The Bleeding Crowd Read Online Free Page A

villas?” Audrey took over with a frown. “No thank you. It’s
better not to let them see each other except in the camps where
they can’t do any real damage. It’s why we leave them there after
all.”
    * * * *
    That evening, Dahlia stood just outside her
room, enjoying the last rays of sunset coming over the villa wall
before finally pressing her keycard to her door. She stepped
inside, pausing on the threshold. She looked at the man sitting on
the edge of her bed for a moment before turning to shut the door.
“Any reason you’re still here?”
    “You didn’t send me back this morning.” Ben
didn’t look up from the book in his lap. “That would be the main
reason.”
    “Oh.” Dahlia set her bag down in the corner
by the door. “I didn’t know I had to do that.”
    “Didn’t read the manual?” Ben turned the
page.
    “I didn’t know you came with one,” she
snapped, pausing when he didn’t respond. Or look up. She sighed.
“What are you reading?”
    He raised his head. “That’s cute. You think I
can read?”
    She frowned. “You can’t?”
    “Literacy isn’t one of the necessary skills
to learn at camp. I believe, according to your spokespeople, it’s
actually damaging to our—oh now, how did they put it—primitive
brains. Reading takes blood away from the small parts of the brain
we have that allow for impulse control. Let us read and who knows
what will happen.”
    Dahlia nodded, not sure of the etiquette for
the situation. If there was any. “What are you looking at
then?”
    He looked at her for a long moment and then
lifted the cover.
    She moved a little closer, stooping to see
and then frowned. “I’m sure there must be nicer pictures to look at
than the ones in my old anatomy texts.”
    “It’s interesting.” Ben shrugged. “Can’t say
I’ve ever seen inside a human... well, never this completely and
not without very, very different circumstances.”
    She studied him for a long moment. “I’m not
sure I want to know.”
    “Well.” Ben seemed to consider. “They try to
keep weapons out of the camps, but that’s not always possible.”
    “Weapons?” Dahlia repeated.
    “You know.” He shook his head. “Guns,
knives... shivs?”
    She frowned. “I’m afraid I only got knife
from those. Shiv?”
    “It’s a weapon made out of found
materials...” he started and then paused. “Come on now, you have to
know what a gun is. All the guards carry them.”
    “Guards?” she repeated.
    He looked at her as though he were attempting
to judge if she had some mental defect. “You have to know what a
guard is.”
    “Yes, I know what a guard is,” Dahlia said,
over enunciating the words. “I was questioning what guards.”
    “The ones at the camps.”
    “Oh, you mean the lesbians” she said. “Well,
I can’t say I’ve seen one of them, at least not after they’re
scanned and assigned, so I don’t happen to know what they carry at
the camps. Or anywhere else for that matter.”
    “You seriously have never seen a gun
before.”
    “I’ll assume so since I still have no idea
what you’re going on about.” Dahlia eyed him, suspicious.
    “Weapons,” he stressed. “Things you use to
fight someone. Or protect yourself.”
    “Protect yourself from what?”
    He seemed to struggle for an answer. “Well,
other people who have weapons.”
    “Sounds awful,” she said. “It’s
understandable how that would make someone weep.”
    “No, not weep-on. Weapon. WEH, WEH-pon.
Doesn’t even have the same etymology as far as I know.”
    “You know etymology?” She raised an
eyebrow.
    He paused a moment. “I just know it means the
history of words. I think that’s the right word for what I
meant.”
    “Yeah, it was. I was just surprised you knew
it.”
    “Well, believe it or not, I have a pretty
well-versed vocabulary.”
    “Apparently so,” she said. “Funny etymology
is on the list to teach you when reading isn’t on there at all,
though.”
    He frowned. “We have