Murphy's Law (Roads Less Traveled Book 2) by C. Dulaney Page B

gaps and holes in the wall, and after shaking off the initial alarm we all experienced, we quickly decided the freakshow slaughterhouse needed to be closed down. So now there I was, standing beside some big beast of a man whose chest looked like an Etch-a-Sketch, Zack over next to Kyra so we could both keep our pistols leveled on Shannon, and the other two behind the upside-down Bobbsey Twins, covering our exit.
    “Shannon, I said put that shit down now, or I will shoot your crazy ass!” I repeated my request.
    I chanced a glance at the guy hanging next to me; he looked awake and lucid. Blood ran down his chest in tiny little streams from small incisions where the skin had been cut and pulled away from the muscle, maybe half a dozen overall. It was collecting in the hollow of his throat and running down both sides of his neck. It hadn’t made it to his face or eyes yet. Hopefully we’d be done with this and have them down before that happened.
    I glanced over to Zack next, who was bull’s-eyed in on Shannon, then back at Jake and Mia. Mia looked the way I felt; furious, repulsed, and ready to puke at any second. Jake, on the other hand, couldn’t take his eyes off Kyra, and those eyes were filled with murder. No, not just filled. Overflowing. He looked more alive than he had since Ben died.
    That’s when it suddenly hit me.
    That’s when I finally understood what had been happening to Jake, what had been preoccupying his mind. Well, I didn’t have time to deal with that just yet, what with crazy girl here and the possibility of deadheads showing up at any second. Over in the corner was a pile of yuck, an aromatic combination of arms, legs, bowels, assorted other organs, and lots of blood. I just couldn’t believe Shannon had done all this.
    “You want to play with me?” the girl said.
    “Oh no, she didn’t,” Mia muttered approximately two seconds before the crazed girl charged Zack.
    Before he could react, Shannon crossed the floor, leapt at him, wrapped her arms and legs around him, and began furiously stabbing something into his back, over and over, with her right arm. I wasn’t sure what sort of weapon she had, only that it was sharp and blackened with blood. What happened next was all a blur.
    Zack’s pistol hit the floor.
    Mia stepped up and grabbed frantically at Shannon’s swinging hand with her own.
    Zack stumbled and threw himself around, trying to dislodge the maniac.
    Jake jerked his pistol left and right, trying to get a shot at Shannon.
    “Kasey!” Kyra screamed.
    It was enough to snap me out of it. I walked straight over to where Zack had slipped in gore and pinned himself against a couple of fallen beams, knocked Mia out of the way, and brought the grip of my handgun down hard at the base of Shannon’s skull. One crack and she was out like a light. Zack let her fall, not even attempting to hold onto her, and fell to his own knees. The back of his shirt was soaked with blood from several dozen knife-cuts that had damned near ripped the shirt from his back. Jake hurried over and helped Mia steady Zack, holding him upright on his knees while Mia determined how badly he’d been injured. I stared at the bloody, filthy girl on the floor, noticing the weapon in her hand was a three-inch paring knife.
    This is how she looked when we first found her .
    While I stood there in shock and oddly detached from the coppery-blood smell that hung thick in the air, Jake leaned Zack back against one of the broken beams and strode over to the still-hanging Kyra and her buddy. His pistol was still drawn, and I knew something was about to happen, but for some reason I couldn’t move. I didn’t feel anything at all.
    “Is this one of them?” he asked Kyra.
    She stared up at him and said nothing. The bloodied man was also looking up at Jake, but not with fear. He actually looked quite comfortable. Jake shifted his piercing gaze to the upside-down man and repeated his question.
    “Are you one of