Innocence Lost Read Online Free PDF Page B

next.”
                  Ben felt a glimmer of hope.
                  “They’ll have the resources to get you back home.”
                  And just like that the hope was dashed.
                  “Wish you would have brought the radio with you.” Zima said as he took a drink of water.
                  “Last I heard protocol was to leave the radio in the supply drop.”
                  “You’re not wrong,” Zima said, staring out at the stars. “I’d just like to contact Command if needed.”
                  “You don’t have a radio?” Ben asked.
                  “Piece of shit crapped out on us.” Stevenson answered.
                  Zima stood up and scanned the horizon. “Rook you have first watch. The rest of you get some shut eye. We’re heading out before dawn.”
                  Rook nodded while Stevenson grumbled but they went about as ordered. Ben took one last look at the starry sky and then headed in.

Alec
     
     
                  “How is it out there?” Whitford asked.
                  Alec had been lost in his own mind and didn’t realize that the man was talking to him. By the time he did it was too late, Whitford took his silence to mean the rest of the world had rendered him speechless.
                  “Damn, I was afraid of that.”
                  Whitford, much like everyone Alec had known shortly after the world went dark, had aged considerably. His face was ragged and worry lines had been carved into nearly every inch of his face, with the only thing covering them up being a dirty scruffy beard.
                  The town had changed as well, but not necessarily for the worse. Sure there were buildings and houses that had been boarded up but there was an order to everything else. Whitford and the rest of the people had shrunk the city into the town square. Here there were trading posts, fire pits and other forms of entertainment. Even the houses just off the town square appeared to have been recently renovated and outside of grass that badly needed to be cut it looked like the world had never ended.
                  “Some of us here went out looking for him as well.” Alec turned his attention back to Whitford. “Wherever the soldier went, it’s nowhere close to here.”
                  Alec had already known that. He had been out searching for Alec for nearly two weeks and found the same thing he had found when he went out looking for his sister, nothing. Just like Ally, Ben was gone. Ally had been taken from them, Ben had chosen to leave. Alec still had not decided how much of the blame he was going to put on Ben and how much he was going to accept. But he had not come into town to talk about his brother.
                  “So do you all have room here?” he asked.
                  “Room we have plenty of,” answered Whitford. “It’s the supplies that are scarce. We’ve got our hunters and a few decent size gardens but we still come up short from time to time.”
                  Alec had figured as much.
                  “The people I’m with have seeds and gardening know how. They had been totally self-sufficient since everything collapsed. They’re old but they can help.”
                  Whitford ran a hand through his beard. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell you no; wouldn’t matter if I did. The majority of this town is nothing more than abandoned buildings; they could squat here without us knowing for quite a while.”
                  There was only so much space they had at his home. Jack had every room in his house doubled up. They filled up Trent’s old house, and even a few more that were a couple miles away, but still they had people needing a place to call home. Yet Alec knew