Sky on Fire by Emmy Laybourne Read Free Book Online Page A

arms.
    I hoped I wasn’t taking advantage.
    â€œAstrid, I know. It’s horrible. It’s all horrible.”
    Lame.
    She sobbed and I held her closer.
    â€œI feel like I’m going crazy.” She wept into my shirt.
    â€œListen, Astrid, if I were you, I’d feel the same way,” I told her. “We’ve lost everything and we don’t know what’s going to happen to us and, if all that wasn’t enough, you’re pregnant. You’re pregnant, Astrid. You have to give yourself a break. You really do.”
    She looked up at me. Wet lashes, reddish nose. Her beautiful face just inches away from mine.
    She reached up and with her fingertips she straightened my glasses.
    I could feel her breath on my lips.
    She looked into my eyes.
    And then Chloe and Henry came in, arms full of Lego bins stacked three high.
    â€œWhat’s wrong, Astrid?” Henry said. “Are you sad? Don’t cry.”
    He came over to us, pushed me aside, and wriggled onto her lap, wrapping his skinny, freckled arms around her neck.
    â€œYeah,” Chloe added. “Quit crying.” She emptied a Lego bin onto the floor. “We’ve got a Lego wall to do and it’s not going to build itself.”

 
    CHAPTER SIX
    ALEX
    Â 
    42–27 MILES
    Mornings outside go like this: You are in the dark and it looks like night. Like a very dark night with no moon at all. But this part of your brain is on a timer, waiting for the sky to get light at the edge. That kind of muddy gray sky, before it even gets light. You’re just waiting for that and waiting for that and it never comes.
    By my watch, I knew it was 6:07 a.m.
    But it was dark, dark, dark.
    Morning was never coming, it seemed.
    *   *   *
    Niko was feeling better, thank God.
    He got everyone up, except for Josie. She was still out cold.
    Brayden seemed the same as before. Still not really conscious but not dead either. Sahalia kept squeezing a little bit of Gatorade into his mouth every once in a while.
    Sahalia, Batiste, and I had to get out and push to get the bus out of the ravine.
    The ground was very muddy, with slime on it from the decaying leaves and grasses.
    Niko was mad that Sahalia, Batiste, and I have our masks off, but really, it’s impossible to hear what anyone says with them on. At least when we talked to him or to the little kids, one side of the conversation could be understood.
    And of course, we weren’t the best choice to push the bus, but even Niko had to agree that we were the right ones, since we’re all type B.
    We rocked and rocked the bus. The wheels had a thin layer of that fuzzy white mold on them, but it didn’t seem to matter. Eventually the bus rolled forward and got traction on some underbrush.
    We got back on.
    â€œUgh,” Sahalia said, wiping some muck off the front of her top layer, a men’s Windbreaker, probably 5 sizes too big. “It reeks out there.”
    â€œI think it’s decayed vegetation,” I told her.
    â€œWhatever, geek,” she said as she plopped herself down next to Brayden.
    If we two were the two last people on earth—not, by the way, as statistically implausible as it was a month ago—she would still be rude to me and I would still pretend that it didn’t bother me.
    Niko drove. We were driving along the bottom of the ditch, parallel to the highway. The hill we had slid down was not too high. I would estimate 15–20 feet.
    I was thinking about Dean. I knew he’d be worried. We should have made it to DIA by now. We should have sent a rescue party by now.
    Soon Niko pointed to a big road sign.
    We had to pick whether to take I-25 to I-225 or to go right and take the tollway.
    â€œThe tollway is more direct,” I said. “But it will probably be more used, because other people would also choose the most direct route. On the other hand, I-225 runs through more densely populated areas, I think, because it