Read Land of Dust and Bones: The Secret Apocalypse Book 7 for Free Online Page A

This is better than nothing, but it’s not a lot. Once we’ve finished
dividing the food and water evenly, we realize how close we will be cutting
this.
    There’s no time to waste.
    We’ll be out of food in a few days’ time.
Completely out of water.
    Sarah starts walking.
    And just before we leave, Kim grabs me by
the arm and pulls me to the side.
    She warns me about Sarah because she still
doesn’t trust her. “You keep an eye on her,” she whispers. “I still don’t trust
her.”
    “She got us out,” I say defending her. Even
though she did trick us. Even though she separated us, divided us,
systematically and methodically. It was premeditated. It was calculated and
cold blooded. She had lured Daniel and myself into a false sense of security
and trust, she had lured us into one of the warehouses, trapped us and turned
us over to the residential sector survivors. She had turned us over to a group
of survivors who had completely lost their humanity.
    Maybe I shouldn’t trust her.
    When she betrayed us, did she have a
choice?
    I’ve been thinking about this a lot. And
the more I think about it, the more I think she was just doing what she had to
do to survive. And I can’t blame her for that. And to her credit, she did lead
us out of the residential sector. She did get us to the last Vehicle Access
Point. And then she got us above ground. She got us out of the Fortress.
    “She wants to get home,” I say. “She wants
to see her sister again. And at the moment she’s the only one who can save us.
She’s the only one who can get us into that town. And if she’s not with us when
we get there, what do you think they’ll do? I mean, provided that we could
actually find the place without Sarah, what do you think they’ll do if we turn
up all bloodied and dying and starving? We’re strangers. We have no trust. They
won’t let us in. They’ll probably shoot us on sight. Like it or not, we need
Sarah. She knows where this town is. And she knows the people. She will vouch
for us. She’s our ticket into that refuge. Into that safe haven. She’s our
ticket to get behind the walls. She’s the key.”
    “What makes you so certain?” Kim asks.
    “Certain of what?”
    “What makes you so certain she’ll vouch for
us? Why would she? She’ll use us as protection. For safety in numbers. She’ll
use us to travel through the desert. And when we get there, who knows? She
could betray us again. She could double cross us.”
    “She wouldn’t do that,” I say, even though
she’s perfectly capable of doing exactly that. Even though she’s already done
it.
    “Just keep an eye on her,” Kim whispers.
“Don’t drop your guard. Not for a second.”
    Kenji tells me to hurry up. Sarah is
already walking south, leading the way.
    I tell Kim I’ll be vigilant. I tell her
I’ll keep my guard up at all times. I say, “Don’t worry about us. We’ll be back
before you know it.”
    I tell her that if everything goes to plan,
we’d be back in three days’ time. Four at the most.
    If everything goes to plan, we’d have a car
or a truck, and most importantly, we’ll have found a new home.
    As I turn away from Kim and catch up to
Kenji and Sarah, Maria and Jack are dragging the dead bodies out of the
wreckage of the chopper. And I try not to think about how this is the end of the
world and we are in a desert.
    And out here, in the desert, in this new
world, nothing ever goes to plan.

 

Chapter 5
    We walk.
    We walk for the rest of the day and all
through the night. We don’t stop. We can’t afford to.
    My mind wanders. And now that it is night
time, I keep looking up at the stars. I know I should be focusing on where I’m
going, but I can’t help it. It’s been too long. And the stars are so bright in
the desert. You can see them all. Every single star in this part of the
universe. And as my mind wanders, I begin to make up stories about them, about
the constellations.
    About gods and heroes. Myths and