Shades of Gray Read Online Free PDF Page B

area. When we wanted it, we went out and bagged it. Simple as that. She had also taken Abby (another Blueville resident), and little Meredith as apprentices, teaching them all she knew about nursing and medicine in general. As a matter of fact, everyone at the club had fallen into the role of teacher at some point, passing on what we’d learned in our lifetimes to those who were otherwise clueless.
    Such is the way with an isolated community. You either learned to be self-sufficient, or you died. You either taught the generations after you how to survive, or they died. This philosophy had been taken to a whole new level since the dead suddenly began walking among the living. I use the word “walking” very loosely. When everything else was wiped away like chalk from a blackboard, all the bells and whistles that came along with living in the 21st century snuffed out before you could say butter-my-ass, all you had left was nothing more than what your ancestors had to work with back when working together meant survival. Community, teamwork, life. If you weren’t a team player, you met your end quickly and with a fair amount of horror to boot. Or worse, you ended up taking everyone down with you, screaming and fighting until their last breath.
    I thought about these things as we rode back to the club. Daisy had fallen back a bit from the others, mirroring my temperament perfectly. I was feeling unsettled and wanted to be left alone. She, too, wanted to be alone. As far as she was concerned, these new horses weren’t her family, not like the others had been. The ones she had grown up with. Of course, they were dead now and she’d just have to get over it. Just as I would have to get over my own family being dead. And Ben. And Zack. I’d fooled myself for months, thinking I had. Now the game was almost up, bottom of the ninth, bases loaded. That hole I had tried so hard to fill, at times pretending it wasn’t even there, was growing too massive to ignore. That hole was pissed for being neglected, clawing and chewing its way outward from deep within my gut.
    At least I wasn’t afraid anymore. Of anything , and that’s not an exaggeration. Whether this was a good thing or a bad thing…well, the jury was still out.
    “When we head out tomorrow, I think we should take the cowboy with us,” Mia was saying, referring to Jonah. She and Jake were riding together about two horse-lengths ahead of me. Apparently that meant I was invisible, suddenly being struck deaf and unable to hear them talking about me, even if it was indirectly.
    Jake shook his head and resisted the urge to glance back at me. “Nah, let’s not go there.”
    “I think we need to, Jake. She needs a break. An extended break.”
    “We all need a fuckin’ break, Mia. You know someone passin’ em out?”
    Jake shifted in his saddle, lowering his head and darting his eyes in my general direction for a split second. I pulled lightly on the reins, slowing Daisy and falling back a little more, watching and listening to their exchange quietly.
    Mia sighed deeply before continuing. “Listen man, all I’m saying is I’ve known her a long time. A long damn time, and I know an impending explosion when I see it. Something’s gotta give, before her brain up and shits itself. You understanding me?”
    “Sure am. My answer’s still the same. You wanna go back out, then go. Take Jonah and whoever. But if you’re goin’ without Kase, then you’re goin’ without me.”
    “Goddamnit, Jake, I’m not saying this to be a bitch, or to punish her. She has to slow down, or just fucking stop completely before she—you know what, never mind. Forget it.”
    By the time Mia finished, her face was flushed a deep red and her hands were shaking. She stared at Jake for a moment before kicking her horse into a gallop and leaving us behind on the gravel road leading to the club. Jake’s face was lowered again and he was shaking his head. I watched her until she disappeared