The Worlds We Make by Megan Crewe Read Free Book Online Page B

option?
    What was wrong with me?
    I dropped the canopy and walked away. When I reached the back window, I leaned my forehead against the glass. But the chill didn’t wake up any emotions; it just blended into the numbness.
    There wasn’t much to see out back, only the shadowy forest and another line of hills beyond it. My head was getting heavy, my eyelids drifting down. Maybe I was just tired. Too much stress from across the night, catching up with me now.
    I came downstairs to the familiar crackle of the radio’s static. “Attempting to contact the CDC,” Leo said, so wearily I could tell he’d been at it for a while. I found him in the dining room.
    “I couldn’t sleep either,” he said before I could ask. “Everything look okay?”
    “As good as we could hope,” I said. The thought of telling him about the woman upstairs just made me feel more exhausted. As he turned the dial, I peeked into the living room. The tent’s flap was closed, with Justin and Anika presumably dozing behind it.
    “If anyone from the CDC, or with information about the CDC hears this, please respond,” Leo said. “Over.” He paused, and then sighed, rubbing his face.
    “Just leave it,” I said. “We’re probably not—”
    The static buzzed. “Hello?” a voice said, breaking through. “This is Dr. Sheryl Guzman from the Centers for Disease Control. I hear you.”

The first time I’d heard a voice emerge from Tobias’s radio a few weeks ago, I was flooded with excitement. Now, my skin went cold. That first time, we’d thought we’d found help on the road to Toronto, and it’d turned out to be the Wardens manipulating us into giving away our location. And then they’d come to take the vaccine and kill us. I had no doubt they’d try to trick us again if they had the opportunity. But if we’d reached an actual person at the CDC, that could make the difference in whether we got the vaccine safely to people who could make more. We had to take the chance.
    I pulled up a chair next to Leo. He offered the mic to me. I blinked, and then accepted it. The vaccine was my dad’s; I’d said before that this mission was mine. I supposed that meant I should do the talking. Leo gave my arm a reassuring squeeze, and I bent over the transceiver.
    “We hear you, Dr. Guzman,” I said. “You’re at the CDC now?”
    “I am,” she replied. The volume dipped and rose, but I could hear wariness in her soft southern drawl. “Where are you? What’s this about?”
    As long as we only shared information the Wardens already knew, we should be fine. “We have samples of and notes on a new vaccine for the friendly flu,” I said. “A vaccine that works. We’ve been trying to find someone who can make more of it—the CDC seemed like our best shot. We’re headed your way now.”
    There was a pause, and for a second I thought the transmission had dropped off completely. Then the static crackled, and the doctor spoke again, angrily. “People like you are why we let the radio monitoring slide. Making up stories isn’t going to get you in here. We’re not that much safer here than you are out there. We don’t have time for this.”
    “Wait!” I said. If this was some special tactic by the Wardens to prove their authenticity, it was awfully convincing. “Don’t go. I’m not—We really—” I fumbled for something to say that might make her believe me.
    Leo squeezed my arm again. “Your dad talked with them?” he murmured.
    Of course! If he hadn’t, they should at least have heard of him. “You know the name Gordon Weber, don’t you?” I said into the mic. “The first vaccine that was released—he was the Canadian microbiologist who worked on it with the World Health Organization. In Nova Scotia, where the outbreak started.”
    Another pause, and a sigh. “Give me a minute.”
    I set down the microphone. My heart was thudding. I hadn’t thought before about having to prove ourselves to them. I glanced at Leo.
    “Do you