Free The Dragons of Men (The Sons of Liberty Book 2) by Jordan Ervin Page B

as the sun rises. Maybe I can help find your sister Nadia for you.”
    “I can’t leave him,” she said quietly, glancing down at the dead boy.
    “Alexandra, we have to move,” Eric said. “I want to help you and I know it’s tough, but it’s the way things are. I’m sorry, but he’s gone.”
    “But I can’t….”
    Eric paused, moving in close as she set her head on his shoulder and cried. He knew they were wasting precious seconds, but unless she snapped out of it before they started moving, he would most likely find himself in a struggle to save her life somewhere outside the isolated warehouse.
    “Alexandra, I promise I’m going to take care of you, but you’re going to have to come back to reality. We have to move. It’s what your brother would have wanted.” He peeled the wrapping back from the brown box and took the heavy radio from it, powering it on and holding it up for her. The radio was the size of a brick and had a five-inch screen that dominated one side. “Now do you know what this is?”
    She finally tore her eyes from her brother and looked at the radio that Eric held.
    “It’s a hunting radio capable of tapping into military channels,” she said. “They were blacklisted just before things got bad, but I thought they might have one in the delivery depot.”
    “I’m assuming you know what these can be made to do?”
    “They were manufactured before last year’s FCC regulations.”
    “Right again,” Eric said. “Did your father teach you all this?”
    She looked over at him again, her face empty of everything except sorrow, and proceeded to throw up, spilling rancorous bile onto his Kevlar vest. He fought back the urge to vomit himself as he began wiping the girl’s puke off him. Still, he had committed to helping this girl, regardless of what the shock of losing a family had done to her.
    “I’m sorry,” Alexandra said quietly.
    “Don’t worry about that,” he said. “It’s okay. Now Alexandra, you look like you’re in pretty good shape. Are you a runner?”
    “I played varsity basketball,” she replied flatly. “I also ran the four-hundred.”
    “Good. That’s going to help with getting out of here. Take this.” Eric handed her a canteen of water. “We have a little over four miles to get back to where my friends are waiting. Now I’m guessing you were taking this because you knew how to use this to piggy back off the GPS satellites to access live satellite imagery?”
    She wiped her chin and looked at him, nodding her head as she took a drink.
    “Great,” he said as he stood up, taking her by the hand and helping her to her feet. “I’ll make you a deal. I’m going to get us to safety and keep an eye out for danger before we get there. I need you to type in the exact codes I relay to you as we move.”
    “Okay,” she said, wiping the tears away, only to cry again as she looked back down at her brother. Eric started to speak again, but Alexandra held up a hand and nodded, leaning down and whispering her final words to her brother. “I love you.” She took a deep breath and exhaled, holding the radio out in front of her and quickly navigating to the root menu. “Alright, I can type the codes as we walk.”
    “No,” Eric said as he unholstered his sidearm, picked up his bulging bag, and began to lead the way back to the entry door. “You’ll type as we run.”
                 
     
    Sarah Reinhart stirred from her slumber and slowly opened her reddened eyes. The glowing horizon glistened upon the unforgiving tears that swelled beneath both her irises. She quietly regarded Fort Bragg through the large window; the military base itself was the source of the night’s illumination, lighting the sky with the fires that burned within its borders. The occasional explosion brightened the darkness, followed a few seconds later by a muted rumble.
    Sarah twirled Eva and Grace’s hair around and around in circles, both their heads resting quietly on her