Fire & Ash by Jonathan Maberry Read Free Book Online Page B

from Sanctuary. The ride to the crash site was tricky, because the soldiers once stationed at the base had used dynamite to block most of the roads, leaving only a single twisted and obscure path through the red-rock mountains. A quad could just about ease through.
    Benny’s quad was an ugly little machine with four fat rubber tires and a kind of saddle for the driver. Despite the horrible sound it made, Benny found he rather liked the machine. Over rough terrain it could travel an astounding twenty-five miles per hour. On a flat road, Benny had gotten his quad to go over forty miles per hour. On foot, he could manage as much as five miles an hour if he pushed it, and more often two to three because of terrain and weather conditions.
    It amazed him that he could drive all the way back to Mountainside, a trip of over 470 miles, in two days. One if he didn’t stop to eat or pee. That kind of speed seemed unreal. It had taken more than a month to walk that distance. Granted, a lot of the travel time had been spent evading zoms, hunting for food, searching out paths, and training with their swords.
    As Benny left Sanctuary, he paused for a moment to look at the hand-lettered sign that was hung on the big chain-link fence.
    SANCTUARY
    GIVE ME YOUR TIRED, YOUR POOR
    YOUR HUDDLED MASSES YEARNING TO BREATHE FREE
    Below that the original words, sand-blasted and pale, were still visible:
    AREA 51
    UNITED STATES AIR FORCE
    THIS IS A RESTRICTED AREA
    TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED
    Benny took a long breath and exhaled through his nose, revved the engine of his quad, and headed out into the desert.
    Those records were out there. Six boxes marked with a big letter D .
    He was going to find them.

15
    N IX R ILEY COULD BARELY SEE the blade.
    She parried more by reflex than anything, and the spear caromed off her sword with such force that shock waves rippled up her arms. The next blow was even harder, and the next. Nix stumbled back, swinging and swinging, breath coming in painful gasps. Finally one blow caught her sword just above the guard and knocked it out of her hands. It thudded to the ground. Her attacker kicked Nix’s feet out from under her, and Nix thumped down, hitting her elbows, her shoulders, and the back of her head on the hard sand. She suddenly felt the sharp tip of the spear press down between her breasts—right over her heart.
    “You’re dead,” growled Lilah. They were on a rocky shelf a quarter mile behind the dormitory hangar. Sheer cliffs rose behind them, and all around were the shadowy clefts of deep arroyos. A few sparse cacti and Joshua trees littered the landscape, offering no useful shade at all.
    Nix couldn’t really see the Lost Girl. The tears in her eyes smeared everything, removing all precision and meaning.
    “Concentrate,” barked Lilah as they set themselves to begin another drill.
    But too many things were clattering around in Nix’s mind.
    She needed to apologize to Benny, but he was gone. She’d seen him drive away on a quad. She’d almost gone after him, but hadn’t. This needed fixing, but Nix didn’t know which words would form the glue of that repair.
    So she’d gone looking for Captain Ledger, to see if he’d give her another combat lesson. He nearly sicced his dog on her.
    The ranger was an enigma, one of the many things about this phase of her life that Nix didn’t understand. Sometimes he was so gruff and rude that she wanted to feed him to the zoms. Yet sometimes he could be extraordinarily kind and wise. Almost like Tom.
    Shortly after arriving at Sanctuary, Joe gave Nix a real sword to replace the wooden sword she’d carried from Mountainside. He’d offered one to Lilah as well, but the Lost Girl preferred her spear.
    The sword Joe gave Nix was one of several top-quality katanas the ranger possessed. The handle and fittings were new, but Joe said the blade was ancient. Hundreds of years old.
    “Isn’t it fragile?” Nix asked, terrified that she might destroy so