Those Who Remain (Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

We sit on the grass, below a tree, and gorge ourselves with the fruit. My fingers are red, but sweet.
    “See? I told you the woods was better than staying there.” He licks fingers too, a smile on his lips. “Admit it.”
    I roll my eyes, letting my back rest against the trunk. “We got lucky.”
    He falls down on the grass, hands on his stomach. This the first time he has smiled since the supermarket. His good mood is contagious.
    “You know I’m right,” he says with eyes closed. “You’ll see anyway.”
    I finish my berries, and he sleeps. I don’t know how he does it. No way will my eyes close here, no matter how safe it feels. I sleep only when my body won’t let me stay awake. Still, I have to admit it’s nice to stop being tense all the time.
    While Peter naps, I distract myself by counting our supplies. The food is almost gone, but now we have fruit everywhere, so I’m not too worried. I fill our canteens and plastic bottles with water from the lake, and organize the stuff inside my backpack.
    Without any more tasks to be completed, I walk toward Peter and hit his leg gently. He doesn’t move. I do it again, but there’s no sign of him waking up. Sitting on my knees, I poke him in the stomach. He flinches. I poke him one more time, and he holds a laugh in.
    “Come on, Peter. We need to move.”
    His eyes stay closed.
    “Really? I know you’re not sleeping. Get up.”
    When I poke him again he grabs my hand and pulls me in. I fall on his body, my cheeks warm from the embarrassment.
    “Are you a robot?” he asks, pressing me against his chest, eyes still stubbornly closed. “Just sleep. You have to be tired.”
    I try to get up, but not for real. “I’m not. Let me go, we need to leave.”
    “Why? It’s safe here. Just us and birds flying around. Go to sleep.”
    I want to agree with him, let it go and just sleep, like this, close to him. Maybe if I was Jenny, I could do it. Her whole world revolved around boys, boy bands and kissing: who she was going to kiss, with what music in background, where and how many times. She probably dreamed about this very scene. Peter was just her type: beautiful eyes, a smile to die for, with good taste in music and athletic. I bet anything she wouldn’t care if he wasted water, ate three chips instead of two, and preferred to sleep in an open area than somewhere hidden from view.
    The problem is: I’m not Jenny. I’m Laurie Tanaka, and Laurie does care about staying alive more than she cares about kissing boys, no matter how cute this boy is.
    “Laurie?”
    “We really need to move, if we want to find this town.”
    He doesn’t let go of me, and opens his eyes. We stare at each other.
    “Why are you like this?” he asks with a frown. “Why can’t you relax for a second? We walked miles. We didn’t even rest… And now that we are here, you act like….”
    This time I really do want to get up and manage to get off him. “Like what?”
    He sits, hands on his lifted knees. “Like a crazy paranoid person.”
    I roll my eyes, moving to take my backpack. “You can’t be crazy if you are right, Pete. I spent a month running around, barely managing to stay alive. I’m not paranoid; I’m still alive. And we did rest. Like a lot. You can’t walk a mile without sitting down. Don’t act like we didn’t stop every time you wanted.”
    “Yeah, after I almost had to beg,” he spits out, getting up. “Now that we are here, you don’t need to be so afraid, okay? Dad said… He said it was safe.”
    “Well, he’s dead. Sorry if I don’t take his word on that.”
    Peter lunges forward before I can realize what I had just said. He’s slow, so I move to the side just in time to avoid his grasp. He trips, falls, and rolls down a slope just behind the tree I was resting on. He disappears from my view, and I yell his name. I run over to the ledge of the slope, eyes running over the bushes for any sign of him.
    “Where are you? Peter? Answer me.”
    For a