Dog Blood by David Moody Page B

something else entirely. I think-”
    He stops speaking suddenly, almost as if he’s not sure I can be trusted. I press him, keen to hear what he has to say. He runs his fingers through his greasy, slicked-back black hair.
    “I think the line between us and the Unchanged starts to blur when you’re looking at very young children. Like I said, they don’t carry the baggage and the memories we do. Given the right stimulation and provocation, I think even an Unchanged kid could be taught to fight like us.”
    There’s another silence as we both think about what he’s just said. My initial reaction is that it’s probably bullshit, but he might just have a point. A young kid growing up surrounded by all this madness wouldn’t know any different. They’d have to learn to fight to survive, whatever their initial allegiance.
    “I got separated from my family when the Change happened to me,” I tell him, deciding I’ve got nothing to lose from opening up a little more as long as I’m sparing with the details. I take the map from him and tap my finger on the area where I used to live. “I last saw them here, but my partner managed to get away with the kids.”
    “Kids? More than one?”
    “Two sons and a daughter. It’s only Ellis I’m interested in.”
    “That’s your little girl?”
    “Yes.”
    “Don’t be so quick to write off the other two.”
    I slide my finger across the map, then stop.
    “I think Lizzie would have gone to her sister’s house. What are these marks?”
    Two circles have been drawn on the map, both centered on the main part of town. Both my apartment and Lizzie’s sister’s house are just outside the outermost circle. Preston explains.
    “Like Ankin said, the Unchanged have withdrawn into city centers. Our information’s a couple of weeks old, but we think the first circle is the extent of their occupation.”
    “What about the second line?”
    “The outermost edge of their exclusion zone. It’s a strip of empty land smack between them and everything else, pretty well defended. Makes it that much harder for us to get through unnoticed. It’s not impossible, just a little more difficult.”
    “So how does Ankin plan to march an army through no-man’sland without being noticed?”
    “He’ll find a way,” Preston answers. He’s not filling me with confidence. I try to steer the conversation back toward Ellis.
    “So that’s my plan,” I tell him. “Check the apartment first, then look for Ellis at Lizzie’s sister’s house.”
    “And if she’s not there?”
    “I haven’t thought that far ahead. I don’t want to.”
    Preston folds up the map and thinks for a moment.
    “What if I said we could help you?”
    “Help me? How?”
    “We’ve got a group of people heading out that way later today, looking for more recruits. You could go with them. You’ll have more chance if you go with our support.”
    “And what’s in it for you?”
    “There are just two conditions,” he announces ominously. “First, if you don’t find your girl, you forget about her and come back here and fight with us. Second, if you do find her, you both come back to us and fight.”

8
    I COULD’VE HAD ALL three of them,” Adam says, his voice weak and frail but somehow still filled with adrenaline-fueled enthusiasm and excitement. “I didn’t need your help. I’d have been perfectly fine if you hadn’t come back-”
    “Sure you would,” I interrupt. “You’re full of shit, do you know that?”
    “You’re the one who’s full of shit.” He laughs. “You were the one hiding up a ladder!”
    “I wasn’t hiding-”
    He coughs and laughs again, showering his bare chest with speckles of blood. There’s no two ways about it, he’s on his way out. His breathing is increasingly shallow and uneven. He was already severely weakened by the injuries inflicted by his dad and the subsequent untreated infections, and the brutal beating he took this morning did more than enough damage to push