Last Stand (The Survivalist Book 7) Read Online Free Page A

“I feel like a butcher.”
    “Is that bad?”
    She nodded toward the bird. “For him it is.”
    Tanner grinned. “Just wait. The good part’s coming up.”
    “What you call good is never good,” she muttered.
    He squatted back down next to the water and laid the bird between them.
    “Come closer, darlin’. It’s time to take out the…” He hunted for the right word.
    “Guts. You might as well say it. They’re guts.”
    He chuckled. “Right you are.”
    “Am I going to get bloody?”
    “All the way up to your elbows.”
    She pressed her lips together and nodded.
    “Fine,” she said, pushing up her sleeves. “All I can say is that it had better taste like chicken.”

    As they finished picking the last bit of golden brown meat from the bones, Samantha retrieved the wet rag and took a second pass at cleaning herself up.
    “Well?” said Tanner. “Good, right?”
    “A little fatty if you ask me,” she said, wiping a layer of grease from around her mouth.
    Tanner carried the bony carcass over to the front door and slung it outside.
    “Something for the raccoons.”
    “Dr. Jarvis isn’t going to like coming home to find animal bones in his front yard.”
    “I don’t care what that man likes,” he said, letting out a small burp.
    She went to the window and looked out.
    “Where do you think he is?”
    Tanner moved up beside her. “Can’t say.”
    “He probably needed supplies.”
    “I don’t see why,” he said, scratching at the stubble on his chin. “There’s a well for water, a river full of fish, and even a small garden out back.”
    “How are we ever going to find him?”
    “That, darlin’, is a very good question.”
    “Without him, we’ll never make it past the infected.” Samantha was still ruminating on Tanner’s idea to inject some of Dr. Jarvis’s blood with the hopes that the infected would take them as one of their own. While it wasn’t very appealing, it was the only plan they had at the moment.
    “Let’s start by taking a look around to see if we can find any clues as to where he might have gone.”
    “All right.” Samantha caught her reflection in the window pane and paused to study it. She used her fingers to gently trace her lips. “Do you think a boy will ever want to kiss me?”
    Tanner’s head whipped around. “What?”
    “You know… on the mouth.”
    “Oh, Lord,” he said, “here we go again.”
    “What? It’s a simple question.”
    “No, it’s not. It’s a crazy question.”
    “Why? You don’t think I’m pretty?”
    “Of course, you’re pretty.”
    “Then why wouldn’t a boy want to kiss me?” She puckered her lips. “Is something wrong with my lips?”
    “The only thing wrong with your lips is that they can’t stop flapping.”
    “I bet I’d be a great kisser,” she said, eyeing him for a reaction.
    He shook his head. “I swear you’re going to put me in the grave.”
    “I’ve got to grow up someday.”
    “That may be, but I don’t need to hear about it.” He started for the stairs. “I’m going upstairs. You coming, or are you planning to stay and study your lips some more?”
    She grinned, obviously taking great pleasure in seeing him squirm.
    “Right behind you.”
    They had given the house a quick onceover the night before, but since it was dark, their only real goal had been to determine whether the good doctor was home. He wasn’t, which left them to camp out on the living room floor. With the fresh morning light, however, the house beckoned to be explored.
    From their previous walkthrough, they knew that the Abner Cloud house consisted of three floors, each measuring approximately thirty feet on a side, as well as an attic with the same dimensions. The first floor, which could easily be described as a basement given that the back wall butted up against a hill, consisted of a small foyer, a living room, and a parlor cordoned off with a folding partition. Everything about it was very utilitarian, the designer