Defensive Instinct (Survival Instinct Book 4) Read Online Free Page A

in.”
    “Again? Do you think it’s because she likes farming, or do you think a boy is involved?”
    “I think she just likes farming and being outside,” Lauren answered with a shrug. “She hasn’t mentioned a boy to me, and she’s not acting like she’s in love or anything.”
    “And Peter? Where’s he off to this morning?”
    “He left a note about going to the computer lab, but it didn’t say why. Maybe we can ask him when we get there.” Lauren served up their breakfast, which had been made from the rations delivered to their door earlier. “What are we working on today?”
    “I haven’t decided yet.”
    “Maybe this time pick a movie that I’ve seen. I’m more helpful with those.”
    “Name one.”
    While finishing their meal, Abby and Lauren listed off several movies to one another, picking a good one that they had both watched back before the Day. When the food was gone and the dishes were cleaned and put away, they left their apartment-like home. Walking across the blue floor, they held hands as they followed the dark grey arrows painted on the pale yellow walls of the underground building known as the Black Box. The arrows took them down a staircase and into the computer lab, which had originally been much bigger. The directions were formerly indicated by the gold arrows, but the computers weren’t as useful as they had been before and so were downgraded to a smaller space. Several terminals lined the walls of the room, with fewer than a handful of people seated at them. In a back corner sat Peter.
    “You’re up early,” Abby commented as she and Lauren walked over to him.
    “Woke up, couldn’t fall back asleep,” he answered, more absorbed in what was on the screen than in the women standing behind him.
    “What are you up to?” Lauren asked.
    “Studying.”
    “Studying what?” Abby was looking at the screen but couldn’t figure it out. Several formulas were spread across it, and half the words between them confused her.
    “Math,” Peter replied. He had never been one for talking. When Lauren had first taken charge of him, there had been concern because he was a baby who virtually never cried. Now, he was an eleven year old looking at complex formulas that Abby could barely recognize. And she had a near perfect memory and used to read science books.
    “Dr. Guptar give you this?” Lauren asked.
    Peter nodded.
    “Well, we’re about to start our recording. We won’t bother you, will we?”
    The gangly, wild-haired boy shook his head.
    Abby and Lauren left him alone to go to their own computer across the room. They had in essence claimed ownership of one of the terminals by the mere fact of being down there just about every day. Lauren sat before the keyboard and booted up the system, while Abby took the seat beside her and hooked a microphone over her ear, adjusting it in front of her mouth.
    “I’m glad Dr. Guptar is encouraging Peter,” Lauren spoke quietly before they began. Dr. Guptar was one of the computer scientists who already lived in the Black Box before they had arrived: a brilliant man who found himself more useless than not. Teaching Peter kept him occupied most days now. “Could you imagine if we were still trying to teach him math with the other kids?”
    “He’d be teaching us at this point. And probably getting frustrated.”
    “I sometimes wonder if he’ll be the next Einstein. Or Hawking.”
    Abby lifted a shoulder. “Could be. Or he could get bored and move on to something else.”
    “I like to dream that he’ll be the one to fix all of this. Make the Earth normal again.”
    “You know as well as I do that that’s impossible.”
    “Like I said, I dream. And I think we can get close to normal again. Our population is a hell of a lot lower than before, and we have to treat death differently, but we could get close.”
    “We should get started,” Abby said, gesturing to the computer. Lauren was right that humanity could probably get really close