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

until it pounced up on Grant playfully when it reached him, licking his hand and jumping up and barking. A leash was still attached to a collar around its neck. Grabbing the leash, Lucy tugged the dog over to her and scratched behind its ears. The dog nuzzled her hand.
    They heaped love and affection upon that dog like they were men in the desert who just found water. Squatting down into the street, Grant let the dog lick his entire face. And Lucy giggled as the dog jumped and leapt around them with obvious excitement. It was the first living thing they had seen since they left Oregon and they couldn’t help but think the dog was a miracle.
    “Maybe the virus didn’t make it here,” Grant said.
    “So the dogs weren’t affected in Nebraska?”
    “Yeah, but—”
    Lucy understood the question before he asked it. This dog wasn’t emaciated from two years of neglect; it was sleek and well-groomed. Its bright red collar looked brand-new and it reacted to humans with trust and comfort. This was someone’s pet.  
    And it was alive.
    Looking down at the collar, Lucy palmed the silver paw print and ran her finger over the inscription. Then she let out a puzzled hum.
    “What?” Grant leaned down.
    “This dog’s name is Frank.”
    At the sound it his name, Frank licked Lucy and barked once.
    “And?”
    “Well…Frank lives at…Floor A. Pod 6. Room F.”
    Grant didn’t answer. He just looked down and gave Frank a scratch on his rump, a goofy-grin plastered on his face.
    “Frank! Fra-ank!”
    They jumped and Frank’s ears perked up at the sound of his name. He joyfully barked again and Lucy and Grant paused.  
    “Oh no,” Lucy whispered. “A person,” she said as a sigh.
    Exposed and without cover, they could only freeze, Frank’s leash in hand, and wait.
    “Gun?” Lucy asked as she shot a quick glance at Grant.
    “Car,” he answered. Grant frowned. “I wasn’t thinking—I—”
    Around the corner of the library, a woman materialized. She was young, but older than them, and tall and dressed for a jog in shorts and a tight tank top. She had earphones in each ear, she was still bouncing along to a song they couldn’t hear, and her eyes scanned the street; she hadn’t spotted them yet. Frank barked and pulled on the leash in response to seeing her.  
    And the woman saw Frank before she saw them.
    When her eyes traveled from her dog to the person holding his leash, she paused. Her eyes narrowed. She tugged her earphones out of her ears and even from over twenty yards away, they could see the fear in her eyes. She assessed the distance between them and then in a flash took off running—the dirt kicking up behind her, the street full of the sound of her sneakers hitting the cement and then the unpaved road in quick bursts. She was fast, just a blur, and then she scrambled up the steps to the library and slammed the door behind her. Frank broke away from Lucy’s grasp and trailed after her, barking at the closed door.
    Grant and Lucy could only stare.
    She was there. And then she wasn’t. Fast as lightening across the empty Main Street and into the only place downtown they hadn’t entered.
    “Well?” Grant asked.
    Lucy’s heart was pumping wildly and she looked at her friend wide-eyed. “Well, what?”
    “Should we follow her?”
    “Are you crazy?”
    “She was just as surprised to see us as we were to see her,” Grant offered. “You know what it means though…” he smiled.  
    Lucy stared at the closed door and the poor confused dog calling for his owner. She replayed the image of the woman’s face seeing them and the quickness with which she fled the scene.  
    Brixton, Nebraska was not a dead-end after all.  
    “Gun first. Library second,” Lucy commanded with an authoritative nod. And Grant clapped her on the back.
    “That’s my girl.”

CHAPTER FOUR

    Ethan’s eyes opened. He blinked and tried to move, but his body felt heavy, like he was attempting to pull his arms through maple