Read Online Bound to Ashes (The Altered Sequence Book 1) by Maranda Cromwell - Free Book Online Page B

got bad. His plan was to move everyone into it, wait out the bombing, and reform society or something. Then the virus hit and everyone killed themselves....” she looks away for a moment. “Best laid plans.”
    Ashton used to collect newspapers a long time ago, he kept all the major headlines... DEPRESSION SICKNESS SPREADS, CONTAINMENT UNCERTAIN. SUICIDES RAMPANT.
    “Anyway. That Ecodome was meant to run with little to no manpower. So it’s just waiting up there. Waiting for someone to go claim it.” The determination in her eyes is almost scary, like one person could not possibly contain so much energy. Like anything in her way is destined to fall.
    Look at her. She’s playing you for a fool, Dev. Open your eyes. But there’s something that I can’t shake. Maybe I think she’s really telling the truth, or maybe I just want to believe. “So....”
    “Yeah?” Her eyes are trained on me.
    “What you said earlier. About second chances.” Can’t believe I’m about to say this. My heart is in my throat. “Did you mean it?”
    She doesn’t even hesitate: “Yes.”
    I take a deep breath of clean, fresh air. “Then I’m in.”
     
    “The quicker we leave, the better,” Alessandra explains as we rush through the hallway. “I had no idea what you’d say or if my initial plan would even work, so I haven’t exactly made the preparations for the trip....”
    She weaves around tight corners through the grey innards of the building. I miss the green, and the fresh air, but now that we’re back in the real world my mind goes back to old places. Back to the dusty street and the stone quarry parking lot. And the bridge.
    “Hey.” It’s like stepping off a steep edge to initiate conversation. My voice makes her stop like she’s on a track, mechanized— we all stop what we’re doing, me and Alessandra and Vinder, and it sends a wave of nausea over me because when we act in unison, it reminds me of Ashton and the others. It’s wrong.
    “There’s somewhere I need to go first.”
    Alessandra squints at me. What could I possibly have to do, she’s probably thinking. I clench my eager fists.
    “My friends are....” But my heart sinks before I can finish. Too late. She already knew there was more of us, anyway.
    “What?”
    “Where are they?” The dangerous question feels like venom.
    Alessandra looks me in the eye and says, “I don’t know. You were our only target.”
    Target. My stomach turns. But at least that means everyone else is at the bridge. Should be at the bridge. “How long have I been... here?”
    Alessandra glances at her watch, a gaudy silver thing, and says, “Twelve hours, almost on the dot.”
    “You were really out,” Vinder offers, cutting himself short.
    Then they are at the bridge. Okay. I can work with this. Cain is a huge stickler for punctuality, he’ll stick to the schedule, they’ll be there....
    “I need to find them. Before I do anything else.”
    Alessandra doesn’t miss a beat. “Okay. I’ll go with you.”
    I nearly choke.
    “Yeah. So I can meet your friends.” She smiles at me as if my friends are just dying to meet her.
    “They’ll tear you apart.”
    “They won’t listen to you? Even if you explain what’s going on?”
    Turning back time and refusing her offer sounds pretty good right about now. I can’t formulate a good enough reply.... What am I supposed to say to that...? “You think they’d just—”
    “Aless,” Vinder whispers. “Not sure that’s a great idea.”
    “Look,” she seems ready to unload on Vinder, but after a quick sideways glance at me, she pulls him aside around a corner and starts violently whispering at him instead. As if I can’t hear them.
    “He’s right, though,” Vinder says. “One of them tied up and tranquilized is one thing, Aless—”
    “Give me some credit, Vin. You know I know them better than that.”
    “Yeah but you’ll be alone, in the middle of nowhere, unarmed—”
    “Who’s to say I’ll be