After the World Ends: Hide (Book 2) by Jamie Thornton

Author:Jamie Thornton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Igneous Books

18

Near the center of the store, at ceiling level, two legs popped through and wiggled. It looked kind of like someone doing the scissors dance in mid-air.

But then the scissors, the V, fell. He tumbled and landed with a bone crushing sound on the aisle in front of them. Another V took the spot in the ceiling, blotting out the square of light Dessa figured must open to the roof. Maybe at some point that had been part of the HVAC system. Now it was a portal that connected who knew how many infected to their prey—Dessa and Egg.

A woman with short hair squirmed through, head first. She was thinner than the previous V and it only took a few seconds until she landed in metal shelving. Glass jars and brain matter went everywhere. The sweet acidic smell of pasta sauce saturated the air.

The woman did not move. But the first V used his arms to pull the shattered half of his lower body through the muck of the pasta sauce to them.

A few of the people trapped in the grocery store must have made it to the roof. Home free. Survivors. Except all it would have taken was for one of them to hide a bite from the others until it was too late for all of them.

A new V blocked out the light above.

“We gotta split up!” Egg yelled as he crashed the cart through the dark shadows of the grocery store, swiping food and water as he followed the back wall.

“Go around and meet up at the front!” Dessa yelled, catching on to his plan. They needed to draw away any Vs who locked onto them from the entrance to leave it clear for escape. They needed to distract these Vs like the car distracted the mob outside.

Something grabbed her shoe. She screamed and kicked out with her other foot, the sneaker toe landing against the temple of the V with the broken legs. He had swept a little wave of glass and tomato sauce along with him. She kicked out again, and he released her, sending her crashing to the floor and into that swampy mess of sauce.

Just one bite. That’s all it would take to change everything forever.

She jumped up, tucked the plastic bag of meds into her shirt, and scrambled away. More Vs fell from the ceiling vent, but the sounds had softened. No more shattering or crunching. Dessa realized the first Vs were acting like a cushion for the next ones. Ones who would land with unbroken legs. Ones who could run even faster than her.

She spun around the corner. Waist-high displays of cheese artfully arranged with bottles of wine greeted her. Smells so pungent and putrid made her dizzy. She pushed through, crossing the halfway mark where a crossroad through the aisle opened.

Two Vs dashed out. She leapt onto the cheese display, scattering wedges and blocks, smearing tomato sauce, tumbling wine bottles. Holding her hand against the plastic bag to keep it

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