The Lair by Emily McKay Read Free Book Online

accidentally shot Stu, it would all be over.
    “We ready?” Stu asked.
    As they approached the house, Stu took point. He tried the knob on the door first, just in case. When it didn’t easily open, he moved down the wraparound porch to the nearest window. Jacks moved in the opposite direction, toward the south side of the house and Lily followed him. Jacks found a window open just a crack. While he worked to pry it open, Lily scanned the woods beside the house, paranoia dancing along the back of her neck, her fear whispering to her:
    Don’t screw this up. You mess this up, you mess it up for everyone. For every Green who’s going stir-crazy in the caves. For every Elite who needs one less thing to do. Worst of all, you screw this up, Carter will never trust you again. It’s bad enough that you came in the first place, if you screw it up, it’s all over.
    Her nerves were rattling so badly, her vision blurred around the edges. Worse still, she couldn’t trust herself, because her nerves were groundless.
    Everything she saw, every car parked silently on the street, every tree in every pristine yard, told her that Ticks had not been through this area—at least not recently. There were no overturned vehicles. No broken windows. No deep gouges in the lawns where the long claws of Ticks’ feet might have gained purchase before they leaped for the kill. No lingering stench of rotting flesh. No smeared bloodstains on the porch. There was no destruction. Anywhere.
    It was like Sleeping Beauty’s castle. Like the people who’d lived here had simply walked away from their lives.
    She’d once heard a rumor on the Farm that when things went bad, all the Mormons had retreated to some vast underground fortification beneath Salt Lake City. Maybe that’s what had happened here. Maybe they’d all just left. And maybe without the scent of fresh human blood to lure them here, the Ticks had simply stayed away.
    It was the only explanation Lily could think of.
    Jacks jimmied the window open then pulled his radio off his belt and brought it up to his mouth. “We found an open window. South side. We’re going in.”
    “Copy that,” Stu’s voice buzzed through the radio. “I’m working my way over there. I’ll be around in a second.”
    Jacks brushed the curtain aside and stuck his head through the window. Then he nodded back toward Lily. “Lights are off, so you’ll need your flashlight.”
    Lily slid the arrow back into her quiver and slung the bow over her shoulder before pulling her flashlight out of her pocket.
    “I’m going in.” The window came down low enough that Jacks was able to just swing his leg over the ledge, duck his head, and step inside. Lily waited a moment before following.
    The windows opened into the dining nook in the house’s kitchen. A table was positioned right beside the windows; the seven chairs around the table were askance, as though a family had sat there just this morning. At one end of the table, there was a high chair. A lone Cheerio on the high chair’s tray was the only sign the house had ever been lived in.
    She thought of the houses they had searched for supplies on their way north. At each one, she’d had this same sick feeling in her gut, like this was a horrible invasion of the homeowner’s privacy. Mixed with that was a kind of sorrow. A mourning for the lives that had been lost.
    Both of those emotions flooded her now, as well as something else. Something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. An ineffable sense that something wasn’t right.
    And that was what guilt felt like, she supposed. Yeah, you dumbass. Something’s not right. You lied to Stu to come on this food raid and Carter’s going to be pissed as hell. That’s what’s not right.
    Too late to do anything about that now. She was here. She should find what she needed and get out.
    Jacks’s radio buzzed, making Lily jump. “Can I have a sit rep?”
    Jacks raised the radio to his mouth. “We’re in the kitchen.