Read Online The Thrust by Shoshanna Evers - Free Book Online

fucking with me, then trust me when I say I will royally fuck with you. And you won’t get away with just a half-assed blow job when I come to get you back.”
    Evan nodded, the threat of being raped still raw and painful, the same way it had been that first night he was taken to Grand Central.. “I’m ready to tell you everything,” he said. “I just want my life back.”
Letliv, Connecticut
    TRENT
    Trent walked with Barker up and down the row of men and women standing in the field, adjusting their empty rifles and stances as needed.
    “We’ve got more guns,” his neighbor Rob said, showing him the stash he was working on. Cleaning, repairing, that sort of thing. Having been in a wheelchair his whole life, Rob wasn’t about to let that keep him from helping out any way he could.
    “Good,” Trent said. “Hopefully we’ll need them.”
    Their numbers were growing. A few people had even found them from his radio transmission—travelers who were looking for a home.
    So far, the only government interference had been the pamphlets dropped by the UN. But they weren’t going to let that paper go to waste . . . or the idea.
    Since the backs of the papers were blank, the plan was to recycle the paper and use it to spread their own message. Their own psyop—on the people at Grand Central.
    If they could get the word spread that there was another way, then hopefully when they showed up, the citizens wouldn’t be afraid. They’d go with them, and maybe the soldiers would stand down.
    Maybe.
    Or maybe they’d get into a bloody battle. There was no telling which way the wind would blow.
    “Remember,” Barker yelled, shouting so that everyone in the field could hear him. “Don’t shoot unless you know who you’re shooting at. We don’t want anyone to accidentally shoot one of our own.”
    Trent smiled. Barker, Jenna, and Clarissa had quickly become part of Letliv. The people were as fired up about liberating the people at the FEMA camp as they were. Jenna kept talking about how she wanted to be the one to kill Colonel Lanche, which worried Trent a bit.
    They weren’t on a revenge mission. They were on a mission to free people. Like Annie, and their friend Evan.
    But apparently Jenna was on a revenge mission. Trent couldn’t blame her, after some of the stories Clarissa had told him. Still, vengeance made for a sloppy fight. It made for anger, and mistakes.
    They couldn’t afford any mistakes.
    Hell, they couldn’t even afford to waste ammo in target practice.
    “Ready,” Trent yelled, and everyone raised their rifles, pointing them at the targets—shirts stuffed with old hay.
    “Aim. Fire!” Instead of a burst of gunfire, however, all they heard was the quiet clicking of dozens of triggers and firing pins, without bullets.
    No wasting bullets.
    “I need to shoot this thing for real,” one of the women said. “Before we actually go there. I can’t have my first time shooting this thing be in battle.”
    “Agreed,” Barker said. “Before the time comes, we’ll fire live ammo. You’ll want to experience the recoil so it doesn’t surprise you.”
    Clarissa came up behind Trent and put her hand on his shoulder.
    “Hey,” she said.
    “How’s it going?” Trent wasn’t sure how to behave around her in town, around other people. Putting his arm around her or kissing her felt like giving away a secret or something.
    People were already talking, since she was staying at his house. It wasn’t bad talk. Everyone knew how hard he’d taken it when his wife died. And they seemed to like Clarissa.
    But small towns were full of gossip, after all.
    Fortunately everyone held the firm belief that what went on between consenting adults was their own business. The few people in town who were openly gay were accepted without hesitation. So giving away the truth about . . . whatever he had going with Clarissa . . . wasn’t really the reason he was unsure if he should be kissing her in public.
    Things were