Dream Sky by Brett Battles Read Free Book Online Page A

headed downstairs to see if there was any food left in the kitchen. As he crossed through the living room, he looked out the row of east-facing windows. In the distance, he could see the hill with the large white B painted on it.
    B Mountain, Martina had called it. The B standing for Burroughs High School. While the high school was in town, the mountain was located within the confines of the China Lake naval base.
    The navy , he thought.
    Surely the military had taken some action to try to save people. Maybe it had set up a safety zone within the base. Though Martina’s dad was a civilian, he worked for the navy. Wouldn’t the navy’s first priority be to save its own? Would that include civilian employees and their families?
    Yeah. That has to be it .
    With renewed purpose, he drove through town toward the base and found the entrance without too much trouble. The guardhouse was unmanned. That was to be expected. If there was a flu-free zone inside, any personnel would most likely be consolidated near it. They’d probably be jumpy, he thought. To be safe, he kept his speed down so he wouldn’t look threatening.
    He spent the rest of the morning and the whole afternoon driving around the base, checking every building and road. He had been right in one respect. There had been an attempt to consolidate survivors. It had occurred at the airfield in the isolated northern portion of the base.
    A series of roadblocks flanked by fortified gun stands had been erected along what appeared to be the only route to the isolated section. None were occupied, though. Because of this, Ben knew what he would probably find, but he had to check anyway so he weaved around the concrete barriers and didn’t stop until he reached the airfield.
    Hundreds of people had camped out in the hangars—men and women, some in uniform and some not. And children, lots of children.
    And every single person dead.
    Ben stood frozen outside the main hangar for twenty minutes before he forced himself to grab a hoodie from his bag. Using the arms, he tied the pullover around his mouth and nose and headed into the hangars. He didn’t want to walk among the bodies, but he had to know if Martina’s family was there.
    If she was there.
    It wasn’t long before he lost the small breakfast he had eaten, and by the time he’d confirmed that the Gable family wasn’t among the dead, his stomach had revolted twice more.
    Weak and in a daze, he had gone back to his girlfriend’s house and fallen asleep on her bed before the sun had even set.
    When he woke up that morning, he drove up and down the streets of Ridgecrest, honking his horn every once in a while, but the town was as devoid of the living as the navy base had been.
    With all options in town exhausted, he didn’t know what to do. Martina was still alive. He wouldn’t allow himself to believe anything else. But where was she?
    A million possibilities raced through his mind before one finally pushed its way to the front.
    A survival station.
    Would she have gone to one?
    Of course. That had to be it. He had assumed that if she was immune like he was, she wouldn’t have seen the need of going to one of the stations to get vaccinated, but her family wouldn’t be immune so she would stay with them.
    Where was the closest one?
    He hadn’t watched TV in nearly a week, right after the UN secretary general had first come on the air. Survival station locations hadn’t been broadcast at that point, and even if they had been, he would have only heard about the ones in the Bay area.
    He looked around. He needed to watch the message again.
    He ran over to a house half a block away, heaved a potted plant through the window in the door, and let himself in.
    He grabbed the remote for the TV in the living room and hit the power button.
    The screen remained dark.
    He closed his eyes and groaned. In his excitement and hurry, he had forgotten the town was without power.
    He closed his eyes and breathed deeply to stem his