State of Emergency - Summer Lane by Summer Lane

Author:Summer Lane
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Young Adult, Dystopian
ISBN: 9781481949613
Publisher: Writing Belle
Published: 2013-01-13T23:00:00+00:00

“The mountains,” I answer, not wanting to dump too much important information off on her. “It’s safe there.”

“That’s also debatable,” Chris says.

“Go away,” I say, shaking my head.

“Hey, I found these, too,” Isabel says, pulling open another drawer. There are some small water bottles inside. “Want some?”

I clap my hands together. “Water!” I exclaim. “Awesome. Good job, Isabel.”

We fit as many as we can into our packs. Isabel stuffs a few into a backpack she pulls from underneath the counter. It’s a pink with sparkly rhinestones all over the top. “Nice,” I comment.

“Thanks,” she replies. “It’s for school. I’m in sixth grade.”

“Wow.” We hop over the front counter, walking out of the McDonald’s. The fog isn’t as dense as it was during the early morning, but it’s still pretty cold. And wet. And depressing.

“I haven’t been outside since it happened,” Isabel remarks, skipping along beside me. “There were a lot of weird people hanging around for a few days.”

“What kind of weird people?” Chris asks.

“Like gangsters or something,” she replies, making a face. “They came inside the McDonald’s and stole all the money from the cash register. Then they left. I didn’t want to go outside because I thought they might still be there.”

“That was a good idea,” I say, sharing a concerned glance with Chris.

“Yeah, I know!” she kicks a rock down the road. “So where are we going again?”

“The mountains,” I repeat. “There won’t be any weirdos up there.”

“Cool. Do you have, like, a secret fortress or something?”

“Or something.”

“Why won’t you tell me?”

“When you need to know, I’ll explain it to you, okay?”

“Okay,” she sighs. “So are you like, in High School?”

“No. College.” I tilt my head. “Chris was a Navy Seal.”

“A Navy Seal?” she laughs. “What’s that?”

I raise my eyebrows at Chris. He shifts the rifles and the backpack before launching into a convincing explanation about the awesomeness of his former Seal team. Even I get into it, asking him if he’s ever pulled a James Bond and worn a tuxedo under his diving gear.

Unfortunately, he’s never tried that.

“You know,” Isabel says, “I had a foster mom once who was in the army.”

“Did you like her?” I ask.

“No. She yelled all the time.” Isabel sighs. “Do you have any parents?”

“Kind of.”

We walk to the freeway, going back to car counting and complaining about the weather. Only now we have a twelve year-old cutting into the conversation, talking almost non-stop about school and math and her less than attractive history teacher from Greece.

Mid-morning rolls around, leaving us all sleepy. Except for Isabel, who seems to have endless energy and a need to bring up talking points concerning why jellyfish are the most persecuted animals in the ocean. Apparently she’s a science geek.

“Hey,” I say, around ten o’clock. “What’s that?”

We slow down, spotting dark shapes in the distance.

“Probably just some more cars,” Isabel yawns.

“Maybe.”

Chris drops behind her and tosses me one of the rifles.

“I can’t shoot one of these!” I say.

“Just hold it to keep up appearances,” he replies. “Just in case.

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