No Easy Way Out Read Online Free PDF Page A

laughing.
    “What the hell?” Lexi cried.
    “Come on, like that loser was going to really do anything?”
    “He had a freaking Taser! You think after everything that’s happened that he’s afraid to use it?”
    Maddie pretended to faint. “Oh, big scary man with a big scary Taser!” Then she shoved Lexi. “Grow a pair, dearest. Life’s too short to give a crap about little things like electrocution.”
    As Maddie sashayed out of the stockroom, Lexi tried to comprehend the last few minutes. For all her bitching at and about her mom, she had never so much as jaywalked before meeting Maddie. And what had following Maddie gotten her? Mortified in front of a group of guys Lexi didn’t even find remotely attractive, floor-burn from sliding down a bowling lane, and nearly infected with a deadly virus during a game of Dare or Dare. But without Maddie, she was alone.
    “Wait up!” she yelped, and raced after Maddie’s shadow.
    • • •
    The mall speaker was barely audible in the kitchen of the Grill’n’Shake. Marco, however, gleaned from what made it to his ears that the senator was serious about people checking in at the Home Stores. He heard “assumed dead” and “calculation of rations.” Now was the time for him to make the call:
Do I stay or do I go?
    “We should try to check in,” Ryan said, swallowing his defrosted chicken.
    “Dude, we’re outlaws,” Drew mumbled through a mouthful of reconstituted fries.
    “Forget outlaws,” Mike said. “I am not like these other drones. I will not be a part of this goddamn experiment.”
    Marco was floored. “
Experiment?
Are you suggesting that our current situation is the result of a government test gone wrong?”
    “You really think that some terrorist would bother to attack a freaking mall?” Mike pulled another thawed chicken strip from the bag. “This has government cover-up written all over it.”
    Riiiiiight . . .
    “We’re safer if we just try to fit in,” Ryan chimed in.
    If the three of them joined the plebes in the Home Stores, they would have no need for Marco’s card key access services. This idea of Ryan’s had to be shot down.
    “No,” stated Marco. “Bad idea. They put you in jail once, they will find another jail for you.”
    “We could use fake names,” Ryan offered.
    The kid would not give up. “They have a list of everyone in the mall from the first day. You think a couple of strangers appearing on the roster wouldn’t attract attention?” Marco put on his most dismissive glare.
    “So, what then?” Ryan winged the remainder of his chicken at the trash and glared back. “We live in the freaking freezer of the Grill’n’Shake?”
    “We could find Reynolds, try his escape plan?” Drew said.
    “The mall is surrounded,” Marco said. “If they had helicopters scanning the roof, you think they don’t have people watching the grounds?”
    Mike stood. “You all are missing the point.” He sat on the stainless-steel countertop. “This mall is a death trap. Our only goal is to survive until whatever the hell is going on ends. If we really are dealing with the flu, then the key is to keep ourselves isolated. We find a hole and stay in it.”
    Drew kicked a plastic bucket. “This sucks.”
    “It’s better than being dead.”
    No one argued with Mike.
    “Okay,” Marco said. “So we find a suitable hole and put you in it.”
    “What about you?” Ryan asked, eyebrows knit in a scowl. “Aren’t you hiding out with us?”
    “I’m your eyes and ears,” Marco said. “Someone’s got to keep his head aboveground to watch for security and stay on top of the situation.” This was working out better than he expected. The three would be entirely dependent on him for everything: food, water, intel. If any problem should arise for him and Shay, he could convince Mike to sneak out of his hidey-hole to resolve it based on whatever lie Marco thought would best motivate him, and the douche would never be the wiser. Better