The Last Star Read Online Free PDF

to rescue two missing and probably dead people.
Plus
I wanted a sandwich that I could never have. Since the Arrival, I’ve been beset by more cravings than a woman pregnant with triplets, and always for things I’ll never taste again. Chocolate ice cream cones. Frozen pizza. Whipped cream in a can. Those cinnamon rolls Mom made every Saturday morning. McDonald’s french fries. Bacon. No, bacon was still a possibility. I would just have to find a hog, slaughter it, butcher it, cure the meat, then fry it up. Thinking about the bacon—the
potential
of bacon—gives me hope. Not all is lost if bacon isn’t.
    Seriously.
    “I’m sorry,” Ben said. “I shouldn’t have gone off like that.”
    He came over and sat down about two inches too close. I used to fantasize about Ben Parish sitting with me on the sofa at my house while we shared a blanket and watched old horror movies until one A.M. , holding a big bowl of popcorn in his lap. It was a Saturday night and he was missing about six killer parties populated by people way cooler than me, but he wouldn’t be anywhere else; the pleasure of my company was enough.
    Now here he was, only there were no killer parties, no TV, no blanket, and no damn popcorn. The world used to contain two Bens—the real Ben, who didn’t know I existed, and the imaginary Ben, who fed me popcorn with buttery fingers. Now there were three. The first two and the one who was sitting two inches too close, wearing a tight black sweater and sporting stubble that made him look like an indie rocker taking a break in the green room between sets. That’s a lot of Bens to hold in your head at once. I should give them different names to keep them straight: Ben, Has-Ben, and What-Might-Have-Ben.
    “I get it,” I said. “But why do you have to go now? Why can’t you wait? If Evan can pull this off . . .”
    He was shaking his head. “Whether or not he pulls it off won’t make a difference. The danger isn’t the aliens up there. The danger is the humans down here. I need to find Ringer and Cup before the 5th Wave does.”
    He pulled my hand into his, and a little voice rose up from deep inside:
Ben.
That little voice belonged to the frizzy-haired middle-schooler who refused to die, the freckly-nosed, introverted know-it-all, self-conscious and awkward despite dance lessons and karate lessons and pep talks from her parents, toting around a bulging bag of secrets, the silly, mundane, melodramatic secrets of adolescence that would shock the popular, pretty kids,
if only they knew.
    What was up with her? Why wouldn’t she just go away already? Not only was I carrying around too many Bens, there were also too many Cassies. Three Bens, two Cassies, a couple of Sams, and, of course, the literal duality of Evan Walker. Nobody was integrated anymore. Our true selves shimmered like a desert mirage forever receding into the distance.
    Ben touched my face, fingertips brushing my cheek, feather-light. And that little voice in my head, that fading cry:
Ben.
    Then my voice: “You’re going to die.”
    “You bet I am,” he said with a smile. “And it’s gonna happen the way it should. Not
their
way.
My
way.”
    The front door creaked on its rusty hinges and a voice said, “She’s right, Ben. You should wait.”
    Ben pulled away from me. Evan was leaning in the doorway.
    “Nobody asked you,” Ben said.
    “The ship is central to the next phase,” Evan said slowly and distinctly, like he was talking to a crazy person or a moron. “Blowing it up is the only way we can end this.”
    “I don’t care what you blow up,” Ben said. He turned away like he couldn’t stand to look at Evan. “I don’t even give a shit about ending it. Maybe it’s hard for somebody with a savior complex to understand, but I don’t want to save the world. Just two people.”
    He stood up, stepped over my legs, and walked toward the hallway. Evan called after him, and what he said stopped Ben cold.
    “The spring equinox is in