Defensive Instinct (Survival Instinct Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page A

Winchester leaned forward, attempting to read what was written on the screen.
    Lauren quickly blocked his view with both hands. “Don’t you have other things to do?”
    “Probably. Do you want to help me with it?”
    “What is it?” Lauren raised her eyebrow sceptically. She was much better friends with Winchester than Abby was. The two of them had survived the first few weeks together, holed up in a motel crammed with people where Lauren had somehow been put in charge of all the orphaned children. There had been quite a few, Peter among them. Since then, they had been taken in by other adults, some who were new couples willing to take on the responsibility, others were individuals who had lost their own, and still more were families that had managed to stay together through it all and were willing to expand. Lauren and Abby had kept Peter, Claire, and Jon with them, although Jon was now twenty-seven and off living at the container yard when he wasn’t out scavenging.
    “We’ve picked a new area to sow, which means clearing out the crap that’s already there. Want to come do some hard slugging work? Volunteers make the workload lighter.” Winchester grinned like a used car salesman.
    “We should probably—” Lauren started but Abby cut her off.
    “Sure!”
    “Sure?” Abby’s partner looked at her with suspicious eyes.
    “I’m tired of sitting down here all day. I’d like to go outside and do some manual labour.”
    “All right, I guess. Why not?”
    “Excellent.” Winchester got to his feet, the movement propelling his chair to clatter away into a desk. He looked at the other six people in the lab, all hunched over their desks and working on who knew what. “How about you folks? Any of you want to help clear our next field?”
    Half the people ignored Winchester; the other half shook their heads.
    “All right, just us then.”
    Abby walked over to Peter. “You going to stay down here all day?”
    Peter nodded.
    “Want me to come get you if Hope shows up?”
    He nodded again.
    “All right. Try not to fry your brain with this.” Abby kissed the back of Peter’s head, breathing in the scent of his hair, then made her way to the door where Winchester and Lauren were already waiting. Abby had never imagined herself as a mother until Lauren had shown up with Claire, Peter, and Jon under her wings. Now, she couldn’t imagine her life without them.
    “Will Claire be joining us?” Lauren asked as they made their way toward the stairs. Even though the Black Box had a working elevator, unlike the Diana, Abby always made them take the stairs. Not only was it healthier for them, but Abby’s experiences insisted that the stairs were safer.
    “She up top?” So Winchester hadn’t seen her up there yet. It wasn’t unusual: there were always quite a number of people on the surface and a lot of fairly large fields to be tended. There was no way to tell where Claire was unless you happened to spot her or started asking around.
    They exited the underground lab-turned-hideaway beside an old set of train tracks that had a forest of weeds growing up between them. The train cars were secured in place, often used as homes or a place to sleep outside in safety for those who didn’t want to go below for the night. Beyond them was an old facility, presumably a chemical plant of some sort, although Abby never bothered to confirm that. Over the years, the place had been thoroughly cleared out and stripped of virtually everything. They took apart all that they could—including metal wall panels—to use as fencing material around the growing fields. Winchester led them first to the road and then down toward the barge dock. Abby squinted up at a massive crane as they walked below its overhanging arm. The distance and the sun prevented her from seeing who was up there, but she could make out at least three people, their legs dangling into nothingness. Old plastic chairs had been brought up there a long time ago and