Nano Z Read Online Free Page A

building.
    “What’s wrong? The van is just back there. We need to…”
    “The meds!”
    For the first time since meeting him, Amber was truly fearful of Mack. All that power and fury he used to save her could’ve easily been turned against her. She thought it best not to antagonize him.
    “Here,” said Amber as she retrieved the big white bottle and tossed it to Mack. He struggled with the top. Once he managed to open it, he took out a handful and shoved them in his mouth. Then he closed it and gave it back to Amber to put in her bag.
    The minivan was just where Amber said it would be. All the doors were unlocked. She smiled and got in the passenger seat, Mack in the driver’s.
    So how am I supposed to start this… Amber opened the glove box. Inside were the keys which she handed over. Both of them prayed when he put them in the ignition. They prayed that the car would start. When it did they both gave sighs of relief. Thank God.

Chapter 2 : Wydell
    Amber dreamed of I-23. Actually it was more of a memory than a dream. Her family was on their way out of town. Mr. Long, her father, saw the stories about Greenbelt on the news. He immediately demanded that his wife and daughter quickly pack their things. After stopping at the pharmacy and emptying the safe, they made the mistake of getting on the interstate.
    Mister and missus Long were arguing in the front seat. To Amber, they always seemed to be arguing. And often their arguments were over nothing. She’d have to sit in the backseat and endure their nonsense.
    A barrier made of earbuds and music off her phone usually kept Amber out of her parents’ quarrels. So she’d fully absorb herself in boom bap and 80s hair metal. It worked…most of the time.
    With her forehead against it, Amber looked out the window. Some Def Leppard poured into her ears. She stared at the same car for fifteen minutes. It nor any other vehicle budged.
    Amber heard her mother’s grating voice through the loud rock. At first she tried to ignore it. But Mrs. Long didn’t give up. Eventually she had to take out her earbuds and hear what the woman had to say.
    Mrs. Long reprimanded Amber about something her daughter did. The fourteen year old teen didn’t really listen. Instead she rolled her eyes and half pretended to listen. That didn’t stop her mom. Only her father interrupting stopped the self-righteous chastising.
    An explosion shut the Longs up. Both of them looked around to see what happened. Amber’s father got out of their station wagon.
    Within a minute after the loud explosion, people started running past Amber’s window. They looked terrified. The whole scene reminded her of the old monster movies she’d watch with her friends. Except the people fleeing weren’t actors. Genuine terror spurred them.
    Amber noticed that her father didn’t retrieve the Beretta his dead brother gave to him. Being essentially trapped in the station wagon, she decided to get the gun. She wasn’t going to leave her safety in her parents’ inept hands.
    The one good thing that Mr. Long taught his daughter was how to properly handle a firearm. It was a risky move really. If she ever had a hankering to use a firearm on another human being, he’d be first on her list.
    ***
    “You up?” Amber slowly woke up to Mack’s voice. First thing that she noticed was the chill in the car.
    “Wha…where…?” Amber was groggy and crumpled up in the corner of the backseat.
    Mack glanced at the rearview mirror. Amber was wiping the sleep from her eyes. He didn’t know much about kids, especially teens. But he knew to tread lightly around a recently awoken adolescent.
    “Still in Texas. About an hour from the border to Oklahoma.”
    “Oklahoma huh?” Amber climbed into the passenger seat. It was a bit clumsy, but she made it the couple of feet in one piece. “I’ve never been.”
    Stretched out before Amber, outside the car windows, were fields as far as she could see. They were lit blue by the dawn.