Camp Zero (Book 2): State of Shock Read Free

you’ll feed the tail end of that rope to Luke, then I’ll pull up.”
    “Screw that. Why do I have to hang in the air upside down?” Billy protested.
    I grabbed one of his scrawny arms. “You think I’m going to trust you holding on to me?”
    “I’m stronger than I look.”
    “Right, well, for now I think I will take my chances lowering you down.”
    Billy refused for another minute before giving up and leaning over the edge. Down below in the darkness, Luke looked up, squinting and coughing every few seconds as dust fell.
    Taking a firm hold of Billy’s pant legs I began lowering him.
    “Don’t you dare let me go.”
    “Shut up and just get down there.”
    It had to have been the most absurd attempt in all of history to get food. I would have rather eaten insects than endured what we had been through over the past two hours.
    “Nearly there, just a little lower,” Luke said.
    As I was holding on to the tail end of his jeans, his pants started coming loose. I had visions of him slipping through and collapsing on top of Luke in a naked heap. Instead, what happened next was even more startling.
    The barn doors were unlocked. Here we were in the middle of trying to help Luke out and we were about to get busted. When it cracked open, and light flooded in, I think we were all surprised to see Ally holding a gun to the back of one of the hunter’s head. I had no idea what she had done but the other five were disarmed and moving backwards into the barn.
    “I will shoot him and unload a round in each of you. Now get in there.”
    As they caught sight of us, the look on their faces was priceless. Luke had a hold of the end of the rope, Billy was reaching down and I was barely clinging to Billy. My hands were slipping from the weight of both of them. When I saw Ally, I let go and Billy landed on Luke in a crumpled mess.
    “Amateurs,” Ally said before casting a glance at me.
    Once I had managed to get down from the barn and make my way around to the front, she had all six of them inside. Luke and Billy had taken out more meat than we originally came to collect.
    “Nice doing business with you.”
    “You won’t get away with this.”
    Luke snorted. “We just did.”
    With that he slammed the door on the barn and put the lock in place. I blew out my cheeks.
    “You think next time you want to go all Dirty Harry on them, that you can give us the heads-up? I’m starting to see why you are Murphy’s daughter.”
    I don’t know who was more stunned, Luke or myself? We stared at Ally with a newfound respect and awe. All the way back to the truck we tried to get her to explain how she managed to pull it off but she refused to tell us. She said it was something that her father had taught her and if she told us, she would have to kill us. She smirked and jogged on.
    “By the way, Frost, you know this doesn’t change anything between us. Theoretically you didn’t save me. Ally did.”
    “Ah, but I came back to get you. I could have left you there.”
    “Yeah, but I would have got out of it.”
    “Would you both stop the pissing match,” Billy said. “Both of you got off lightly. I’m the one who had to suffer the embarrassment of hanging upside down from the rafters with my ass hanging out.”
    Luke and Billy piled into the back of the truck and Ally hopped up front riding shotgun as I peeled out of there. We left the forest and made our way out on a dirt trail. Stones spat against the sides as I navigated through a rough patch of terrain. Within a few minutes we were back on the main road.
    The bunker was four miles away. The truck rumbled along and every now and again I would glance over at Ally. Kiera had her head leaned against her shoulder. It took a lot of balls to do what she did. Regardless of what her old man had taught her, the chances of it having gone south were high. Murphy had brought up a daughter who wasn’t afraid to roll up her sleeves and get her hands dirty.
    “You said your father taught