The Farm by EMILY MCKAY Read Free Book Online Page A

days ago. When I saw you on the quad earlier, I knew I had to talk to you.”
    “Why?” I pressed.
    “What do you mean
why
?” He looked at me like I was crazy and brushed at the lock of hair that had once again tumbled into his eyes. “Because you’re the first person I’ve seen here that I knew in the Before. I didn’t know for sure if anyone I knew was still—” He broke off sharply as his gaze shifted away from mine. I saw him swallow and got the feeling maybe he was doing that talking-to-keep-from-blubbering thing, too. I looked away until he spoke again. “I was glad to see you.” He gave a little chuckle. Like maybe he was embarrassed. “Really glad.”
    “So why not talk to me then?” I had no way of knowing if his story was true.
    “What? Out on the quad?” he asked, mockery in his tone. “You wanted me to just stop and chat with you there? In front of the Collabs? I haven’t been here long, but even I know better than that.”
    “So instead, you just followed me back here to beat the hell out of me?”
    Okay, I knew, this was irrational.
I
had attacked
him
. But I was trembling inside and right now my tough attitude was all that was holding me together.
    He hesitated, smiling just a little. “Actually, beating the hell out of you was plan C.”
    I sucked in my breath at his smile, faint though it was. People didn’t smile much on the Farm—not Greens anyway—and I’d completely forgotten that warm fluttering feeling a smile could give you.
    I shoved the feeling aside. If Greens didn’t smile, it was because we didn’t have the energy for that kind of crap. We sure as hell didn’t have the energy for warm fluttery feelings, either.
    “So what were plans A and B? Stalk me for a while and scare me to death?”
    “I’d already noticed that Greens don’t loiter much on the quad. I was afraid stopping to talk to you out in the open would attract attention. So plan A was to follow you into the dining hall and talk to you there, but you disappeared in the crowd. So I went back out to look for you. When I saw you come into this building, I followed. Some guy I saw on the first floor told me a couple of girls lived on one of the upper floors, so I came up, hoping it was you.”
    “Hmm.” I mulled it over.
    Yeah, it made sense, and yet I hadn’t kept us alive on the Farm this long by blindly trusting everyone we’d known in the Before.
    “Jesus, Lily, you always so suspicious?”
    I studied him through narrowed eyes as I stepped over to the desk where he’d placed the shiv. I made a show of picking it up and sliding it back into my belt loop. “Yeah. Lately I am.”
    “Lately?” He raised an eyebrow. “Only lately?”
    Let’s see, I’d been hiding a weapon, I’d negotiated the trade of a Class A controlled substance, and I’d bought a homemade shiv from the one guy on campus I hoped I could trust. All while planning a prison break. Any one of those things could get me sent to the Dean’s office. So, yeah, lately I was even more suspicious than normal.
    Which was why I wasn’t about to say any of that aloud. Instead I stated the obvious, speaking slowly, as if he were a total moron.
    “Yes, Carter. Lately, vampire monsters have swept across the country, killing everything in their path. We were brought here for our own protection, but we haven’t heard anything from outside the Farm in months. So it’s feeling more and more like we’re just being raised as food. Like veal. And where the hell have you been for the past six months that it hasn’t made you paranoid, too?”
    I was surprised at how bitter my words sounded. Not that the whole being-raised-as-food thing wouldn’t make anyone bitter.
    “Hey, Lily, I’m—” Carter reached out a hand toward me.
    “Look, I don’t have time for this crap. Why did you come find me?” I dodged out of his reach and bent down to pick up the sweatshirt I’d dropped on the floor.
    He shoved his hands into his pockets. “Like I said,