Age of Z: A Tale of Survival Read Online Free PDF

standing upright in the farthest corner of the room, sandwiched between one wall and a floor-to-ceiling bookcase, eyes closed. Alexa felt a flood of relief, and then, a moment later, puzzlement. “Um... LS?”
     
    LS shifted, his eyes opening and then glanced over at Alexa, who was staring at him over the back of her couch. “Yes?”
     
    “Oh. So you are awake. Uh, any reason you're imitating the bookcase, there? The couch might be a little softer than the... um... wall.”
     
    LS hesitated for a moment, and then said slowly, “It... reminded me of my pod. Sitting on the couch felt... odd.”
     
    “Oh.” Awkward, much? Alexa wasn't sure how she was supposed to respond to that, which meant her mouth defaulted to sarcasm. “Yeah, just so you know, there's sort of a lack of pods, bookcases, and intact walls topside, so you might have to get used to sitting down like the rest of us normal people.”
     
    LS gave her a surprisingly dirty look. Alexa was impressed; she hadn't even realized LS could do that yet, considering his lack of personality so far. The clone stepped free from his enclosed space and said a little coldly, “I'll keep that in mind.”
     
    “Yeah, okay, you do that,” Alexa said, but grinned to show she was just teasing. She yawned, stretched, and rolled off the couch, pawing through her bag until she found more of the smoked meats and dried fruit from last night. She tossed some of it to LS and kept some of it for herself, and frowned inwardly at just how little was left.
     
    It was going to be a lot harder to feed two people, especially with them going through her rations twice as fast as before. Plus, LS was kind of big–he'd probably need more than Alexa. And how much food did clones need, anyway? She'd have to figure something out for that.
     
    “So,” Alexa outlined, “I figure we'll take an hour to get your stuff together, and then try to break out of D.C. Might go a little slower than it usually does for me though... normally I ride a bike, but I don't think it'll carry you too. Maybe we can find you another one.” She mused over that one thoughtfully as she tore off a strip of tough meat with her teeth.
     
    LS nodded after a moment. “Sure. You're the expert.” He tore into his own meager meal, apparently unconcerned with the fact that breakfast was the same as dinner.
     
    It wasn't too hard to find supplies for LS; Alexa was able to backtrack easily by following her own footsteps in the dust from yesterday. The hardest part was figuring out what he might need. The glass from the pod hadn't cut him yesterday, which meant he was tougher than a normal human, so he probably didn't really need a first aid kit.
     
    Based on the way he moved that door yesterday he should be able to get through almost anything, which meant he probably wouldn't really need much in the way of tools either.
     
    In the end Alexa just loaded up LS's backpack with anything of value she could find. She made sure to scrounge up a water-bottle for the clone, and she'd share her own food with her new friend, but everything else was mostly potential trade-goods for later.
     
    LS was strong enough to carry some of the heavier things Alexa had been forced to leave behind on her first trip through the lab–small but heavy cans of fuel, a gallon-jug of water just in case, a box of ammunition she'd found for some gun or other in one of the guard stations–which was good, at least.
     
    If they could find people they had a veritable fortune in their backpacks, now, which would let them buy food or other supplies if they needed it.
     
    There was no putting it off. It was time to head back to the surface. Gentech had almost been a comfort, if it wasn't for the obviously disturbing nature of the experiments and the many dead things below. It was nice to not have to worry for a day, and to find such a big haul.
     
    Alexa wasn't really sure what she'd find topside–there was always a chance the zoms had caught her