Last Light Read Online Free PDF Page A

like lazy teenagers.
    He got over the hill, then saw with almost ecstatic relief that the next few miles were downhill or level, so he could move more quickly.
    “Dad, do you see that smoke up ahead?”
    He scanned the horizon, saw the plume of smoke. “Yeah, I see it.”
    “What do you think that is?”
    “No idea.”
    “Maybe it’s a plant of some kind that knocked out the power grid.”
    “Wouldn’t knock out cars and watches.” His tone was almost sarcastic, though he knew it didn’t help. But the stupidity of this whole situation was beginning to get to him. What in the world was going on?
    He kept looking toward that plume as he rode, trying to avoid the pedestrians in the street and spilling off onto the shoulder.
    Then, from out of nowhere, something whacked him from the side. His tires slid out from under him, and they went over.
    Deni screamed as they fell, and his flesh scraped across asphalt again.
    He was getting tired of this.
    A man with a shaved head and a goatee grabbed the bike and pulled it out from under them.
    Doug yelled and shot to his feet. He swung at the man, but the thief kicked him in the chest, knocking the breath out of him, and got his leg over the bike.
    “Oh, no, you don’t!” Deni got up, her arm bleeding, and tried to wrestle the bike away. But she wasn’t strong enough. The man slipped out of her grasp and pulled out of reach.
    Doug launched out after him, racing beside him, grabbing the bike, trying to stop him. The man kicked him again, this time doubling him over.
    “Thanks for the ride, bud!” he shouted back.
    “Dad, he’s getting away! Go after him!”
    Pain shot through his stomach, but he forced himself to rise up. Breathless, he shook his head. “He’s too far. There’s nothing I can do.”
    He dropped to the grass on the side of the highway, draped his arms over his knees. “Are you all right?” he asked Deni.
    “ No , I’m not all right. I’m bleeding!” She kept staring after that bike. “Why did you let him take it?”
    Had she missed that Chuck Norris kick that almost took him out? “I tried to stop him.”
    “But you didn’t fight hard enough!”
    He ground his teeth. “Deni, I really don’t need your attitude right now. A bicycle is not worth killing someone over.”
    “I didn’t say kill him. But you practically handed it over.”
    He didn’t want to talk about his defeat. “Walking won’t kill us. It’s better than a knock-down-drag-out over something I didn’t even care about three hours ago.” He looked down the long road. It was growing crowded as more and more people abandoned their cars and joined the exodus to the suburb. “It’s only another six miles or so.”
    Her face twisted. “Come on! That’s absurd!”
    “No, it’s not. Do you have any better ideas?”
    “Yeah,” she said. “Let’s trade a $10,000 Rolex for a bike, and then hand it over to some thug.”
    He wanted to throttle her. “How about some of that water?”
    She grunted and pulled the bottles out, thrusting one of them at him. He took it and gulped the water down.
    Deni stood there, staring in the direction of home. She opened her own water and began to drink. “This stinks,” she grumbled between gulps. “We should have just stayed in D.C.”
    Doug’s mind wandered back to the flight they’d been on a couple of hours ago. Ten minutes later, and they would have fallen out of the sky like the other planes. They might be dead. He looked back at that plume of smoke. Was it another plane that had missiled into the ground?
    He supposed they had a lot to be thankful for. Even if there had been a terrorist attack of some sort, knocking out the power was a lot better than a nuclear explosion that killed millions.
    Trying to take solace in that, he drew in a deep breath, got back up, and dusted himself off. “Come on, Deni, let’s go.”
    They abandoned their bag with the empty bottles and Deni’s high-heeled shoes, and joined the thick stream of