Hunger Chronicles (Book 1): Life Bites Read Online Free Page A

eyes, barely aware of his receding footsteps or the brief blast of noise as he re-entered the room. I breathed through another couple minutes, concentrating on fighting back the rolling waves that crested the top of my hiatal sphincter and splashed acid into the base of my esophagus. Finally, when I had my stomach under control, I straightened, and, squaring my shoulders, turned toward the room. Mr. Shepard was right. I couldn’t let a weak stomach come between me and my chance at valedictorian next year.
    My determination faltered a bit when I pushed through the door to the bio room and smacked into a wall of formaldehyde. I gasped, covering my nose with my hand and made my way back to my table. The towel was back over the dissecting tray, covering the gaping chest wound. I was glad, but still kept my gaze averted as I sat back down in my stool. Twenty minutes. I only had to get through twenty more minutes.
    “You okay, Eva?” Kyle asked, his blue eyes searching my face. As if he actually cared.
    I tossed my hair over my shoulder, white knuckling the edge of my stool. “I’m fine.”
    He frowned but nodded. “Okay.” His eyes darted up to the front of the classroom where Mr. Shepard was helping another pair of students. Kyle leaned in closer. “While you were gone I got it all ready. All we have to do is label the parts and I can do that if you help me figure out what’s what.”
    I blinked at him, surprised at his consideration. Maybe he wasn’t so bad. Maybe all the snide comments and sneering looks since our public break up were a defensive strike from his male ego.
    I tried for a tentative smile though I figured it came across more like permanent rictus.
    “Whoa, Kyle, my man. What are you doing to make that girl so happy? Not getting her off. You know she doesn’t like that shit.”
    I snapped my head around, leveled a glare at the two linebackers the next table over. They were friends of Kyle’s and some of my current worst nemeses. All part of the same team they stuck together, they considered my public humiliation of their star quarterback to be below the belt—both figuratively and literally. Maybe they were right. Kneeing Kyle in the balls might have been overkill, but no one seemed to care that his hand had been down my pants after I’d asked him twice to remove it.
    “Shut up, dick-wad,” Kyle said, laying a hand on my arm. “Don’t worry about them, Eva. Everyone has an Achilles’ heel.” He smiled, lowering his voice. “We won’t mention what mine is.”
    There was a loud thud—my jaw breaking through the floor into the one below. Had Kyle just poked fun at what I’d done to him? I looked around to see if anyone else had heard and found more than half the class watching. Determined to not give them more gossip, I turned back to the dissecting tray in front of us. Maybe after this was all over I’d catch Kyle after school, thank him. Maybe even apologize for overreacting last weekend.
    “Let’s get this over with,” I said.
    Kyle smiled and reached for the cloth. A quick snap and it fluttered off. There on the tray was a frog stretched out on the black wax… but with no hole in its chest. Instead, terrified pain-ridden eyes stared up at me as it tried to squirm against the dozen steel pins holding it down.
    I screamed.
     

 
     
    3.
     
    Okay, then.… I stare at the barrels of three locked and loaded guns. Maybe I am lying just a tad. Truth is enough well-placed bullets can kill me, just not in the instantaneous kind of way. I will heal… as long as my body possesses enough energy to do so. And since my only meal in the last four days has been a quick suck on the zombie lying dazed on the floor, I am pretty darn weak.
    “Mind if I finish him off before you kill me?” I say, gesturing to the zombie as it pushes itself up off the ground.
    Guns waver between me and it. The zombie is shuffling closer. I can stop it with just a thought, but I don’t exactly want to give my new