Glow by Anya Monroe Read Free Book Online Page B

Perfection made it across the bridge, and then took a break, feeling like she was in a safety zone. I should try and find out, because the last thing I want is some nagging doubt that I could have tried harder to get Perfection back, even if she is an annoying girl from my past.
    I jump back on Lucky, determined to cross the bridge and do my absolute best to find her before returning to the compound.
    As I begin to cross, heavy grey clouds hover in the sky. Blowing air from my cheeks, I urge the rain to stay away. But sprinkles start to fall, immediately causing Lucky to veer to the left, then the right, in an attempt to avoid the inevitable drops across his face.
    “Easy, boy,” I say, pulling the reins tight. As I do, I realize it isn’t the rain that’s making him nervous … it’s the pack of Humblemen on the other side of the bridge, waiting for me to come close to their threshold.
    They stand, twenty men across the large bridge. Crap. Perfection informed them quickly, or they were already maintaining their perimeter, just waiting for Lukas to come crawling back, like Integrity wants. 
    I swing my gun forward, not wanting to shoot at them, but wanting to be prepared. I have no way of knowing if they have some sort of Lukas’s energy harnessed to them, and not having a clue what their plans are. What that extra strength could mean for them. And mean for me.
    They are still about a hundred yards from me, too far to shoot if that became necessary and too close for me to feel safe riding toward their line of defense.
    I turn Lucky around again, and just as I do, I see another group of men coming towards me from the other side of the bridge. Shit. What’s going on here?
    Breathe, Charlie. Breathe.
    I’m in no mood to fight off men on my own. A half dozen, sure. But this? This is beginning to look like a full-on war. With the rain pelting down, I can’t make out who’s charging toward me on horses.
    A voice calls out, but I can’t make out the words. Trying not to panic, I hear the men from The Light shouting too. Their words aren’t clear either, but the riders are coming closer into view, and fast. There’s no way I can get out of this, unless I plummet to my death by jumping off this bridge.
    This is not the way I wanted to die. 
     

18.
     
    Lucy
     
    The old photo albums my parents kept are spread out around my bed. Some of the photos are yellowed at the edges, but they’re all in protective sheets of plastic. I found them buried in a box high in their closet.
    As I flip through pictures of people I never knew, a world I never felt, touched, smelled, a longing in my chest for a life I will never get, wraps tight around me. None of us here at the compound will ever get to experience the things these photos depict. Even if there are pockets of people like us around the world, it will never be like it was.
    I hold up a photo of my parents on their wedding day. Mom’s in a full white gown, and Dad’s in a black suit. Shiny, happy, shoving cake into one another’s face.  When I’ve looked through these pictures before it made everyone at the compound upset. They didn’t like remembering. They wanted to forget.
    I brush my fingers across my Mom’s cheek, her face covered by a white veil, as she walked down the aisle with the grandfather I never knew. This world, where unencumbered people danced to music played by musicians on a stage, where banquet tables of food was spread out for everyone to enjoy, where lights were bright and sound was amplified by speakers. This world existed such a short time ago.
    And now.
    Now we spend hours scavenging for white mushroom caps to add to a soup of water and rabbit. How is it possible for the world to change so much in a moment?
    But that’s how it is, even still. One moment can change everything. Walking out of the compound after everyone died, taking off my Hazmat suit and saying yes to life -- even though I had no idea what that meant -- that moment changed