State of Chaos (Collapse Series) by Summer Lane Read Free Book Online Page A

here to do some
farming
?
    Male Omega troopers move in and surround us. A couple of pickup trucks covered in mud roll in, each of them hauling trailers. My jaw drops. It’s been months since I’ve seen a working vehicle outside of Omega’s designated military Humvees. This isn’t possible. Not unless Omega was a lot more prepared for an EMP than we were. In that case, I can think of several theories…
    But not right now. Troops are popping open the trailers. Ladders, sacks and boxes are packed into the bed. Kamaneva points to the trucks. “You will harvest the entire orange crop,” she announces. “Fill your sacks, bring them back to this point, then place them in boxes. You will have water periodically, when troops provide it. You start today. There’s no introductory period. Go.”
    Just like that. I finally got a job.
    Sophia and I lace our hands together, moving towards one of the pickup trucks. Theearly morning sunlight is breaking over the horizon, illuminating the distant Sierra Nevada mountain range. I can see Mt. Whitney sparkling with snow from here. It must be nice to be unmoving and unaffected by everything around you. To stand for thousands of years and stay the same.
    I’d like to be a mountain.
    Then again, I’d also like to visit McDonald’s. Welcome to my world.
    “You.”
    Sophia and I come to a halt at the same time. Kamaneva is standing a few feet behind us, her hands clasped in front of her. Up close I notice the wrinkles around her eyes. The frown lines around her mouth. She’s older than I thought.
    “You’re friends?” she asks.
    I manage to shake my head.
    “Hmm.” She steps closer, placing one finger under our chins. “I had two daughters, once. They were young like the both of you.”
    I fight to keep my expression neutral.
    “One of them died,” she goes on. “The other one lived.”
    She removes her fingers and steps back.
    “It would be such a pity if you found yourselves in the same situation.”
    She gives us a long, hard look before turning around and stalking off. Sophia stares after her. “What the hell was that supposed to mean?” she whispers.
    I lick my lips.
    “I don’t know,” I say.
    “Hey, you two! Get to work!”
    Grease the guard is back. Darn. He throws two cloth sacks at our feet. Sophia and I bend to pick them up, slipping the thick strap over our shoulders. Some of the other women are hauling heavy ladders into the field. Omega guards are barking orders. Everybody is tense, afraid to ask questions, afraid to defy the instructions.
    We’re terrified.
    It would be such a pity if you found yourselves in the same situation.
    Who is V. Kamaneva? She comes across as strange and cruel. And I haven’t even seen thiswoman in action yet. Sophia and I follow the other workers into the fields, Grease keeping close to us. “You pick the oranges, put them in the sack,” he commands. Then he points to the end of the row of trees, where male prisoners are bringing out large boxes. “You put the oranges in there. Other workers will sort them. You don’t worry about that. You just pick.” To my surprise, he gives us a smile. A creepy, make-me-want-to-crawl-in-a-closet smile. Sophia pushes up next to me. “Is it just me or is he bad news?” she asks.
    “He’s bad news,” I say. “And his hair is disgusting.”
    Shoot. Hair.
    Something I don’t have a lot of anymore. I start to get teary-eyed again but I take a deep breath, look up at the orange trees, and try to zone out. Think of something else. Something
other
than the fact that I’ve been forced into slave labor.
    Like why Omega needs us to pick oranges.
    “What’s the point of this?” Sophia states as we walk towards a group of women placing a ladder against a tree. “How does picking orangeshelp Omega take over the world?”
    “Well…” I lower my voice, conscious of the armed Omega men standing guard on the edges of the fields. “You said you thought something big was going down on the East