After: The Echo (AFTER post-apocalyptic series, Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

be sure whether the tiger would bolt into a run or leap upon its prey. His breathing was fast and heavy.
    She hadn’t thought of him in that way…not like she had Randy Woodard. But wasn’t DeVontay the father to Stephen just as she was the mother? Wasn’t it natural that they…pair off…for whatever this new world intended?
    Didn’t she have a duty to be fruitful and multiply?
    And despite her denial of a God above, she couldn’t help but think this was some great practical joke He was pulling. What if God wasn’t an all-knowing force with a predestined plan, but was instead just a childlike entity that had set the universe in motion and then stood back to watch in wonder as it unfolded? Wouldn’t such a God be snickering right now at the absurdity of it all?
    DeVontay tensed and moved slightly away from her. “What’s so funny?”
    She hadn’t realized she’d laughed out loud. But the moment was broken, just like the blackbird’s wings in the Beatles’ song. “It’s just strange,” she said, recalling her astronomy professor griping about urban light pollution that fouled his telescopic view. “Without any lights, you can see better.”
    “That’s real deep, Rachel,” DeVontay said, and she couldn’t be sure if he was stung by the rejection or just being DeVontay. Maybe she’d imagined the romantic gesture. It wasn’t like she had much experience in such matters.
    “Seriously. You could count the rest of your life and still not get them all.”
    “That’s why people invented constellations. They just picked out the big patterns and used them instead of worrying about all the little details.”
    “You don’t sound so streetwise-Philly now,” she said.
    “Maybe the Zapheads weren’t the only people to get changed by the solar storm,” he said. He moved farther away, restoring their personal space to its previous distance.
    She groped to salvage his feelings without making the moment any weirder. “Where did you learn the constellations?”
    “Virginia Beach. We went there on vacation when I was twelve. I had one of those little star charts on a cardboard wheel. I stood in the sand at night, the waves crashing around, and I taught myself. At the time, I imagined I might get shipwrecked one day and I’d have to sail home by the stars. I figured anywhere I went, at least I’d know where I was.”
    “Do you?”
    “Do what?”
    “Know where you are?”
    She could see his eyes, the celestial light making them sparkle, even the glass one, and then she took the three biggest steps of her life and was in his arms. His lips brushed her temple and she whispered, “No. Just hold me.”
    He didn’t answer, just complied. The firelight bobbed and grew low inside the nose of the plane, outlining the jagged orange mouth where they would soon enter to sleep. They would not sleep together. Not yet, maybe not ever.
    Somehow, it wasn’t that important. For now, his arms were enough, strong and safe and comforting.
    After a minute, DeVontay said, “Here.”
    “Hmmm?” She had closed her eyes against the dizzying and bottomless possibilities of the night.
    “That’s where we are.”
    Somewhere in the forest, just beyond their hearing, a low voice tried out a new trick of sound. It was only a chuckling sound at first, more rodent than human, and then it gained form and shape.
    “ Bluh…bluh…blaaa…buhr…flyyyy. Blah bird flyyy. ”

 
     
    CHAPTER FIVE
     
    Campbell followed the soldiers for half a mile, slinking from vehicle to vehicle. Where the road was relatively clear, Campbell either climbed into the drainage ditch that ran along the road, used the concealment of the guardrail, or slipped through the roadside undergrowth.
    The soldiers showed little concern over being followed or attacked. Either their experience or their weapons—or possibly both—made them brave. The skinny one had more of a twitching disposition, occasional stopping to check his bearings or light another cigarette.