Plague Zone Read Online Free PDF

this guy wants,” he said to Allison. “We’ll take care of the ants.”
     
His wife met his gaze in the dark. She knew what he was doing, but she grinned like a cat. “Fine,” she said, almost daring him. It was precisely what Ruth had said. Cam didn’t know what to make of that, although Allison could be playful about the weirdest things.
     
She was very pretty. A few blond strands had pulled free of her ponytail and framed her steady eyes, flagging in the wind. Then she set down her gas cans and left. Tony hurried after her, toting his rifle.
     
Cam glanced at a couple named Michael and Denise Stone, who both wore pistols. “Go with them, okay?”
     
“No problem,” Michael said, dropping his shovel and ski mask. Denise added a pry bar and her own makeshift body armor.
     
Now we’ve got more tools than people, Cam thought. He considered going after Allison himself, but he was in no mood to be diplomatic to some lost, hungry loser. “Let’s throw some dirt on the fire,” he said. “I want to get Eric out of there.”
     
“Yeah.” Greg winced. In a different life, Greg had been Eric’s squad leader. Cam could barely imagine what he must be feeling. With Eric’s death, the best link to Greg’s days as an Army Ranger was gone.
     
They heard Allison call out at the edge of the village, challenging the newcomer. Her voice was strong in the wind. A moment later, she repeated herself. Cam and Greg began to suit up with the other three people on their smoke team, donning goggles and masks.
     
“I’ll go in first,” Cam said.
     
Then somebody screamed from Allison’s direction, a high, boyish shriek. It was Tony. Cam whirled, trying to place the sound beyond the blocky silhouettes of homes and greenhouses. He saw flashlights and human shapes. One was familiar, fair-haired and lean, yet round in the middle. The others were only shadows. They seemed to dance spastically.
     
Jefferson was under attack.
     
     
     
     
     
     
    3
     
     
Ruth was standing at her door when Tony and Allison hurried past. She almost said something, but what? Allison didn’t even like to hear thank you from her, much less complaints, so Ruth stood quietly against her home as their flashlights rocked by, followed by Michael and Denise. There was someone in the fences. Ruth could hear him banging through the car parts, and Allison called, “Hey there! What’s your name?”
     
Her mild tone was an odd counterpoint to Tony’s M16, which the boy seated against his shoulder with the barrel pointed skyward. It was a position that made the weapon more visible in the glinting white beams of their flashlights. Ruth nearly went to add herself to the guns beside Allison. The girl was a force to be reckoned with, but she was pregnant, and that increased her importance in more ways than Ruth could put into words.
     
They should have been friends. They owed each other their lives, but it wasn’t only Cam who stood between them. Allison excelled at being mayor and she had always been very watchful of Ruth, seeing her as a potential rival for this role as well. Ruth’s nanotech skills were a brand of authority that Allison could not match. The girl had never believed Ruth when she said she wished she could give it up. Allison was always thirsty for more control over their lives, whereas Ruth’s decisions had led to thousands of deaths during the course of the war. Given the choice, Ruth would have become just a regular person again, anonymous and ignored—and yet she felt that old conflict of responsibility now.
     
I should back her up, Ruth worried, watching Allison. Then her gaze shifted. Michael’s flashlight had picked out the stranger in the fences.
     
It was a woman about fifty years old. She was short and thin and dirty. Ruth thought there was blood on the woman’s elbow, staining her jacket sleeve. She was unarmed. She wasn’t even wearing a backpack. Had she been robbed? She looked skittish as hell, turning away from