Sunrise Read Online Free PDF

attackers. Probably from the Stocktonites occupying Warren. Totally disorganized. Threw some torches and took some pot shots.”
    “Anyone hurt you know of?”
    “No.” Ed sidled closer, his voice dropping to a whisper. “It’ll get worse. If they come back in force, or better organized . . . we’re defenseless.”
    The tired reek of wet ash filled my nose, making every breath feel like an effort. “Ben thinks we should attack Stockton. Go after their heart to force them to pull out of Warren.”
    One of the guys who’d been helping put out the fire, Steve McCormick, interrupted us. “We’re done here. Fire’s out cold. What’d you want us to do now?”
    Why was he asking me? I guess once you’ve volunteered to be the string in the sugar solution, to start creating crystals, you can’t stop. “You know who lived in the lean-to that burnt?” I asked.
    “Yeah, Linda Greenburg and her twin boys, Roan and Mateo. They got out okay.”
    “Check on them. Find someplace for them to stay and get them settled, would you?”
    “Roger. I’ll squeeze them into our shack, at least for tonight.” Steve jogged away with his torch, carrying away half our light.
    Ed said, “Ben’s right. All of Stockton’s troops must be in Warren. We should go now, take them by surprise.”
    I groaned. “I don’t know if I can walk to bed, let alone all the way to Stockton.”
    Ed seized my arm, whispering urgently into my ear. “Look, Alex, if you’re going to lead, you’ve got to put that away. The weakness, I mean. It’s okay to feel it, but you can’t show it. Not to anyone except maybe me or Darla. People want strong leaders.”
    My head spun. I was getting leadership advice from an ex-cannibal? My world made less sense every day. “What if I don’t want to lead?”
    “Too late for that, you already started.”
    “I’m only sixteen.”
    “It’s a different world, Alex. A lot of great leaders started as teenagers. Alexander the Great, Joan of Arc—” “Didn’t she get burned at the stake?”
    “Yeah, and Alexander died young, thousands of miles from his home.”
    “You’re not helping here.”
    “I watched what happened in the Peckerwoods gang. The leaders who showed fear, who showed weakness— they moved from the top to the bottom of the food chain, if you get what I’m saying.”
    “You’re really not helping now. Look, Ed, you saved my life in that fight. Twice, maybe. We’re even. You don’t—” “You’re wrong. We’re not even. We’ll never be even.
    No matter what I do now, I’ll never atone for what I did. What I was. But I swore to try.”
    “If you want to round up people to attack Stockton, go ahead. I’ll wish you luck. But I can’t, Ed, I just—”
    “You’re the only one who can. Mayor Petty might not live, your Uncle Paul is in no condition to do anything, and Doc McCarthy’s way too busy. People follow you.”
    “That’s not my problem.” I violently wrenched my arm out of his grasp and turned away, looking for Darla.
    She was standing right behind me.
    “Alex,” she said softly. “He’s right.”
    Great. Now my girlfriend and the ex-cannibal were in cahoots. Leave it to the apocalypse to turn my world completely upside-down. I started to turn away, but she wrapped her arms around me and tucked her head below my chin. She smelled of smoke and sweat. “I can’t, Darla. . . . I just can’t.”
    “Christ, Alex. You’re one of the smartest people I’ve ever met, but you’re wrong more often than a roomful of stopped clocks.”
    “It’s just—”
    “No. Listen. You’ve been leading since the day I met you. Who took me to Worthington when I was too wrecked by Mom’s death to even function? Who got us to his uncle’s farm through the middle of what was basically a war zone?” She lifted her head to look at me, the fierce light of the torch flickering in her eyes. “Who moved hell and earth, convinced his family, friends, and even a unit of freaking Black Lake