The Last Girl by Joe Hart Read Free Book Online

speak to Assistant Carter. Wait here for me, okay?”
    “Okay.”
    Simon walks away, his normally fluid stride somewhat stilted as he approaches Carter. She wonders if Simon dislikes the man as much as she does. There’s a poke to her ribs and she grunts as Meeka steps from behind her.
    “Quite the show, huh?”
    Zoey nods. “Always is.”
    Meeka stiffens and turns a little to one side. “I was hoping he wouldn’t be here today.”
    “Who?” Zoey asks, scanning the crowd that is slowly moving off in their separate directions, the excitement of the ceremony over.
    “Dellert and his crony over there by the wall.”
    Zoey glances to her left and sees the young guard at once. He leans against the concrete as if he’s holding it in place, his hands clasped before him, one long leg crossed over the other. Dellert Crosby is perhaps four years their senior, with short, dark hair and a moon of a face below it. The roundness of his head is incongruent with the rest of his gangly body and sits atop it like a melon perched on a stake. There is a shadow of a mustache above his heavy upper lip, and the collar of his uniform is undone, a few straggly chest hairs peeking from the gap. His brown eyes flick from Meeka to Zoey, his gaze lurid and slow as he runs it down her length, focusing on the exposed skin of her calves. His tongue appears and flicks once at the corner of his mouth. He seems utterly oblivious to the other workers and guards that clutter the hall and flow through the space separating them. Zoey thinks she sees him mouth a word but can’t be sure. Her skin crawls.
    “God, what a sicko,” Meeka says, shooting a look in Dellert’s direction. “And Baron’s following right in his footsteps.”
    Zoey throws a glance at the younger guard beside Dellert. Baron Garrison is smiling, his boyish good looks giving way to the handsome shadow of manhood that he’ll enter into soon. His blond hair is a shock of gold that hangs at an angle off the top of his head. His eyes dance across her face and he snickers a little, saying something low to Dellert, who acts like he hasn’t heard.
    Zoey turns and takes a few steps down the hall, pulling Meeka with her. “Don’t look at them,” she says as they walk, Thomas falling in behind them several strides back.
    “They’re really pushing it. It only takes one wrong person to see them looking at us like that,” Meeka says.
    “I guess Dellert’s forgotten whatever punishment they doled out to him after he touched Halie.”
    “Looks like it.”
    “You think they threw him in the box?”
    Meeka shakes her head. “They’ve got other ways of dealing with the guards who step out of line.”
    “Well, whatever it was, I think it’s worn off. He’s so disgusting.”
    “We can’t all have guys like Lee swooning over us.”
    “Meeka,” Zoey hisses, swiveling her eyes around. “Lee doesn’t swoon.”
    “Mmmhmm. Right.”
    “Zoey, you need to wait for Cleric Asher,” Thomas says. “And Meeka, you need to change and get to the supply room. Your shift’s about to start.”
    “I know what time it is, Thomas, thanks,” Meeka says, rolling her eyes in her usual way to Zoey. “I’ll see you at dinner.”
    “Sure.” Zoey watches Meeka and Thomas move away as she runs through the Director’s words. There is always a speech at an induction, something supposed to be moving, inspiring, uplifting, but the words have always been like a hazy gauze wrapped around something amorphous and dark. It has become more apparent in the last several years as she’s watched woman after woman, friend after friend whom she’s known since birth, disappear behind those doors.
    Never to be seen again.
    Footsteps coming closer snap her from her thoughts. Dellert and Baron are approaching, and the hallway seems to shrink. There isn’t enough space to let them pass comfortably. Dellert looms closer and closer, his height more pronounced the nearer he comes. His lip twitches in a smile, the