Outbreak Read Online Free PDF Page A

thinking of trying to find him again, are you?”
    I glance at the screen. This conversation is not playing out the way I’d hoped.
    “You’re going to try to find him!” Miles snaps in disbelief. “Eli, you’re gonna get caught! Are you seeing all this?” He gestures around at the monitors. “They’re watching you everywhere! They’re probably watching us right now!”
    “So what?”
    Miles shakes his head and then falls silent for several seconds. 
    “Are you thinking of joining him?” he asks in a husky voice. “Going AWOL and turning drifter?”
    “No!” I splutter. “No. Of course not.”
    He looks marginally relieved, but he’s still shaking his head.
    “I’m not crazy,” I add. “You know what’s crazy? The board thinking we can protect the compound when we have no fucking clue who these guys are or what they’re planning.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “The drifters want to bring down the compounds. To them, we’re the enemy. Hell, we’ve been killing off all their friends for years.”
    “You sound like one of them.”
    “I’m not! It’s just the truth.”
    Miles sinks down into the chair next to me as though our conversation has taken everything out of him. He presses his hands together and lets out a hard breath against his fingers. “Eli, I want you to listen to me: They are the enemy. The drifters want us all dead. They’re the people you need to be fighting — not Jayden, not the board, not even Constance.”
    I open my mouth to speak, but he points his index finger at me in a commanding way that makes the words die on my lips.
    “I know you’ve got this crusade against Jayden and Constance because they tried to put Riley six feet under, but people like them exist to keep us alive. The drifters are the real threat. They’re the ones we’re fighting.
    “I know your brother being one of them makes you question everything. Shit, you’d be fucked in the head if it didn’t . But don’t confuse the issue.”
    When Miles finishes, I’m completely speechless.
    Miles — the guy who shamelessly steals extra rations and takes on illegal fights — still believes in Recon’s mission. He still thinks the compound has his best interest in mind. He believes we’re doing the right thing. 
    And if he believes it, that means everyone else must believe it, too. In that moment, it hits me just how tight a hold the compound’s leaders have on our minds.
    When I finally find my voice, it’s hoarse with indignation. “What we do is murder .”
    Miles shakes his head slowly, his dark brown eyes serious and unyielding. “No, Eli. We’re fighting a war.”
    “What war?” I yell. “They’ve got nothing, and we have everything! They’re blowing us up with our own mines, for god’s sake.”
    “What has gotten into you?” he snaps, jutting his face forward so it’s closer to mine. “You of all people used to understand. You used to hate the drifters more than anybody.”
    I scoff and look away, but Miles isn’t letting this go.
    “Eli, those people are the ones who killed all your cadets. They’re the ones who killed your parents.”
    “Don’t you get it? Those people are somebody else’s parents. And we just shoot them like they’re not even human.”
    “Whatever. We wouldn’t even be having this conversation if it weren’t for Riley. She’s got you all turned around.”
    “I’ve got it under control,” I snap.
    “No, you don’t. That’s your problem. You think you can handle Constance and the drifters on your own like you’re some one-man army. But the only way Riley’s ever gonna live is if she takes that ticket to 119. Period.”
    His words settle in my stomach like a brick. “She already did.”
    “What?”
    “I sent her and Celdon to 119. She’s gone.”
    Miles gives me a funny look. “No, she’s not.” 
    “Yeah, she is.”
    Miles’s eyes grow wide. “Dude, you need to get some sleep.”
    “What are you talking about?” 
    “I just saw