The Zero Trilogy (Book 2): Day One by Summer Lane

Author:Summer Lane [Lane, Summer]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Post-Apocalyptic
Publisher: WB Publishing
Published: 2015-03-16T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

The night was freezing. Elle had left her backpack with Bravo at the edge of the forest. No moon. No stars. Only a canopy of thick, dark clouds. Elle shed her coat, wearing a tee with a thermal. Her hands were wrapped with strips of tape. She touched the cold granite of the rock cliff, barely able to see the outline of the rock against the night sky.

She could do this. It would be a piece of cake.

All of those gymnastics competitions and rock-climbing lessons would come in handy.

Thanks for forcing me to be social, Mom, Elle thought sadly.

She picked up a coil of black rope that she had salvaged long ago and kept in her pack. She slung it over her head and across her chest. She had shoved a pair of wire-cutters into the pocket of her cargo pants, a small tool she had picked up long ago in the city. Her katana was strapped across her back, and the Smith and Wesson was secured in her waistband. She had ten shots in the magazine – only ten. Hardly enough to stave off a Slaver army, but it would have to suffice.

Elle found hand and footholds in the side of the rock and began climbing. It was slow, careful work. She didn’t have much light to work with, so she had to take her time. One misstep could send her down the cliff. She pulled herself up, balancing on her toes. She climbed up the far side of the rock, away from the direct view of the Slavers in the lower encampment.

You’re practically there, Elle told herself. You can do this!

She had climbed many buildings in Hollywood after the EMP – when Day Zero had turned the city into an urban jungle. She scaled walls, drain pipes and boardwalks. She was fast and quick, light on her feet. It had kept her alive.

Her fingers were freezing tonight. Elle struggled to maintain a grip on the slick, gravelly granite rock. She glanced down. The forest floor spun beneath her, a hundred feet below. She inhaled quickly and closed her eyes.

“Don’t look down,” she muttered.

Looking down could distract her.

She kept climbing, resting when the muscles in her arms burned. She found a large crevice in the rock and wedged herself into the crack, placing the bulk of her body weight on her legs, letting her arms hang loose for a moment.

Pace yourself, she thought. That’s another thing Mom had always said. Pace yourself and you won’t get so tired at the end of the game.

Sure, Dad had been the one who paid for all of Elle’s gymnastics and climbing classes…but it was Mom who came to every competition and encouraged her.

Okay, keep going, Elle reminded herself. This is not a game. This is real.

Halfway up the rock. There was no turning back now. She had to go through with this. Her heart raced, fear sending pulses of electricity through her body. One wrong move could end everything.

A gust of fresh, cold wind swept over the rock face, blowing strands of hair into Elle’s eyes.

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