Dream Sky Read Online Free

them secret, they agreed to be careful about who they asked about the words’ significance.
    Rachel was the obvious one to talk to, but she had been in a deep depression since they’d radioed ahead about her brother’s death and was having a hard time focusing on anything. So Ash had been reluctant to approach her and had even considered putting it off. It was Chloe who finally convinced him it was not something that could wait. With her help, he’d arranged a few moments alone with Rachel the day before.
    “I don’t mean to bother you,” he’d said, “but I need to ask you something.”
    It took her a moment to look at him, as if his words were traveling at a fraction of the speed of sound.
    “What?” she asked, even that single word a struggle.
    “Matt said something to me before he died.”
    She looked confused.
    “I didn’t understand what he meant, but thought maybe you would.”
    “What did he say?”
    “Augustine dream sky.”
    A blank stare, then, “Sounds like gibberish to me.”
    “He was very insistent. Wanted me to remember.”
    “I have no idea what he meant,” she said, her face hardening. “If it’s not gibberish, then it’s probably something that will get our people killed. Forget it. Forget he said anything.”
    “I thought it might be good if we—”
    “I said forget it.”
    He should have waited, he realized, let a few days pass, maybe a week or two. Her brother’s death was still too fresh. He could see all she wanted to do was curl up in a corner and he couldn’t blame her for that. But he couldn’t ignore Matt’s message, and a delay of a week or two could very well be too long.
    The only other person who might’ve known something was Rich Paxton. But while Ash was relieved to hear Pax was alive and had returned from northern Canada, Matt’s old right-hand man had left for Latin America to help a group of survivors, so a private conversation with him was currently impossible.
    The only option left was for Chloe and Ash to check through Matt’s things to see if they could find an answer.
    Obtaining a key to Matt’s room had not been a problem. With Rachel overwhelmed by her brother’s death, and Pax off site, Ash had been seen as the next in command. No one noticed when he kept one of Matt’s keys.
    The hallway empty, they slipped inside the room and closed the door.
    The bed where Matt’s body had lain was rumpled, the top cover off center from when the pallbearers had come to carry him out to the casket. Piled against the back wall were the four boxes and two large duffel bags containing all his personal possessions from the Ranch, waiting to be unpacked. Though in death Matt had occupied the room, he had never lived there.
    Working silently so as not to disturb Rachel in her suite next door, Ash and Chloe started going through the boxes. Sweaters, long underwear, socks, T-shirts, buttoned shirts, pants, and shoes—all four boxes full of clothes.
    They carefully taped the boxes back up and moved on to the duffel bags. The heavy one was stuffed with books—a survivalist’s how-to treasure trove of instructions on how to do everything from simple farming to advanced electronics. Ash could imagine Matt sitting up late reading through them.
    The lighter bag held a box of photos, a few pictures in frames, and several journals, each tied closed by strings. Chloe pulled the top one out, untied it, and opened the cover. On the front page was a thirteen-month date range from several years earlier.
    Ash motioned for Chloe to flip through the book.
    Every single page was filled with handwriting they recognized as Matt’s. She randomly stopped at one of the pages and held the book out so they could both read.
     
Monday, Sept. 23 rd

Prep for winter almost complete. Have left most of those details in Rachel’s hands. Heard from G1 this morning. No real news, which I guess is good. Pax is still out on the recruiting run. When we spoke, he said things with the group in