Read Online Mercy (The Last Army Book 1) by John Freeter - Free Book Online

just walked in a straight line away from the city. Karla dragged her feet next to me, her gaze fixed on the ground. Her enthusiasm over surviving the demons’ attack had extinguished sooner than I expected. She caught me staring at her every now and then. I smiled, trying to dispel some of the gloom in the air, but she looked away. I bit my lip and gathered my courage to finally break the silence.
    “I’m sure they’re okay. Our parents, the guys from school… they’re okay. I can feel it.” I clutched the silver cross hanging on my neck, appealing to her religiousness. It stuck to my fingers from the dried blood clinging to it. Large, dark stains covered my red shirt.
    Karla shook her head, fresh tears rolling down her cheeks. She curled a few strands of her long black hair around a finger and pulled until they snapped off. Her gesture made me wince. She hadn’t done that since elementary school, around the time her mom left her.
    “I’m not so sure,” she whispered.
    Those words hit me like a bucket of cold water. I decided to keep my mouth shut until they felt ready to talk, even if my fears fed off the oppressive silence. I figured even Martin’s confident posturing could’ve been a coping mechanism. Everyone’s got a family, after all.
    We ended up walking eastward for several hours, our conversations never amounting to more than, “Watch out for that hole,” or “Maybe there’s something to drink left over there,” as we passed the ruins of a convenience store. The sun’s bright-red halo began to set behind us, swallowed up by the thick smoke columns sprouting from the city’s jagged profile.
    “We should rest for a while,” Martin said, halting his march. “We haven’t seen any of those things out here, so maybe it’s safe. I’ll stay up and keep a lookout just in case, though.”
    “Yeah, okay,” I said. Karla just nodded.
    ***
    I rubbed my cheek against a soft, warm surface. For a second, I thought I was back home with my face against my pillow—warm from the sunlight that slipped in through the window in the afternoon. I caressed it with the palm of my hand.
    “Good morning, Becca,” Karla said.
    I opened my eyes and found myself groping her breasts. I sat up, confused. I’d woken up in the back of a pickup truck, surrounded by destruction. It took a while for me to get my bearings. The sky still had its dreary red tint, only now the sun hung low in the east, rather than the west. It must’ve been early in the morning.
    “Sorry, I was…” I couldn’t really think of a way to end that sentence.
    “Don’t worry about it. Listen, Becca, I… I’m sorry for the way I behaved yesterday. I know you were just trying to help.”
    Her eyes looked startlingly small over the dark, swollen bags hanging beneath them. She looked as though she hadn’t managed to sleep and had spent the night torturing herself over the events of the previous day. She smiled, but the contrast with her eyes gave her a slightly creepy look.
    “It’s okay. I understand. I’m worried about my parents and the guys from school as well, you know?”
    “Even Amy?” Karla was well aware of my troubled relationship with her.
    I scoffed. “Yeah, even Amy… even her.” My smile faded away as I seriously considered that she could be dead. “We’ve got to stay strong, though, right?”
    “Right.” She wrapped her arms around me. “We can’t lose faith.”
    The warmth of her embrace made me realize just how cold the morning air felt, particularly for the middle of summer. The sun’s feeble rays barely warmed up my numbed fingers, and I could feel the cold from the truck’s sheet metal through my jeans. I felt some reluctance to end our hug, but it had already lasted far longer than what was socially acceptable. I rose to my aching feet—my entire body still felt sore from our terrifying escape—and after stretching for a few seconds, I climbed out of the truck. Karla started praying, so I looked for Martin