Psychosis (Wildfire Chronicles Vol. 3) Read Free Page A

say it aloud.
    “We should rest here awhile .” Michael said.
    Rachel nodded, scanning the surroundings.
    “Do we risk a fire?”
    Michael’s brow furrowed.
    “I think we have to. They are blind so at least the light won’t draw them here. The smell might, but it is freezing. We won’t last long out here without heat anyway.”
    Rachel rubbed her freezing limbs. Michael was right.
    “I’ll get some wood.”
    It was Jason who spoke, the first words they had heard him utter since they left St. Davids. His voice was low, flat, and almost robotic. He set Michael down on the floor and strode into the forest without another word.
    Michael fixed Rachel with a meaningful stare. She shrugged.
    “At least he talks now. It’s progress.”
    Rachel thought of the look on her brother’s face after he had saved her from their demented mother by driving a shard of roofing tile into her brain, of the way his eyes looked suddenly broken and empty. Tears stung her eyes. Jason was here, alive, but some part of Rachel feared that she would never see her little brother again.
    “He killed those things without even blinking , Rachel.”
    “And? He saved us.”
    “Yes, but-” Michael trailed off, let the matter drop. She was right. Bathed in the crimson of the blood-soaked headlights, Jason had looked remorseless and terrifying to Michael as he despatched the three infected creatures. It had been chilling, but maybe it was just a sign that Jason had adapted better than anyone to the new life that had been forced upon them.
    Michael stared down at his useless legs. The ground was freezing, but the dead appendages didn’t convey that information to his brain. Won’t convey anything ever again , he thought. He stared into the dark woods, lost in black notions that filled his troubled mind.
    Rachel searched her pack for the food she knew she had stashed in the bottom.
    “Pastries, biscuits, some chocolate,” she murmured to herself as she emptied the contents.
    All cold, all loaded with sugar. None of the food she’d grabbed would do anything to quell the feeling that her body temperature was slowly and inexorably dropping, bu t at least it was high in calories. They’d be moving on foot now, that much was obvious. They would welcome the energy the junk food offered, but it was only a short term solution.
    Maybe that’s all the world is now , Rach. Short term solutions .
    She glanced at Michael, staring blankly into the woods. The crippled man was wary of Jason. She understood it, felt it too a little despite herself, but Jason was still her little brother. The gentle soul she had always known must still be in there somewhere, submerged under muscle and shock. The alternative, the possibility that this lifeless clone of her brother was all that remained, made her ache with sadness.
    Her thoughts were broken by the snapping of twigs, and her heart lurched, hammering away at her chest until she saw her brothers hulking form emerge from the trees, arms weighed down by an unnecessarily vast amount of wood for a fire. She smiled. He’s still in there.
    They doused the wood with a little lighter fluid and set it alight, huddling close to the flickering flames, wrapped in every item of clothing they had brought. For a long time, no one spoke, all of them on full alert, ears straining for any sound, any indication that the fire would bring death upon them.
    Eventually Rachel allowed herself to relax, and focused on wishing that the thin tendrils of smoke curling up from the fire might be laced with nicotine.
    Awkward silence settled on them. Conversation of any kind seemed ridiculous, unless it formed around the one thing no one wanted to discuss. In the end, it was Rachel who broke the spell.
    “What are we dealing with here?” She whispered, glancing from Michael to Jason and back. Jason prodded at the fire with a branch, staring into and through it. Whether he had heard her, Rachel had no idea.
    “I mean. Uh...what? Zombies?”
    She