Storm Born Read Online Free

push the water inland again.   
    I closed my eyes and breathed in short, jagged pants, but I managed to stop hyperventilating.   
    I had to get home.  
    Okay, I had a goal. First things first: get off the roof.  
    Easy enough.   
    I turned and ran toward the access door. My legs felt like wooden planks encased in iron, so I didn’t run very far. Jogging wasn’t an improvement. I settled with a brisk walk.  
    Better than nothing.  
    I pulled the access door open and peered inside. There wasn’t a lot of light, so I fumbled along the edges of the wall until my hands circled the cold railing. My footsteps echoed as I stomped down the corridor. The roof access led to the emergency staircase, so I followed it all the way to the bottom.  
    I was huffing and puffing the whole way down, my legs burning with every step I took. God, wasn’t it supposed to be easier going down stairs instead of up them?  
    Oh well. At least I would get my exercise in for the day. I had been complaining that I wanted a better beach body this summer, but this wasn’t exactly the workout I’d had in mind.  
    Maybe, if it were still stocked somewhere, I would let fantasies of a beach body slide and find some ice cream.  
    I jerked to a stop on the staircase. Phantom pain drifted through me. A blistering, agonizing cold wrapped itself around my limbs, smothering them with ice.  
    I squeezed my eyes shut and breathed through the memory.  
    Not here, not here, don’t think about it, Ava. Don’t think, don’t think…  
    I cracked my eyes open and continued my descent.  
    Light streaked through the open door and rippled through the water flooding the exit of the apartment building. I slipped into the cool, salty water that covered my knees. I tried not to think about how heavy my clothes were on my body or what was in the water.  
    I wanted to shower, but this wasn’t the kind of water I wanted to use.  
    Nudging through the door, I entered a world of chaos.  
    Spinning lights, blaring sirens, terrified screams, crashing rubble, and cool water coalesced into the worst kind of symphony. I thought I was disoriented when I was staring down from the roof, but now I wasn’t so sure. Nothing was familiar, and I knew Lantana like the back of my hand. I’d never left the town, never had a reason to. Working at the restaurant meant a lot of tourists asking where they could find certain shops or hotels or clubs, so I committed myself to knowing where all of them were.  
    Now I couldn’t even tell what the building across from me had been when it was still intact. I spun in a circle, trying to orient myself. Honestly, I felt like an alien. Maybe I’d been picked up by one of those brutal winds and thrown into another planet.  
    No. That’s not what happened to you. What happened was–  
    I shut it out. I had to. I couldn’t face it. Couldn’t break down here. I needed to get home. Then I could have a meltdown.  
    One foot in front of the other. That’s what I had to do. That’s what I would do. Nothing more, nothing less.  
    My gut pulled me to the left, so to the left I went. Salt water splashed against my thighs and stomach. I spotted volunteers everywhere, authorities and civil workers and rescuers combining forces with the black-clad SPU officers to drag whoever they could from stone and wood wreckage. Some of the people they found were screaming and holding their hands up to the blaring sun. Some were disoriented and bleeding. Some weren’t moving at all.  
    Ambulances were loaded up and sped toward SPU hospitals. Dozens of them had been set up underground for when the general hospitals and medi-centers in Florida were destroyed. I dreaded to think how packed they must be now, and how difficult and terrifying it would be for the survivors to be lowered into the ground after suffering injuries that crippled or nearly killed them. My stomach churned at the thought of all those helpless bedridden people, unable to escape