Get Out of Denver (Denver Burning Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

this ride could get rough,” McLean said, revving the engine.
    “I am so unbelievably glad to see you,” Carrie said, fumbling with her seat belt. Her voice was shaky.
    “Likewise,” McLean replied. “I thought I’d have to hunt for you.” They roared down the street away from the thugs and the car wreck in the intersection. “Where should I take you?” For an instant, he hoped she’d ask to come with him. But instead she told him the address of her apartment.
    “Will you be safe there?” McLean asked.
    “I have a roommate, Shauna. We’ll be all right.”
    “Okay.”
    They drove around a string of dead cars on one street, hopping the curb to get past the last one.
    “Those guys were getting really unfriendly fast,” Carrie said. “What is happening?”
    “Well, for starters, the power’s out, probably for good. It’s not just a blackout; there is some bad stuff going down. Jets are crashing.”
    “Jets? Is this a terrorist attack?”
    “It must be. I saw some gunmen shooting up the Capitol, and a few minutes ago some fighter planes took off from the air base. Whatever hit us, it’s wiped out the power grid and most electronics. My truck’s radio doesn’t even work.”
    “But the engine sounds like it’s running fine,” Carrie said.
    “It’s older, so it doesn’t rely on electronics as much as recent models. Or maybe I just got lucky. I don’t know. I’ve seen one or two other cars that are still running.”
    They each fell silent as McLean maneuvered around another cluster of dead cars in the middle of the street. As he slowed down, a bullet whizzed past them with a high-powered crack, and another struck the truck bed with a loud plunk . “Head down!” McLean yelled, and Carrie ducked. He couldn’t tell who was shooting at them, so he just gunned it, clipping the side mirror of a van as they broke free of the blocked road, and soon they had put several blocks behind them.
    “Are you okay?” he asked Carrie when his heart slowed down enough to get the words out. She nodded, face pale, and slowly sat up again.
    “That’s the second time today I’ve been shot at,” he said. “I don’t like it at all.”
    A man lurched out from the curb in an attempt to wave them down, but McLean pulled away from him and accelerated, shaking his head. He wasn’t about to stop for anyone now.
    “Oh my gosh, you’re hurt!” Carrie said, noticing the blood on his shirt.
    “I’m okay. That’s from earlier, it already stopped bleeding.”
    “No it didn’t, it’s spreading. Keep driving, I’ll take care of it.” Carrie pulled some tissues from her purse and used a couple of hair elastics to form a makeshift bandage. “Thank you for coming back for me,” she said. “I’m really, really grateful.”
    McLean nodded. “I knew you’d be in a bind without a car, and it wouldn’t have been very gentlemanly of me to hightail it back to my ranch and leave you in the lurch.”
    “On a day like today, a lot of people wouldn’t stop to consider being ‘gentlemanly’,” Carrie replied. “But I can’t say I’m surprised that you did. I’m deeply in your debt.”
    “There’s no debt,” McLean said. “Let’s just get you home and make sure you’ll be safe through all of this.”
    The black smoke from the downed airliners filled the skyline, but the neighborhood they were now entering was much calmer than where they had come from. Turning into a subdivision on an upscale street, they saw only a handful of people talking with their neighbors on their front lawns and pointing to the columns of smoke.
    “Here,” Carrie said, pointing to a nicer-looking six-plex with landscaped grounds and a trendy sign that said ‘Bristol Heights’. “I’m upstairs on the right.”
    “I’ll come up and make sure you’re going to be okay. It looks like we made it out of the worst of it, but I’m afraid it’s not over yet.”
    McLean backed into a parking space and turned off his engine. Before getting