PRIME by Samantha Boyette Read Free Book Online Page A

the others thought Dodge was to blame? They might lose respect for Dodge and then they wouldn’t agree to stay with him. Simon put a cap on those thoughts, sickened to realize that he was more concerned about the others still believing in Dodge than he was about Noah’s death. For another moment, Simon and Dodge stared at each other until Tessa’s voice broke the spell.
    “What’s going on? I heard gunshots.” Simon groaned inwardly; she was the last person he wanted to see. “Simon? Are you okay?” Tessa reached for Simon, but he pulled back from her hand.
    “I’m fine.” Simon watched as Tessa slowly lowered her hand.
    “Your face.” Tessa brought her hand up to touch her own cheek.
    Gingerly Simon felt his face, finding it lacerated and bloody. The cuts were grimy with small rocks and dirt. He winced at the pain the small touch caused.
    “Go get him cleaned up, Tessa,” Dodge ordered. “Send some guys out here. We got a casualty.” Tessa nodded. She put a hand out to help Simon away from the wall but he ignored it, putting on a brave face and standing on his own shaky legs. Tessa frowned as Simon stumbled over his own feet. She wrapped her arm under his to support him. It was awkward as she was taller than him.
    “I said I’m okay.” Simon tried to free himself.
    “Calm down.” Tessa scowled at him, refusing to step away. “I know you’re trying to be a big jerk like all the other guys around here, but I’m not going to let you fall on your face just to prove a point.”
    Simon gave in and nodded, letting Tessa lead him away. He glanced back over his shoulder to see Dodge squatted against the wall, head in his hands.

    6

    John Khane Medical Center

    Alice stepped inside and quietly closed the door to Zero’s room behind her. The poor man was finally getting some peaceful sleep. She checked the machine beside his bed, which ran constant checks on his vitals, and saw that they were about where they should be. She stood for a moment watching him sleep. Zero was the name they gave him when he woke from his coma; he had no idea what he had been called before that.
    His shaggy hair hung almost to his shoulders. He was good looking, despite all the drugs in his system, with a strong jaw and straight nose. If the definition of his arms was any clue, he must have worked out even when he was high. Most of all, he looked kind to her, not at all the sort of guy she had imagined when she heard his story. Alice sighed and moved to the windows. They were wide and gave a sweeping view of the abandoned city below. In the past, they were probably a welcome distraction from the drab white of the hospital walls and bad news the doctors brought.
    It wasn’t the same now. Looking through the windows showed a world knee deep in hell. Below Alice, the streets were no longer alive with activity. Now they were a mass graveyard for those who were dead, but not quite gone. Bare concrete streets spread out in all directions between the empty skeletons of buildings. The world humans worked so hard to build was gone. Alice stood with her forehead pressed to the warm glass far above the empty city, watching as she always did for some sign that all hope wasn’t lost.
    In the beginning, Alice clung to the idea that there would be other survivors in the city. Aside from the generators that kept electricity running through the hospital, it wasn’t different from other buildings. At first the teams that went out during the day brought back a couple of survivors each time, but the last one had been found weeks ago. The truth was they were just lucky, lucky to be in a building equipped with generators, and lucky the zombies couldn’t open doors. It seemed like that luck was running out.
    When things were quiet, Alice passed her days like this in one room or another. It was only in those moments that she was able to let her brain process everything she normally pushed aside. Today she had chosen Zero’s room on a whim. She felt