Free Broken World by Kate L. Mary Page B

of water and hold it out
to him. “Here, clean your hands off.”
    “Don’t waste water on your hands!” Angus
shouts.
    I roll my eyes. “It’s not a big deal.
We’ll just save the bottles and refill them next time we stop somewhere. In the
bathroom sink or something. Free.”
    Angus crosses his arms. “You sure you’re
blonde?” I give him the finger, and he smiles. “Anytime, Sugar Tits.”
    He makes my skin crawl, but at least
he’s started joking with me a little bit. It’s gross and awkward, but it’s
better than the evil glares he was giving me before. And it got me my gun back.
I guess he sees me as one of them, now that we have a few wealthy, educated
people in our group.
    Trey and Parvarti walk up. She’s so tiny
next to him; she only comes up to his chest.
    “Your folks okay?” Axl asks.
    Trey nods. “So far.”
    There are only two empty chairs.
Parvarti takes one of them, which leaves Trey standing. Axl kneels next to the
other one, and I don’t think Trey wants to rock the boat.
    “Take a seat, man,” Axl says, tilting
his head toward the chair. “I’m cookin’.”
    Trey sits down and studies us, chewing
on his bottom lip. “I’ve been thinking about this virus thing, and I think you
guys may be overreacting. I get it. Things may be rough for a bit, but you’re
acting like this is the breakup of our society.” He shakes his head. “I just
don’t think it’s going to be that bad. Even if only fifteen percent of the
population survives, that’s still got to be somewhere around forty million
people, give or take. That’s nowhere near the end of the world.”
    He has a point, right? That’s a hell of
a lot of people. But… “Okay, say that’s true. Say forty million people survive
this thing. How many people in the government?”
    He shrugs. “We have no way of knowing
that.”
    “Exactly,” I say. “So even if half the
people in authority positions survive, which is being generous, how long before
they can figure out who is actually in charge?”
    He bites into his lip harder. “Weeks,
maybe months.”
    “And what happens in the meantime?”
Parvarti asks.
    “Chaos.” Axl turns the spit. “Anarchy.
Lootin’ for supplies, killin’ for survival. Anything goes.”
    I nod. “So by the time the government
gets its act together we’ve lost how many more people? Not to mention how
spread out everyone will be.”
    “What will folks do about work and
money? Who’s gonna tell us all that?” Angus pipes in.
    Trey swallows and sits back. He frowns
and stares into the fire. He probably doesn’t love being out-thought by a
couple rednecks and a piece of trailer trash.
    “Okay,” he says. “But we still have
forty million people.”
    “Sure. And a hell of a mess to clean up.
We just passed two bodies today out in the middle of nowhere. Imagine what the
cities are going to be like. Eighty-five percent of the population dropping
like that—” I snap my fingers. “It’s going to be a while before things get even
close to being normal again. Maybe never.”
    “A new kind of normal,” Joshua says.
“Makes you wish you weren’t immune.” He slumps down and stares at the ground
like he wishes it would swallow him whole.
    Something else I hadn’t thought about.
The people who won’t be able to deal.

 
     
     
     
    9
     
     
    I
WAKE UP SHIVERING, and just opening my eyes makes my temples pulse.
    It’s still dark outside, and the
rhythmic breathing of the others fills the tent. My head pounds with every
breath they let out. I swallow and wince. My throat is tight and raw, and my
lips dry. I press a shaky hand to my forehead. My hands are cold and clammy,
but my face is on fire.
    I’m sick. I’m going to die.
    My body trembles and tears pool in my
eyes. I’m not going to make it to her.
    I roll onto my side. Every tiny movement
hurts, deep in my bones. Even laying still is painful. I ache from head to toe.
Axl is next to me, sleeping soundly. Should I wake him?
    I reach