Read Online Into The Fire (The Ending Series) by Lindsey Fairleigh, Lindsey Pogue - Free Book Online Page A

things are different out there,” MG said as
we continued down the stairs. Even though we moved slowly, our footsteps still
echoed in the stairwell above us, along with our voices.
    We reached the door at the bottom landing, and I pressed my
hands against the cool metal of the push bar. On the other side of the door, I
found another hallway and a wall of windows—it was all that separated me from
the outside world. After spending so much time outdoors over the past few
months, being confined within layers and layers of walls was almost abhorrent.
I couldn’t escape fast enough.
    Finally, I stepped out into the late winter sunshine, closed
my eyes, and took a deep breath…and then I took another. The cool air tasted
heavenly.
    “You sure you’re okay?” MG asked.
    “Yeah, breath of fresh air and all that. So”—I opened my
eyes and found him standing in front of me, still looking concerned—“where to,
MG?”
    “Gabe. My name is Gabe.” He sounded tired.
    “Okay… Gabe .” The name felt wrong on my tongue; he
would always be MG to me. “Where are we headed? There?” I asked, pointing to a
large, boxy concrete building across the street. I knew it wasn’t our destination—he’d
already told me that was a half mile away—but I needed to get my
bearings. Familiarity could breed a lot of things, including a better backup
plan.
    “No.” MG began walking up the right side of a mostly empty
two-lane road, and I followed, staying close to his side.
    “What’s there, then?”
    “It’s a storage warehouse now…before, I don’t know what it
was.”
    “Oh?” I asked. I pointed off to our right to a row of houses
at the edge of what was obviously a residential area. “Do you live in that
neighborhood?”
    “Yeah…along with pretty much everyone else.”
    “Do all of the houses have power, too, or just the important
buildings like the hospital?” Because that would be a lot of power, more than
just a mini-power plant could provide. Do they have enough people to man
such a thing?
    “All the houses, the warehouses—everywhere has it,” he
explained.
    Hmmm… “So where does it come from?”
    Out of the corner of my eye, I could see MG shake his head.
“It’s…complicated. And, honestly Dani, that’s not my area of expertise.”
    “Well, you must know where it comes from.” After a moment of
thought, I added, “Wind? A dam? Solar?” Did they have some sort of nuclear
power plant nearby? Had they come up with a new way to generate electricity? I
watched his face as we walked, even though it made me feel dizzy.
    “I hate to disappoint, but I really don’t know how to
explain the system. I spend most of my time in my lab, not interrogating the
engineers about their power sources.”
    “Okay,” I said with a shrug. I squinted and resumed looking ahead.
There were a couple people on the other side of the street, yelling about
something, and I could hear several engines rumbling in the distance. “It’s
effing loud here.”
    “Is it?” MG made a show of listening, but didn’t seem
impressed.
    “Yep. I haven’t heard a car engine in months.” Suddenly,
everything about the Colony felt very, very wrong. I stopped and grabbed
his wrist, my fingers clutching at the rough sleeve of his jacket.
    MG halted. When he glanced down at my hand, I released him.
    “It’s great that you have a place that’s so”—I floundered,
searching for the right word—“er, accommodating, but you have to understand
what it’s like out there for everyone else. It’s not bad, exactly. Well, it
sort of is. But this—” I waved my arms around at the buzzing power lines and
parked vehicles. “It’s like you’re all living in a bubble. How could this
possibly be sustained?”
    Studying me, MG took a deep, contemplative breath. “I don’t
know. That’s not my—”
    “Area of expertise,” I finished for him with an exasperated
sigh. “I know.”
    MG frowned and continued walking. “As far as I’ve