Read Online Breathe by Sarah Crossan - Free Book Online Page B

wants to know.
    “West,” she tells him.
    “You’ll die before you even make it to the city, you know.”
    “I’m going to a safe place.”
    “You have to tell us what’s going on. Do you know what kind of hassle I’m going to get when my father hears I helped the RATS?”
    “We prefer to call ourselves the Resistance,” Alina says.
    Quinn’s neck blushes. “I mean, I know you can’t be as bad as they say. It’s just that … well, my father will ground me for a month. Two months, maybe. But if you explain what this is about, he might be able to help.” Alina grimaces. If Quinn is trying to impress her, he’s doing a terrible job; she’s being tracked by the Ministry, but he’s in trouble with his dad—the two don’t quite hold the same weight. And the chances of Quinn’s father being on her side are slim.
    “Quinn—” I begin, but he waves me away.
    “Thank you for helping me. But you can’t come any farther. It isn’t safe.” Alina looks at me. Why? Do I seem weak? Surely she’s as weak as I am, if she’s an auxiliary, too.
    “You know, you haven’t even asked us our names,” Quinn says. “It would be nice to think you want to know our names.” He sounds hurt.
    “You’re Quinn Caffrey. I found that out at the border.”
    “This is Bea,” he says, and places a hand on my shoulder.
    “Nice to meet you,” she says formally. She shakes our hands and turns to leave. “Thank you again for the clothes. I would have frozen.” She stares at the eddying clouds and clusters of derelict buildings on the horizon. The landscape changes quickly—one minute it’s a huge expense of wasteland, ground that was once used for mass farming, the next it’s tight knots of rubble.
    As she starts to walk away, Quinn calls after her. “You don’t trust us.” He looks at me for support. I shrug. Why should she trust us? I don’t trust her. I don’t even know her.
    Alina stops and turns. “This is a decent place to camp,” she says, ignoring Quinn and gesturing to the land surrounding us. “If you go any farther it’s sort of depressing and quite dangerous, unless you brought hard hats.” She tries a smile. “A little north of here was a forest once. The whole area. Monk Wood.” I roll my eyes to show her that she needn’t think we’re stupid; we know about Monk Wood. Everyone knows. And that was exactly where we planned to camp all along, though we didn’t plan on getting to it so quickly. We were going to wind our way through some of the old villages rather than cutting right across the country. The route Alina chose bypassed most traces of the old civilizations.
    “Fine,” Quinn says, defeated.
    “Good luck,” I mumble, and then, “Have you any food?” because even though I don’t want Alina sticking around, I don’t want her to starve. She shakes her head. I reach into my backpack and pull out a box of crackers. When I hand them to her she smiles, and with her empty hand she waves, though she is no more than three paces from us.
    Quinn and I watch her hike toward the rows of crumbling houses in the distance. She seems to know exactly where she’s going.
    The sun has fully risen and is now high in the murky sky. When I look around, I can’t see any other people at all—not even moving dots. Quinn and I are completely alone. We sit on an unsteady stone wall and eat a couple of coco protein bars. Eating isn’t easy: with one hand we pull the lower half of our masks away from our faces and awkwardly slip pieces of food into our mouths, and with the other hand we make sure our noses stay completely covered.
    Quinn has been brooding ever since Alina dissolved into the horizon. For a while I ignore his scowl, hoping he’ll come around, but he’s probably going to be in a grump our entire trip unless I let him talk about it.
    “She must have broken the law,” I say. I can’t bring myself to use her name.
    “Whatever she did, she’s in big trouble. I hope we helped