The Fall (Book 3): War of the Living Read Free Page A

Laura ?”
    “Well, yeah,” Kell said. “Don't you think she's been through enough to warrant being frightened? You'd know better than anyone, Kate. You went through most of it with her.”
    “I dunno,” Kate said. “It's not like anything major has happened lately. She hasn't even been out of New Haven since we got there.”
    “She was injured ,” he said, setting down file and spear. “She couldn't go with us to Iowa. You know that ate at her. She was safe at home for the first time in ages. I think maybe she got used to it. Stress can wear away at you for a long time, and the last straw can be the smallest thing. I think maybe getting from North Jackson to New Haven was Laura's. She's spent a lot of time here instead of being on the road. Hard to blame her for not wanting to risk doing it again.”
    They sat in silence for a little while. It was easy enough, given the lack of anything else to do. Hundreds of miles from home, provisioned to the gills, and with sentries posted to warn of any attacks, there simply wasn't any work. Kell would have preferred almost any amount of backbreaking labor over boredom and being stuck with nothing to do but think about the job ahead. Laura wasn't the only one getting anxious. Being shot at has that effect.
    “How'd the last trip to John go?” he asked after a few minutes, keeping his voice low.
    Kate glanced around to make sure they wouldn't be overheard. “It was hard, and every trip there gets harder. Finding excuses to send our people out with the scouts is getting more difficult. Lucky for us, we managed to get a team to the remains of John's old lab. The supplies we left there were still good, so we hauled everything we could find to John's place. He's set for supplies for years.”
    Kell nodded, his thoughts focused on the lonely farmhouse John Liebowitz hid and worked in. John had been Kell's partner in the days before The Fall, the only man beside Kell himself who knew every secret of Chimera, the organism that caused the dead to rise. Finding John alive was a shock. Kell had never known the exact location of the bunker he was to have been moved to just as the plague began to spread. Finding it had been the goal of the mission, but no one expected to find anyone alive there, much less someone working on a cure.
    During that trip, Kell and his people encountered a massive group of survivors looking for the bunker, as well as John and Kell—anyone who knew Chimera—in order to take them prisoner. To force them to work on a cure. It was something John and Kell both wanted to do anyway, but the methods of the group, who called themselves the United American Survivors, weren't conducive to a good working environment.
    The Hunters were the most obvious example of those methods. One of several arms of the UAS, the Hunters went into the world to annihilate entire communities for their supplies. Working for them, even under coercion, was not an option.
    “We may have to cut off our trips to John for a while,” Kate continued. “With the UAS out in force all over the place, we're putting him at risk every time we make a run there. He has everything he needs to work on the cure. It's probably safer to let him do it and keep away from him until things cool down.”
    Kell laughed bitterly. “Cool down? Not likely. Our prisoner tells us there are more than a thousand of these Hunters. They've got plans to hit a few munitions depots in the near future, and after that...”
    “If they do, New Haven doesn't stand a chance,” Kate said, her face grim.
    “Yeah,” Kell agreed. “For now they're knocking over small settlements, just enough to keep themselves fed. They have fuel and equipment, but they need ammunition and food. The prisoner gave us a rough timetable for all of their major moves.”
    Glancing around the camp, Kate nodded. “Everyone's ready to leave at a moment's notice. No tents, no gear that isn't easy to grab and go. Looks like we showed up right in