The Reset by Daniel Powell Read Free Book Online

get
Lina to safety, Mr. Kravitch. We just…”
    “But I know about the shelter!” the man
shouted. There was an edge to his voice—a note of frantic insanity in his
tone—that puckered the flesh on the back of Ben’s neck. “I know you’ve
been planning, Orin! Your dad was always talking about a revolution, so I know
you have a place to go. Take us with you ! Please!”
    “I can’t, Mr. Kravitch. You need to get
out of here—your family needs you!”
    There was a grunt and the sounds of a
struggle and then the roar of gunfire. Suddenly, Lina was shrieking at the top
of her lungs. “Orin! Orrrriiiiinnnnn!” she screamed, and then the gun roared
again and the room was silent.
    “Oh, Jesus! Oh dear lord and baby Jesus,
what did I do?” the man said, his voice naked with revulsion. “ What did I do ?”
    Ben peered around the corner. A balding,
middle-aged man stood over Lina’s ruined body. From the corner of the room,
Orin locked eyes with him. Blood bubbled past his lips and slid down his cheek.
    Ben dashed at the man, hurtling himself at
his back. He caught him low, the tackle flinging them both forward. Their
momentum pushed the shotgun up under the man’s chin and it went off, the man’s
face and the top of his skull vanishing in a cranberry mist. The back of
Kravitch’s skull smashed into Ben’s face. His nose crumpled and the world went
momentarily black, and then the husk of the man was beneath him.
    Ben didn’t quite lose consciousness, and
he pushed himself to his feet, the world around him shimmering behind a curtain
of tears. He kicked the man’s body off the shotgun, which he picked up and
threw across the room.
    He turned to Lina.
    “Oh God!” he said. He touched her
shoulder, but she was gone. He pulled her close and rocked her in his arms. “Oh
my God, Lina!”
    He’d never known such pain.
    “ Ben ,” Orin croaked. “ Ben , bring her here .”
    Ben lifted her. How much did she weigh?
Forty pounds? He tucked the girl in close to her brother. “Take the bike,” Ben
whispered. His teeth were slick with blood. “The van’s too…just take the bike.
Go over the fence. Go… now . There’s enough…there’s enough in the shelter for
a long time.”
    “Orin,” Ben pleaded. He was weeping,
holding the boy’s hand. How long had he known him? Months? “Orin, you have to
come with me! Please, Orin? Please come with me? I can’t do this by myself, and
you’ll get better. I’m scared and…”
    “Go,” Orin said. “Go now . Before
they come around here. There will be others. Go, Ben.”
    “No, I don’t want to leave you, Orin, I
don’t think…”
    But the older boy shuddered and a change
coursed through him and then his eyes were like glass. Ben fell hard on his ass
and vomited. Blood from his burst nose mingled with the Cherry Coke and nachos
he’d been snacking on in the stadium, many lives ago when they had been
watching a football game at the downtown stadium.
    A goddamned football game!
    He retched until he was spent and then
stood and pulled the comforter from Lina’s bed. There was a cartoon character
on the blanket—one of her favorites—and he used it to cover them both.
    He found his backpack and stuffed it
with the last of his immuno enhancers. Only two packs remained, and a sudden
sense of dread gripped him. What would happen to him if the ranch was gone—if
Mr. Brown could no longer send fresh supplies of medicine?
    “Jeez, Ben,” he chastised himself, “think
of someone else for once!”
     He hunted through the bathroom cabinet
for medical supplies and returned to his room to collect the only picture of
Coraline that he owned. He took his telephone charger and a flashlight. He
packed two bottles of water and a box of energy bars and few items of clothing
before he slung the pack over his shoulder and crept out the back door to the
shed, where he found the old beach cruiser that Orin had lent him.
    He walked the bike out to the street and
took stock of