Read Online The System #2 by Shelbi Wescott - Free Book Online

moved their light up and down the bones. Then his hand stopped at the skull. He took his free hand and reached over and stuck his pointer finger into a dime-sized hole near the temple.
    “Well, that’s interesting,” Grant noted and he popped his finger back out. “Plot twist. She didn’t die of the virus.”
    “Shot?”
    “Execution style.”
    “And left undiscovered? In the middle of an unlocked post-office?”
    Grant stood up and flipped off the lighter. The darkness enveloped them and Lucy let her eyes adjust. Then she felt Grant’s hand on her shoulder and she fumbled around for his hand, letting him help her up off the ground. Then still holding on to him, they walked back toward the light in front. Lucy and Grant ducked back under the counter and then out to the road, leaving the skeleton behind them.
    “So, let’s get this straight,” Lucy started, squinting at the sudden brightness. “The whole city of Brixton disappears. Leaves mugs and drinks and cash unattended. They vanish.”
    “Except they didn’t vanish ,” Grant said, his eyes scanning the town, his brows furrowed as he scanned each building. “They were murdered.”
    “The whole world’s been murdered,” Lucy pointed out and she put her hands on her hips and tried to follow Grant’s gaze. “And one dead person in a post-office doesn’t mean that everyone died that way.”
    “You wanna bet?” Grant asked and he snapped his head back to her.
    “Not particularly.”
    “But you admit that there’s no one here. Right?”
    Lucy shrugged.
    Grant started walking back down the middle of the street, bypassing the library and heading toward the church and its bell tower.
    “Where are you going?” Lucy called after him.
    He turned and pointed toward the church. “I want to find the rest of the bodies.”

    Grant’s instinct was mostly right. Inside the church they found five more skeletons. All with bullet holes in their temples. Two of the remains were in a pew; at one point they might have been sitting side-by-side, but as their bodies withered down to just the bones, they now slumped together at an odd angle; one skull resting on the other in a perpetual state of embrace. Lucy picked up a hymnal and flipped open the pages. Each row was outfitted with a Bible and a hymnal and a collection of offering envelopes. Layers of dust covered everything—the fabric on the pews, the bones, the floor.  
    Another skeleton was crumpled near a wooden pulpit. Two more huddled together in a baptismal. Lucy and Grant found a small spiral staircase off to the side of the sanctuary; they climbed it, taking the steps slowly, feeling their way. The door at the top opened up to the bell tower. From there, they could see their car and each and every building in Brixton. Everything was silent and void of life. In the distance, they saw the rolling Sand Hills.
    They climbed back down and exited the church.  
    Maybe they’d never know the details, but the broad story of what happened to Brixton was clear: Each and every person in this small town had been systemically wiped out with a single bullet to the brain. Lucy didn’t want to venture into the single-room schoolhouse next to the church and she begged Grant to just leave it be, but Grant would not be deterred. He pushed open the doors and stood for a long moment, counting with his finger. Then he shut the doors and met Lucy back down the steps.
    “Four little ones. Two adults. That’s half the town. I bet if we searched every house and every building we’d find everyone.”
    “No. I don’t want to. And I don’t understand.”
    “It doesn’t look like these people were hiding…it must have happened fast,” Grant noted.
    “Why would my father send me here? This feels like a joke. A cruel, awful, horrible joke.”
    “We haven’t really been looking for a message…maybe that’s what we need to do. Go back and see if there’s a message here for you.”
    “Grant—” Lucy started and she