Read Online The Before by Emily McKay - Free Book Online

working their way through the school rooster.”
    “No. I’ve only heard of a couple of people other than you and Mel. McKenna Wells, people like that.”
    I made a little sound of disgust. McKenna was rich and beautiful and a cheerleader, all of which I could have forgiven if she’d used her powers for good, not evil. But, really, she was the resident mean girl. Typical. If the apocalypse happens, of course the cockroaches survive.
    “You haven’t been called up?”
    Joe gave a bark of laughter. “Me? You kidding? I’m going to be, like, last on their list.”
    “Why do you say that?”
    “Come on, there’s got to be like a million kids in Dallas, right?”
    I had no idea, but that seemed like a good guess, so I nodded.
    “No way they have spots for everyone. They can’t protect that many kids. They’re not going to be able to get everyone into a Farm. Certainly not before those things make it all the way up here.”
    A lump of dread expanded in my chest. I hadn’t thought about it like that. I’d been fighting this so hard I hadn’t considered that being shipped off to a Farm might be a good idea. That not going to the Farm might be dangerous.
    “Do you really think they’re prioritizing like that?”
    “Wouldn’t you? If you can’t protect everyone, who are you going to protect? Kids like you? The perfect kids, who are smart and follow the rules? Kids who are gonna grow up to be like the future leaders of America? Or guys like me?”
    Joe’s cool fatalism sent a shiver down my spine. How could he be so matter-of-fact about his fate? And so certain that going to a Farm was a good thing?
    Of course, I’d seen his dad asleep out on the sofa. I’d seen the occasional bruise on Joe’s cheek. Who knew what else went on here that I didn’t know about? Maybe anywhere was better than here.
    But if his theory was true, then why had they called in Mel? I hated to think it, but Mel was no one’s ideal kid. No one’s vision of the future leader of America. McKenna? Sure, I saw that. I didn’t like her, but she had that right mix of popular and smart that looked good on a college application. She already had early admittance to a couple of schools. She was totally who Joe had described.
    I stepped closer and whispered, even though Mel could still hear me and she didn’t seem to be listening anyway. “That’s the thing,” I told him. “I don’t think we got on the list because of grades or whatever.”
    I quickly told him about the cop who’d been out on the street and how he seemed to have it out for me.
    “So maybe it’s not about good behavior, but about bad behavior.”
    “Does it matter?” Joe asked. “If it keeps you safe?”
    I frowned, but had no answer for Joe.
    “So you will sell me the Valium?” I asked, changing the subject, but I didn’t like the idea that I’d gotten Mel and me sent away any more than I liked the idea that Joe might be left out here to fend for himself.
    Joe looked at the bottle of blue pills and thrust it at me. “Nah, just take it. It’s not like I’m doing a booming business here.”
    I tucked the pills in my shorts pocket, then thought better of it and moved them to my bra, wedging them well under my boob so anyone who stopped me would have to get personal before he found them. “Thanks!”
    “You know you probably won’t get to keep them anyway. The website says you can only bring in medication you have a scrip for. And even then it has to be cleared by the facility’s medical team.”
    I considered that for a second. “Thanks for the heads-up. I’ll figure something out.”
    You didn’t sit across the table at holidays from a paranoid conspiracy theorist for seventeen years without picking up a thing or two about how to smuggle things through security.
    “Mel, it’s time to go.”
    Now that we had the pills, she fell right in line by my side.
    Joe cocked his head toward the window. “How you going to get back to your house? Won’t the crazy cop