Free Land of Dust and Bones: The Secret Apocalypse Book 7 by James Harden Page B

young this guy is.
He’s only a couple of years older than me.
    “What are you doing?” the leader asks.
    “It’s hot. No one’s here. Believe me, I
checked. There’s nothing but heat mirages for three hundred miles in all
directions.”
    Billy looks at him. He smiles. And then… he
starts laughing.
    His laugh is maniacal. It is absolutely
terrifying.
    “What the hell is so funny?” the sniper
asks.
    “Mr. Super Soldier. You’ve just gone and
done the dumbest thing you will ever do in your whole life.”
    “You need to keep your mouth shut,” the
leader says. “You people wanna live? Then you better
start cooperating.”
    “You’re not going to let us live,” I say.
“You are killers. Your orders are to kill.”
    “Like we said, if you cooperate. You live.
If you give us any trouble, you will die.”
    “You don’t want this on your head,” Kenji
says. “Believe me. You don’t want this.”
    I feel like this is a hopeless situation. I
feel like we’re about to be executed down here, in this hidden oasis. Jack and
Kim and Maria will never know what happened to us. They will never find us. And
this thought breaks my heart. I am about to give up hope, but then out of the
corner of my eye, I see a person… a girl.
    She has appeared from nowhere, from thin
air.
    Billy motions with his head over to the
water. And the Evo Agent, the sniper who just took his helmet off, he turns
around.
    She is standing by the water’s edge.
    A girl. A teenager. A few years younger
than me. She is quite small.
    She’s wearing an old white dress.
    Her hair is a mess.
    She is covered in dirt and dust and grime.
    And probably blood.
    She is barefoot.
    “Jesus Christ,” the sniper says, “Where did
she come from?”
    This is the question on everyone’s mind.
    The girl drops to her knees. She leans over
the water, but she does not drink.
    “Little girl?” the leader says. “What are
you doing out here? Where did you come from?”
    She does not respond. She continues leaning
over the water, staring into the water.
    “Goddammit,” the leader says. “Go and get
her.”
    Billy continues smiling. And again, I can’t
help but think he looks happy. Delusional. Does he know the seriousness of our
situation? Does he know what these guys do to people? To innocent civilians? To
their own?
    They are killers. They are cold blooded
killers.
    The sniper retrieves the girl. He grabs her
by the arm, she doesn’t fight. She just walks over to us. Her eyes are glazed
over, her feet are covered in dirt and blisters and sores. Her legs are covered
in blood. Her face is blank. She shows no signs of pain. She appears to be in
some sort of catatonic state.
    “Are you with them?” the leader asks.
    The girl does not answer.
    “What are you doing out here?”
    And why is she alone? Why is she not
wearing any shoes? No sane person would run off into the desert with no shoes.
Not unless they were being chased by something big and bad and scary, not
unless they were being chased by something evil .
    “They’re all dead,” she whispers. “They’re
all dead.”
    “She’s lost it, man,” the sniper says.
“She’s gone.”
    I feel for this girl. I really do. But why
is she breaking down now? People have been dying for months. In the first two
weeks of the outbreak, most of the population of Australia died. Over twenty
million people were killed. If she didn’t break then, why is she breaking now?
What has happened to her?
    “We should tie her up,” the sniper says.
“Bring her with us.”
    “We’re not bringing her with us,” the
leader answers. “She’s just a random.”
    “She’s a girl. She’s alone.”
    “Not our problem. Not our concern. And you
know this has got nothing to do with our mission.”
    “These people aren’t our mission either.”
    “No, but they might have relevant
information,” the leader says, keeping a level head. “They might be able to
help. This girl can’t help anyone at the moment.”
    I