There Once Were Stars Read Online Free PDF Page B

good. Your mother, always scribbling in that notebook. She had too many questions. Thankfully, they cleared your parents in time for a funeral, even if there were no bodies to bury.”
    “No bodies.” My voice comes out in a whisper. “But that’s not what happens in radiation poisoning, is it?”
    She shakes her head. “It was the radiation that poisoned them, but something much worse killed them. By the time the members got their distress call, it was too late; they found the entire Expedition team had been attacked. Their bodies were ripped apart.”
    “By what?” I stammer, unable to digest this secret that has been kept from me half my life.
    “After the Order identified who was who, we only had pieces to bury,” Grandmother says, distant, as if she’s returned to the moment she lost her two children. Both my father, and Uncle Alec, died that day with my mother. Everyone important to me.
    “What was it?” I plead. “Wild animals? The infected?”
    “All of the families were sworn to secrecy,” she says, ignoring me. “No need to interrupt the peace of the dome when the threat was outside it. They assured us the responsible party was taken care of.”
    “But what was it?”
    “We were never told,” She snaps her head in my direction, coming back to the present. “The expeditions were shut down and life moved on. That’s how you survive, by looking forward. Aren’t you listening, Natalia? You don’t ask questions—they bring trouble.”
    The bed groans as she stands up to leave. She pauses, staring at the floor where my mother’s notebook is sprawled open. “And get rid of that. Nothing good comes from digging up the past.”
    “I will not. It’s all I have left.”
    “You never listen,” she turns to me, her eyes flashing with anger. “You’ll end up taking us down with you. I won’t have it. You leave me no choice.”
    She slams my bedroom door shut behind her, and I hear the click of the lock slide across the outside. The lock she installed shortly after my parents were killed when I used to sneak out at night and go to our old apartment. The lock she used to trap me, like the dome traps her. No! She can’t lock me in here. I need to go see Jak. I run to the door, and try the handle, but it resists against my hands. I bang on the door, but I know it’s pointless. Grandmother’s paranoia has no reasoning.
    With my back against the wall, I slide down and slump to the floor. My head is spinning with too many questions to handle. Has my entire life been a lie? If my parents weren’t killed by radiation, what killed them? I reach in my pocket and pull out the locket, flipping it open to see the photo of my parents. What killed you? What tore you apart? To die in such a terrible way—I can’t bear the thought.
    One thing I know, it could not have been an infected. Someone would have spotted them out there by now. Although, when no one is allowed in the Outer Forest, how can people see what dangers are outside the dome?
    I close the locket, and reach for the notebook, but notice the photo I found in the elevator fell onto the floor next to it. It’s a photo of a girl, with pigtails and a large grin plastered across her face; she might be three years old. I flip it over onto its back and see the initials N.G. My initials. I flip the photo back over and hold it up to the one on my nightstand. The similarities are undisputable.
    How did the Outsider get a photo of me? Did someone give it to him, or worse, did he steal it from my parents? Was he the one who killed them?I fall to my bed; I don’t know what to think. Questions roll around inside my head until I’m so overwhelmed the room begins to spin and I succumb to exhaustion.

CHAPTER 5
     
     
    After a fitful night dreaming of the Order banging down our door, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever see my friends again. But the sunlight of morning woke me to not only an unlocked bedroom door, but also a tiny shred of hope that everything that