Zombies II: Inhuman Read Free

keep
around."
    Thorne stared at her. How could someone so
beautiful be so cold? How could she think so little of life in a
world where it was so rare?
    Victor raised his hand. "You have two choices
Mr. Thorne. You're either one of us or you're dead. Can you be of
use to us? Do your powers work on the dead?"
    Thorne frowned. "Kind of, I can sense the
dead as well as I can sense the living. Knowing where and how many
of them there are around me is what's kept me alive."
    "Hmm... Like a radar sense for souls.
Interesting," Victor mumbled.
    "And they are pretty much mindless. I can't
bend their wills and make them eat themselves or anything if that's
what you're wondering. There simply isn't enough left in them to
work with that way. I have though on occasion with great effort
been able to shut off the senses of one or two of them just enough
for me to slip by unnoticed but it's like trying to drive a car
with your hands tied."
    "I see," Victor announced. "You are better
than the norms. You may stay with us if you like as long as you
understand that if you touch our thoughts or scan us even passively
without our direct consent I will personally rip you to shreds and
feed you to the monsters in the streets below."
    "Fair enough," Thorne agreed wondering how
Victor was going to know if he used his powers but he was not
stupid enough to ask.
    "Unshackle him Nate," Victor ordered. "Our
new brother needs to see his home."
    Arc led Thorne through the hospital's
corridors. It was clear she disagreed with Victor's choice to let
him stay. Thorne could hear the veiled anger in her voice as she
showed him around.
    "As you can see we've made this place
livable. We grow our own food both on the roof and in several
interior gardens as well. Not that we need to. Nate can acquire
almost anything that we need within a hundred mile radius or so.
We've a well stocked armory that we have put together should we
ever need it and a large cache of medical supplies from the
hospital itself. The entire top three floors of this building are
ours and completely cut off from the rest of the building. If
you're not Nate or a ghost like Apparition, the only way in or out
is a long climb. Our living quarters are located here on the top
floor. You, Nate, and I have rooms on this side of the building.
The other side belongs to Victor."
    "We get rooms and he gets a wing. Seems
fair," Thorne joked.
    "Victor needs the space," Arc growled. She
paused in front of a green door. "This one's yours."
    Thorne glanced inside. The room looked more
like a mad scientist's lab than a place to sleep. There were
computers, reams of paper, notebooks and tools everywhere. He
spotted at least three devices that appeared to be microscopes of
some sort. "Copy," he muttered.
    "Look," Arc warned him. "You can clean out
the junk. Samuel's gone. The bastard defected. It's not like you're
going to have trouble finding a bed in this place to drag in
here."
    "Who's Samuel?"
    "I'd rather not talk about that okay? Ask
Victor if you want to know."
    "What do you mean defected?"
    "Switched sides, sold us out, betrayed us-
take your pick. We're at war Thorne and you've just joined the
winning side. Be thankful for it." Arc walked off without another
word leaving Thorne standing alone outside his new room.
    Thorne spent the next few hours getting used
to the hospital and selecting a bed for his room. It was work
getting the bed dragged into the room and a space cleared out for
it. He found himself wondering how Samuel had slept in this room
much less lived here. He managed to stack all of Samuel's notes and
things into a single corner vowing to take a look at what they were
before he discarded them but now it had been a day and he needed
sleep. It had been a while since he'd slept in a real bed and he
was looking forward to it.
    He stretched out and felt his eyes already
beginning to close from exhaustion. Sleep came easily to him but it
was far from peaceful. He dreamt of the dead waiting on the