Seed of Evil by Greig Beck (smart books to read TXT) 📗

woman standing so still in the darkness she might have been an apparition. “Joanne, what is it?”

The woman sucked in a deep breath, held it, as she bit both her lips for a second or two. Her eyes screwed shut as she talked in little more than a squeak. “They’re gone.”

“Who? James? Is James gone?” Mitch asked.

“And Gary as well.” She looked up, but Mitch couldn’t see her clearly in the darkness.

“May I?” Mitch didn’t wait for approval and quickly reached for the light switch and flicked it on.

The woman cringed, holding her hands over her head as if warding off a blow and keeping her eyes shut tight. That was weird, but it was her appearance that alarmed Mitch most. She had a lumped rash all over her face and her wiry hair looked to be coming out in clumps.

“Oh Joanne.” Karen winced but didn’t move to touch her. Instead, she pulled Benji back a step, who continued to stare up at the woman with moon-like eyes.

“Mrs. Adams.” Mitch gently held the woman’s forearms and stared into her face. “Did you go swimming at the mine?”

She shook her head.

“Okay, okay.” Mitch continued to stare, but she had lowered her gaze and just seemed defeated. “Where did James and Gary go?”

“James ran away. Then Gary went too.” Her throat sounded coarse and painful. She looked up, and Mitch could swear her eyes had a yellow tinge—not the jaundice yellowing of the sclera, but the entire eye.

“Were they sick?” Karen asked.

Joanne seemed to think about it, and then she nodded as her face crumpled. “Yes, very sick. And they…changed.”

“Has James changed?” Benji frowned in confusion and crept forward. “Into what?”

Karen leaned over to grab his shoulders. “Wait in the car, please. This is important.”

“Aww.” Benji scowled up at his mother. “But James is my friend, and I know I can help if…”

Karen stared. “Now.”

“Aw-www.” Benji shook his head and turned. “I get to do nuthin’ interesting.” He kept muttering all the way outside.

Mitch looked around the house and saw the disheveled state of the place—dirty clothing, food packets, and empty health tonic soda bottles colored a brilliant emerald green. He noticed that the clothing Joanne wore was expensive but filthy with sweat and other unidentifiable stains.

“How long have Gary and James been gone?” he asked.

She tilted her head back on her neck and opened her mouth. She swallowed, the action making a hard clicking sound in her throat.

Joanne Adams’ head snapped down and she faced him. “Days ago. They’re waiting for me.” She gritted her teeth, painfully hard, making the cords stand out in her neck.

Karen reached out to her. “Jo, are you okay?”

“It calls.” She held a hand to her head. “I can’t…”

“Who? What calls?” Mitch ducked his head as he tried to see into her eyes, but she kept them screwed shut.

She started to pull back so Mitch reached for her and grabbed her upper arms, but instead of feeling soft skin, he felt something rough, like tree bark inside her sleeves.

He let her go, remembering Ben Wainright’s description of the affliction and also of what he knew had happened to Harlen Bimford.

She tilted her head back. “So deep.”

“It’s the mine,” he said, half-turning to Karen but keeping his eyes on the woman. “Joanne, we need to get you to hospital.” He reached for her again. “We’ll come back and find James and Gary, we promise.”

Her head tilted far back on her neck again and her mouth hung wide. Mitch noticed her throat and teeth looked strange—plus, he could have sworn he saw spikes or thorns in her gullet.

He grabbed hold of her and tried to drag her to the door, but she started to moan and her mouth opened even wider—impossibly wider. He knew the human jaw shouldn’t have been able to do that unless it was dislocated.

“It calls. I have to go-ooo.” She tugged her arm, but Mitch held on.

Karen also reached for her other arm, but then Joanne lunged at Karen, mouth open, and Mitch dragged her back before she could bite. In turn, Joanne rounded on him, jaws snapping.

“Goddamnit, Joanne, stop that!” Karen yelled.

But she kept trying to bite so Mitch pushed her away, and she went to the floor. But she was only down for a moment before she was up and skittering away, on all fours.

She moved fast and unnaturally. Maybe it was the bony extrusions all over her body, but she moved like some sort of hard-shelled insect.

“Jesus, she’s having a psychotic episode.” He grabbed Karen and pulled her out of the way.

In another moment, there was the crash of breaking glass. Mitch and Karen went after the women but arrived to find the kitchen window broken out and nothing but an empty yard beyond.

“What…what just happened?” Karen blinked several times. “I know Joanne, she’s…normal.”

“Infected,” Mitch said softly.

“Infected? But I thought it was all over.” Karen’s face creased with anxiety.

“It should be.” He turned to her. “The mine is drained.”

“It’s something else,” she said softly.

“There was something.” He spun, rushing to the outer room and finding the soda bottle. “This drink, the same one that Harlen had, and we found some residue in the dog’s stomach. It’s spring water, from underground. Same as like what is bubbling up from the mine—has to be. It’s like what Ben Wainright wrote about.”

Mitch stared hard at the bottle and remembered seeing this type of soda all over town. “There could be dozens of infected and contagious people wandering around out there.”

“Out there?” Karen stared up at him for a moment. “Benji!” She sprinted for the door.

*****

Mitch raced after Karen and arrived in time to see her run around the car, peering in the windows, and screaming her son’s name. But there was no one inside, and tellingly, the front passenger door was hanging open.

She turned to him, eyes wide and hands curled into fists. “He’s gone. He’s gone!”

“Benji!” Mitch yelled the name and did a broader circle around the car. He tried to remember the