Razor Girl Read Online Free

her parents’ pleas to just walk away from the marriage altogether. That was why Molly loved her mother and father equally and intensely, no matter their individual flaws.
    Molly looked down at the invitation. “Sounds fun,” she said. “Can I come?” She didn’t really have a strong desire to go, but she hated to see her mom attend alone.
    “Of course. If it doesn’t interfere with your training schedule,” Ashley said, reaching over to brush a lock of hair from her daughter’s eyes. “You know how your dad is about that.”
    “Yeah,” Molly said, rolling her eyes. “Believe me, I know. If I bring it up, he’ll probably tell me that I shouldn’t bother to buy a dress. ‘No, no!’ he’ll say, ‘The End of Days is right around the corner, and there won’t be any parties ever again!’”
    Her mother smiled and rose from the table. “Yes,” she said. “He probably would. But I’ll tell you what, sweetie.” She leaned over and planted a kiss on Molly’s head. “Come with me. If the world does end, I want you dancing by my side. I’m not going to die alone.”

CHAPTER THREE
    As Molly stepped from her family’s underground bunker, she was immediately struck with wonder at the outside world. She’d forgotten how vast it was, how beautiful. There was the sky, a vibrant blue sprinkled with puffy cotton-like clouds. Wildflowers tumbled across sagging porches and poked defiantly through cracked pavement. Her favorite oak tree was still standing, strong and majestic in the center of their front yard, its branches stretching up to worship the heavens.
    The scent of honeysuckle tickled her nose and Molly sucked in a large breath, delighting in the fresh, clean air that was so much sweeter than the stale re-circulated stuff she’d been breathing for the last six years. Strange. Back in the shelter, she’d always imagined the outside world to be a gray wasteland with stormy clouds that would mirror the death of humanity below. She’d expected a graveyard, a desolate landscape, a world with acrid winds and a sepia palette. But it seemed nature didn’t mourn man’s destruction after all. If anything, it appeared to be relishing its freedom from gardeners and landscaping, this once tamed suburbia becoming a feral forest full of magical emerald life. Or maybe she was overdoing it in her excitement.
    She stuck out her arms, feeling the warmth of the sun on her skin for the first time in six years. She wanted to skip down the street, dance, cartwheel. Run for ten miles without stopping. Enjoy a world without boundaries after years in a cage.
    After doing a little shimmy of joy on the front porch, she stopped herself, looking around, self-conscious, even though she knew there was no one to see her. That thought sobered her a bit. This beautiful world would be empty. Or practically so. How many would have survived? Not many, according to her father. A new emotion gripped her heart: sadness, the beauty of the world fading as reality sank in. Though she’d mourned her world for six years, it was different to suddenly experience its loss firsthand. Back in the shelter this reality had seemed unreal, distant. Like something in a film. Actually stepping out into the world and seeing the empty, debris-filled streets, the houses crumbling from years of abandonment, made the whole situation a lot more real and a lot harder to swallow.
    It was the silence that felt eeriest. Not that her middle-class suburb had ever been a bustling metropolis, but there had been sounds all the same: the droning of lawnmowers pushed by banker or doctor dads on their days off, the screams and laughter of kids playing wild games of tag, cars streaming down the nearby interstate and beeping away their road rage. Normal, everyday, take-them-for-granted sounds. All were now swept clear by an overwhelming, almost suffocating silence. There wasn’t even birdsong.
    A realization she had half-suppressed for too long rose up and choked Molly.