The Death Doll Read Online Free

but all he did was smile at her and move on.
    Didi’s face lit up at the sight of him, like it always did.  They patted shoulders like old buddies and laughed about the newbies coming out of Isolation tomorrow.  Nothing about the next run, but whatever. Rachelle always enjoyed seeing them together.  She never saw them give each other more than a quick hug or a pat on the back, but she still believed they were a couple; she wasn’t sure what kind of a couple, but still a couple.  Not wanting to interrupt their moment, she left the gym to her personal saviors.
    She stopped outside the door and crossed herself—brow-to-cut, shoulder-to-shoulder—out of respect for calling anyone but Jesus Christ her savior.  Even if the rest of the world died the way it did, her Lord deserved better than that, including her trust that this was all happening for a reason.  After all, she was still alive.
    “Look at you, all sweaty,” that pendego Jake Vaughn said as he and his brainless buddies hovered near the shower doors.  “Need some help scrubbing all those hard-to-reach places?”
    “You’ll never reach my places,” Rachelle told the crater-faced jerk as she tried to move around him.  He blocked her path, making her think he had a death wish.  “Get out of my way.”
    He grinned through those ugly blue braces. “I’ll bet you don’t really train like you say you do, except maybe your tongues.  Isn’t that right, Lezzie?” 
    She showed him how she really trained by shoving him against the wall so hard that he tripped and fell on the floor.  His stupid-looking friends stared blankly at him.
    “Hey, you can’t do that,” he said as he straightened up.  How that whiny little asshole managed to live long enough to see seventeen still eluded her.
    She shrugged at him on her way into the ladies washroom.  His bitching eventually faded as she grabbed and neatly piled a towel and some nightclothes on the long pine bench. He could piss and moan all he liked; he didn’t know her one bit.  Didi emancipated and trained her for a reason.  He wouldn’t understand until he grew up—maybe.
    She removed her necklace and placed her Victorian baby doll cameo atop the pile where she could see it, not taking any chances with her old keepsake.  She undressed and started her shower, enjoying the safety of the public yet currently empty bay.  Once upon a time, she couldn’t shower in safety.  Then, not at all.  That cameo was all she had left of that time, one she would never repeat thanks to Didi and Cody.
    Rachelle envied Didi’s strength and fearlessness and worked hard to be like her.  The woman could do some serious damage, and she always looked gorgeous doing it. Even when that huge black dude got in her face earlier, she didn’t flinch once.  Didi was just awesome, and Jake didn’t understand that, either.  Respecting a woman doesn’t make me attracted to her, you asshole!
     
     
    Didi always hated the dark.  As a child, it was because of monsters.  From her teens on, it was horny men.  Since the plague, it was because she just couldn’t see a damn thing in it anymore. Everything was enough of a blur without contacts or glasses in the daylight, but in the dark?  Nada.  If not for Cody, and a night vision device, she would be useless at night.
    “Take it easy on her again?” Cody asked as he opened the gym door.
    She showed him the slight rip in her long-sleeved shirt.  “Not this time.  She bashed me good.  Almost shish-kebabed my head.”
    He grinned and pointed behind her.  “You did look a little caved in back there.”
    She looked back and found no damage, but she did find him smirking at her.  She passed him with her middle finger in his face.  She loved the guy to death, but he could be a dick sometimes.
    She placed her night scope on her left eye and stepped into the dark street.  The green and somewhat sparkly block looked clearer now than in the day.  If only these things worked in