Read Online Year One by Nora Roberts - Free Book Online

to try to get out tonight. He’s going to head west, get away from the city. He’s got a group of people to travel with and they’re stockpiling supplies. He was able to give me the location before the signal dropped. I just couldn’t hold it any longer.”
    â€œBut you reached him, and he’s all right.” She held on to that, and to Max’s hands. “You want to go, find him.”
    â€œWe have to get out of New York, Lana. You said it yourself, the city’s dying.”
    She glanced back at the window. “All my life,” she told him. “I’ve lived here all my life. Worked here, met you here. It’s not our home anymore. And you need to find Eric. We need to go, find him.”
    Relieved she understood, he rested his cheek on the top of her head. He’d found his place here, in this city, considered it his power center—for the writing he loved, the magicks discovered inside him. Here, he’d truly begun, studying, practicing the Craft, building a satisfying career. Here, he’d found Lana; and here, they’d started to build a life together.
    But now the city burned and bled. He’d seen enough to know itwould take them into hell with it if they stayed. Whatever else he might risk, he wouldn’t risk Lana.
    â€œI need to find Eric, but you—keeping you safe—that’s the most important thing to me.”
    She turned her head to brush her lips over his throat. “We’ll keep each other safe. Maybe one day we’ll come back, help rebuild.”
    He said nothing to that. He’d been outside the loft, he’d scavenged the streets for supplies. His hopes of coming back had already died.
    â€œOne of Eric’s group’s family has a vacation home in the Alleghenies, so they’re heading there. It’s fairly isolated.” Max continued to watch out the window where birds—were there more of them now?—circled in the rising smoke. “It should be safe there, away from urban areas. I’ve mapped out the route.”
    â€œIt’s a long way from here to there. Reports—the reliable Arlys Reid—say the tunnels are blocked. And the military has barricades up now, trying to keep people contained.”
    â€œWe’ll get through.” Drawing her back, he gripped her shoulders, ran his hands down her arms as if to transfer his determination to her. “We’ll get out. Pack up what you need, only what you need. I’m going to go out, get some supplies. Then we’re going to steal a car—plenty of them abandoned. I can start it.”
    He looked down at his hands. “I can do that. We’ll head north, get into the Bronx.”
    â€œThe Bronx?”
    â€œThe main problems are the tunnels and bridges. We’ll need to get over the Harlem River, but the last I heard, people aren’t being stopped from going into the Bronx.”
    â€œHow do we get there?”
    â€œThe Park Avenue Bridge looks like the quickest.” He’d been studying maps for days. “It’s a train route, but a truck or SUV couldhandle it. It’s only a little more than three hundred feet, so we’re off nearly as soon as we’re on. And we keep going north until we can cut west into Pennsylvania. We have to get out of New York. Worse is coming, Lana.”
    â€œI know. I can feel it.” Gripping Max’s hand, she turned toward the TV. “She’s saying that the government, the scientists, the officials are all claiming they’re close to a vaccine, but I don’t feel that. I don’t feel that, Max, as much as I want to.”
    Resolved, Lana stepped back. “I’ll pack, for both of us. We won’t need much.”
    â€œWarm clothes,” he told her. “And wear something you can move in, run in, if necessary. We’ll pack up food—but keep that light for now, too. Flashlights, extra batteries, water, a couple of blankets.