exhaustion or wicked claw strikes. I pushed Bailey to the brink of her endurance. If I were being honest with myself, every night that we stopped, I’d damn near gone as far as I could as well. If I were still a regular man, she would have buried me a week ago. Oggie, bless his heart, never once complained.
    On the fifteenth day, nothing. It was like they had vanished into thin air.
    “What are they running from, Bailey?” I asked, rubbing my brow. “Certainly not me. You perhaps.”
    “Perhaps.” She was looking up a rocky outcropping that the Lycan had traversed. “They could have gone in any direction.”
    “They’ve been going west for two weeks. Is there any reason to think they would go another way?”
    “I do not know, Michael. I am not a fortune teller or a Lycan.”
    “Told you if you were around me long enough, you’d get to hate me.” I was kind of expecting her to say she didn’t hate me. The words never came out of her mouth. Lesson learned. I guess if there is something you really don’t want the answer to, you shouldn’t bring it up.
    “What do you wish to do?” She was sitting and rooting through her bag for a bit of dried rabbit. Oggie nuzzled her hand when he figured out what she was doing.
    “Is there anything west of here?”
    “I’ve heard of settlements out there, but I believe they are small and I do not know exactly where. We do not trade with them. Mostly it is just rumors.”
    “I think the rumors are true.”
    “Just because the Lycan travel this way does not necessarily mean that is the truth.”
    “Maybe, maybe not. I think when Wheatonville didn’t fall as planned, and Xavier didn’t get to walk into