Read Online Tankbread 02 Immortal by Paul Mannering - Free Book Online Page A

Eric ignited a small camp burner. He poured tins of salted meat and kidney beans into a battered pot, and then set it over the flame.
    Else snapped awake, a defensive hand lashing out at Eric who was crouched over her.
    “Easy!” he scuttled backwards, one hand raised in a passive gesture. “Don’t try to move too much. I can change those dressings. I have a few bandages.”
    The fire in her back had eased; the deep cuts were already healing. In a few days she wouldn’t even have scars.
    “I dreamed of my baby . . . I heard him crying,” Else muttered.
    “He’s not here.”
    “Water?” Else asked, her voice a dry rasp.
    “Here, drink slowly.” Eric took a battered plastic cup from the table and water trickled into Else’s mouth. She swallowed, feeling her insides soak up the moisture like a sponge.
    “Where is my baby?” Else said again, sitting up straight and pushing away the musty smelling blanket that had covered her.
    “Up top, remember? But you can’t be worrying about him now.” Eric stood up and ladled beans and Spam onto a plate. “Here, you said you were hungry.”
    Else set the rifle aside and took the plate and spoon. She shoveled food into her mouth, barely tasting it as she answered her body’s need for nutrients.
    “How did you come to have two newborns?” Eric asked while watching her eat.
    “He was born in darkness. A storm of thunder and rain. I’ve not seen him in the light,” Else said softly.
    “And the baby girl?”
    Else ignored the question. “He looks like his father,” she continued, feeling a bolt of sorrow shoot through her.
    “It’s an evolutionary trait. Our primitive fathers were less likely to kill a newborn that looked like them,” Eric said.
    “He is dead. My baby’s father I mean.” Else put her plate aside and stood up, feeling the floor dip and sway.
    “Steady.” Eric took Else’s arm until her color returned.
    “Eric, I need to find my baby. I heard him, in a room on one of the upper decks.”
    “He’s very new.”
    “Yes. But he is strong and he will learn everything. Just like I did,” Else replied.
    Eric gathered up the plates and cutlery. “You don’t know if it was yours. The holders have a lot of babies down there in the dark. Not much else to do, I guess,” Eric said, the trace of a blush rising above his beard.
    “I need to leave now,” Else said.
    “Where will you go? D’you have people out there?” Eric fussed with empty cans while taking sidelong glances at his visitor.
    “No one except my baby. I’m going to find him and then we are going home. We will be fine. I’ve been on my own for a long while. I built a house in the bush,” Else added a little defensively.
    “How will you take care of him on your own?” Eric asked.
    “I’ve read books about it.”
    “People seem to have forgotten how to care about the young around here.” Eric sighed. “I couldn’t live on shore,” he shuddered. “I’d be afraid of some crazed dead person attacking me.”
    “They are spreading,” Else said. “Why are their evols on board this ship? Why haven’t you destroyed them all?”
    Eric glanced at the door. “You wouldn’t understand. They aren’t like those rotting, disease carrying, mindless things on land.”
    “They are now,” Else said.
    “You are a strange one, Else,” Eric smiled. “Doctor Clay would love you.
    “Why?” Else tensed.
    “Clay’s a smart evol. He likes to experiment with people. Conduct tests and stuff like that.”
    “Is he your friend?” Else asked.
    Eric laughed and immediately stifled it with a hand pressed against his mouth. “Oh hell no,” he said through the compress of his thick fingers.
    “I killed Doctor Clay. I rammed a piece of metal through his brain. Then I killed another evol and took his gun.” Else wondered why she felt the need to explain. It felt strange that no one here was killing every walking dead person they could find.
    Eric stopped pushing empty tins around and gave