Free Trepidation by Chrissy Peebles Page B

seen, the one with the flowery quilt on it, it felt as if I was lying on cold concrete, but I couldn’t move. I was so groggy that I couldn’t gain control of my senses, but I heard the distinct moan of a zombie, and I instantly wanted to fight. Instead, I just closed my eyes and drifted off.
    “Dean!” Val said. “Wake up!”
    Suddenly, I snapped out of it and glanced around. Everyone was still at the table. Am I hallucinating? Did I fall asleep? Have a nightmare? My head continued to spin, and I had no idea what was going on. I tried to focus on Val’s face, wondering if someone had spiked the V8.
    “Dean, my head’s spinning,” my sister said.
    Kate just stared at me blankly. Lucas tried to stand, but Rita easily coaxed him back down into his seat; he didn’t even question her, which was odd for him, especially when she easily grabbed his weapons. When she frisked the rest of us, we tried to put up a fight, but we were all too weak to fend the old lady off. My arms wouldn’t cooperate with my brain, and they felt heavy and numb. I couldn’t even utter a word of complaint since my throat and lips wouldn’t cooperate either.
    “You’re probably wondering what’s going on,” Rita said.
    “You drugged us!” Val said. “Why?”
    Lucas slurred, “She’s gonna feed us to her zombie family.”
    My heart raced at his words. “She’s what?”
    “I’m not going to feed you to zombies,” Rita snapped. “That’s just ludicrous.”
    I sighed in relief.
    “Are you sure?” Lucas asked, not so quick to believe her. “Because I’m staring at a couple of zombies.”
    I jerked my head up and glanced around, but I didn’t see any zombies.
    “That’s just the drugs I gave you,” Rita said calmly. “There are no zombies here.”
    “I knew this was too good to be true,” Lucas said.
    “Me too,” Val whispered.
    “Ulterior motive,” he muttered, then trailed off into some kind of babble that none of our hazy brains could understand.

Chapter 9
    I literally felt as if my head was underwater, and I could have sworn Rita had admitted to drugging us. “But...why?” I managed. 
    “Because you’re my guests of honor,” she said.
    Val cocked a brow. “What does that mean?”
    “It means you’re the feast.”
    “Is that why you didn’t eat much?” I asked.
    She nodded and smiled a smile that would have looked grandmotherly under any other circumstances. “I was saving my appetite.”
    Val threw up her arms. “Not again!”
    “What?” Kate asked.
    “I’ve dealt with cannibals before. It wasn’t all backwoods like this one. It was very organized and precise. It happened on my way to the island. This fake hospital tried to harvest me for meat...but I was able to escape.”
    Rita laughed. “Not this time, sweetheart.”
    “If I could move, I’d punch you!” Val shouted. “Why kind of drugs did you give me?”
    Lucas glanced over at me. “Why is it that no matter where we go, we run into the nuts? She did say she could eat you right up, ol’ blue eyes,” he said, turning to me. “Maybe we shoulda taken that literally.”
    “We’ve gotta get out of here,” I said to my sister and friends, as if they didn’t already know that.
    Rita laughed. “Heh. I’m just pulling your leg. I’m not gonna eat you!”
    “Really?” Kate asked hopefully.
    “Well, not tonight.”
    “Dean!” Kate frantically yelled. “This woman is crazy. We’ve gotta go now!”
    Rita grinned like a shark, an unstable, dangerous predator who literally wanted to devour us. “The door is right there. Feel free to show yourselves out.”
    “But everything is spinning,” I said. 
    “If you choose to stay, my boys will skin you with a cleaver. Then we’ll cut you up piece by piece. I was an idiot to eat beef for so long. Human flesh is the tastiest morsel of them all, and it’s a whole lot easier to get than a cow or chicken these days.”
    “You’re worse than the zombies!” I said. “You’re