Free Jenny Undead (The Thirteen: Book One) by J.L. Murray

He looked back to the
road. He seemed twitchy, uncomfortable. Every once in a while his
nostrils would flare. “I have some people,” he said
after a while. “They can help you, Jen.”
    “No one can help me.” She stared at
him. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. Jenny's head
was heavy and her eyelids burned. Every bump in the road felt like
her bones were jangling together. Her nerves felt raw and gnawed
upon. She took a heavy breath that burned like fire. “No one
can help me,” she said again, softer this time. “I want
to see Declan.”
    “No.” He didn't look at her.
    “Did you just say no?”
    “Jenny, you have to trust me. I've got
people who can help you. Munro will kill you.”
    “You know Declan?” she said.
    He snorted. “Everyone knows Munro. He's a
killer.”
    “Everyone's a killer.”
    “Yeah,” said Casey. “But not
everyone's a big, psycho motherfucker.”
    “You don't know him,” she said.
    “You think you know him,” said
Casey. “But he will kill you, Jen. He'll kill you without
even having to think about it. You don't understand what's
happening here. You don't know what you are.”
    “I understand that I got bitten,”
she said slowly. “I understand that I am fucking dying. I
understand that after I'm gone I'll turn into one of them. What I
don't understand is how you were stuck in a train car full of
rotters for shit knows how long, and you're still here.”
    He swallowed hard. “I told you there are
things you don't understand.”
    “Make me understand.”
    He looked at her, then back at the road, making
a left turn and swerving the car around a fallen rotter.
“They did something to us, Jenny,” he said. “When
we were kids. We're not like other people.”
    “They tortured us,” Jenny said.
    “I don't think so,” he said.
“I think they were trying to help us.”
    “I can't do this, Casey.” She closed
her eyes. The inside of her eyelids felt like they were covered in
acid and her eyes teared up. Her stomach was starting to tighten up
and she could taste the bile in the back of her throat. “I
can't talk about them. I don't have the energy.”
    Casey pursed his pale lips. He stopped the car
in the middle of the abandoned street. Jenny looked around. She
knew where they were. The house where Declan lived was only about
two blocks away. “What are you doing?” she said.
    He turned in his seat to look at her. His eyes
were bruised hollows, his irises too pale. Jenny blinked. She was
hallucinating. It looked like there was film on his eyes. Like he
was dead. “Wake up, Jen,” he said. “You know why
the rotters didn't bother me in that train.”
    “No,” she said. “I don't have
any idea.”
    “Have you seen me?” he said, his
voice rising. He shook his head. “You must be able to tell
what's happened here.”
    “You've just starved for a while,”
she said. She couldn't comprehend what he was trying to say. Her
brain felt like it had been replaced with thick, black sludge. Had
Casey gone crazy since she'd seen him last? A lot of people did.
Not everyone could adapt to their world.
    “I'm fucking dead,” he yelled.
“I'm a rotter, a zombie. I'm dead and I'm still me. Because
of what they did to us. Mom and all those scientists. They gave us
something that made us... I don't know. Not immune, but,
different.”
    “That's insane,” Jenny said.
“Casey, just come with me. Maybe Declan can find you someone
to help you. You know, after I go.”
    “You're not going to go, Jen,” he
said, his voice high and loud. He laughed. “You're going to
die, but you'll come back. You'll be different, but you'll still be
you.”
    “You sound like those thumpers,” Jenny said. She
felt like her heart was breaking. All this time, all these years
looking for her little brother and he was batshit insane. It was
her fault, of course. But she was dying. She couldn't help him. If
he wouldn't come with her to Declan, there really wasn't anything
she could do