Under Zenith by Shannen Crane Camp Read Free Book Online Page B

detail about me that was so intimate. I hadn’t even told Tuck and Monica about that night. Mostly because I was embarrassed that out of all the things in the world I could be scared of, zombies was at the top of my list.
    Still, it could have easily been a lucky guess.
    “Who told you that?” I asked.
    “No one had to tell me. I’m your Guide , remember? I know things.”
    “Yeah, but things about my nine year old self? Why would that even be useful?”
    Hayden didn’t respond. Instead he just gestured to the dark, dirty cabin we were currently stuck in as if the answer to that question should be painfully obvious.
    I guess it was a stupid question.
    “How many people have you guided?” I asked, wanting to change the subject.
    “Just one other girl,” he said, his eyes trained on the ceiling very pointedly as he lay on his back.
    “Were you this mean to her?”
    “The job does bring out some of my less desirable traits I guess,” he began, making the biggest understatement ever spoken. “But she was my niece so I was definitely nicer to her.”
    “Niece?” I asked, my interest suddenly piqued. “So you did have a life before this.”
    “It’s not important,” he said, sounding like we were treading on dangerous ground.
    “Did she make it to her Destination?”
    Hayden was quiet for a long time. I couldn’t tell if he was hesitant to answer me or if he was just completely ignoring me like he usually did.
    “No,” he finally said after a long silence. “She didn’t.”
    I mulled this over for a moment.
    It was possible to fail this series of tests, which made them infinitely scarier. But the scariest thing was not knowing what that actually meant.
    “What happens if we don’t make it to our Destination?”
    “I don’t remember,” Hayden said, sounding genuine.
    “How can you not remember something like that?” I asked incredulously.              
    I realize d I should have been a little nicer to him since he was opening up about his niece and he hadn’t made a snarky comment in the last few minutes, but it just didn’t make sense to me that he could forget such a monumental detail.
    “Things get a bit cloudy when I get here at the beginning of a cycle,” he said gruffly, indicating to me that our time of ‘open discussion’ was quickly coming to a close.
    “Does that mean you can’t remember what you did before this? You must remember something if you can recall your niece,” I pointed out gently, trying to sound as unobtrusive as possible.
    “We’re done talking about this,” he said with a note of finality.
    Honestly, I was surprised I’d gotten that much out of him. He didn’t really seem like the type to share his feelings with the class.
    Still, he wasn’t all snark and threats and that gave me a small glimmer of hope that he wasn’t completely soulless.
    We sat in silence for a while, me trying not to think about my family or my stolen life, Hayden brooding and giving me the silent treatment. It was a good forty minutes or so when the snow finally started to fall. Only it wasn’t just falling outside. Delicate white flakes made their way through nonexistent cracks in the ceiling, landing on my bare shoulders and making me shiver.
    “It’s cold,” I commented, quite obviously.
    “It’s snow,” Hayden pointed out in exasperation.
    “So does this mean you’re leaving?” I asked, yawning loudly and finding that I suddenly had an overwhelming urge to kick him off of the dusty bed and take it for myself.
    “Sadly , our riveting conversation will be over in about thirty seconds when you fall asleep.”
    “Sorry,” I said, more out of habit than anything else. “I’m not sure why I’m so tired all of a sudden.”
    “It’s the snow,” Hayden said, making absolutely no sense at all.
    Maybe it was my exhaustion setting in and he had actually said something that was completely logical. My tired mind had just botched it all up.
    Wordlessly, he stood from