World Memorial by Robert R. Best Read Free Book Online Page A

intact lens. New test tubes, maybe a centrifuge..."
    "I doubt he has a centrifuge, doctor."
    Dr. Graham thought, then shrugged. "Oh right. He probably doesn't."
    There was a knock at the door.
    Angie looked to Dalton, then back at Dr. Graham. "Still, I'll see what I can do." She turned to the door. "It's open," she called.
    The door opened to reveal Maylee. Her face was chapped from cold and her eyes told Angie she'd been fighting. There was a wildness there that took a while to die down. It was not a look Maylee had shown back in the old days. When she had just been Angie’s daughter and corpses stayed in the ground.
    "Trouble outside the walls?" said Angie, frowning and trying not to show how much she hated Maylee being on the Guard. Leader of the Guard , she told herself. How had she let that happen?
    Maylee nodded. "Oh yeah, lots of that. But that's taken care of. That's not why I'm here."
    "What is it?"
    "We got another one."
    Angie took a step toward the door. "Another one? From where?"
    Maylee shrugged. "No idea. Just found him wandering in the snow."
    "Except he wasn't wandering, was he?" asked Angie.
    "No,” Maylee replied, “he was headed straight here."
    "He with you?" asked Angie.
    "Yep," said Maylee, stepping aside and revealing a small boy, wrapped up in many layers of tattered clothing.
    So young, Angie thought. Maybe six or seven . But he wasn't the youngest child to have wandered into World Memorial.
    But again, they didn't wander.
    The boy looked around the room, first at Dr. Graham, then at Angie.
    Angie smiled and beckoned him inside. "Come on. It's warmer in here."
    The boy stepped into the building. Maylee followed and shut the door behind her.
    Angie knelt to the boy's level, ignoring the pain in her ankle as she did. "How are you feeling?"
    "Alright, ma'am," said the boy. His accent showed a backwoods origin. Further out in the trees and hills than Lakewood.
    "Please, call me Angie," she said, holding out her hand for the boy to shake. "What's your name?"
    The boy smiled and shook her hand. "Zach."
    "How far did you come to get here, Zach?" said Angie.
    Zach shrugged. He seemed to notice Dalton for the first time. He stared at Dalton for a long time.
    Angie changed her line of questioning. She didn't want to upset Zach, but they were all desperate for clues. "Did you see any others on your way here?"
    Zach looked back to Angie and shook his head. "No."
    "Were you coming here on purpose?"
    Zach nodded. Of course he was , thought Angie. They all did.
    "What happened to your parents?" asked Angie. Zach looked down at the floor. Angie knew better than to have asked, and she felt a pang of guilt for it. These days, the remarkable thing was to see loved ones together and alive, not the other way around.
    She changed her line of questions again. "Have you seen this place before?"
    Zach started to nod, then stopped. "Sort of."
    "What do you mean?"
    "I've seen this place when I sleep, ma'am," Zach said. He looked at the floor, then back at Angie. "And heard a voice telling me to come here."
    Angie squeezed Zach's hand. She stood, wincing again at the pain when her ankle flexed. "Well, you're here now and we'll do our best to keep you safe, okay?"
    Zach nodded. He looked long and hard at Dalton a second time, then down at the floor.
    Angie looked to Maylee. Maylee took the cue, and headed for the door.
    "Let's go, then," said Angie.
    Angie and Maylee led Zach out of the shed and back into the cold. The wind assaulted them and they drew up their clothing as tightly as they could. Dalton followed a ways behind, hurrying to get his coat on as he exited the medical shed. Angie did her best to shield Zach from the wind.
    A few people milled around the town. Most were inside, staying out of the cold. Life in the impromptu shelters of World Memorial was easier during warm months. But during the winter, it was a fight not to freeze to death. And this winter the windstorms made it worse.
    "Bet it was hard to keep