The Lair Read Online Free

SUV for a long time. Even though it was big in there, she needed a minute to get her legs under her and suspected McKenna would, too.
    She automatically put her hand under McKenna’s elbow. Not that she knew what it was like to be pregnant, but if her legs were stiff, she could only imagine how McKenna must feel. Besides, it gave her something to think about other than the hundred people staring at her. The guy with the gun—Merc, Carter had called him—led them through the open doorway without getting too close. Or lowering his weapon.
    The doors opened directly into a huge loading bay, a cavern carved out of the mountain. The ceiling was twenty feet up and made of smoothed stone, like the floor. Columns, maybe five feet across, dotted the floor every forty feet. Though the area near the doors was lit by overhead fluorescent lights, she couldn’t tell how far back it went. The cave just slipped away in the darkness.
    “What’s with all the RVs?” she asked in a whisper.
    A row of maybe twenty vehicles lined the communal area at the front of the cavern. They were fanned out in a semicircle below the last row of fluorescent lights.
    “This used to be a mine in the Before, a long time ago,” Carter said. “When the ore played out, United Underground took over. They used the space for climate controlled storage. They stored everything from legal documents to RVs and boats. When we first moved in here, the guys and I stayed up near the front, in United’s offices, but when we started bringing Greens back, we brought RVs up from the deeps for people to live in.”
    “The deeps?”
    Carter’s steps slowed and he pointed off toward the darkness. “Deep storage, farther in. There are hundreds of storage units we haven’t even broken into yet. Once we get out of quarantine, stay up here, where there’s light. You don’t want to get lost until you know your way around more.”
    When that guy whom Merc told him about had started to become a Tick, that’s probably where he’d hidden while he was transforming. He’d slipped away into the darkness, which Ticks loved best. What had it been like for that guy? Had he known his humanity was slowly slipping away? Had the craving for blood been so strong he hadn’t cared that he was becoming a monster?
    Lily suppressed a shudder and pushed aside her thoughts, concentrating on taking in her surroundings. When Carter had first told her about Base Camp, that there was a place where kids were banding together to fight against the Farm system and the Ticks, it had all seemed very romantic. Not glamorous, but noble at least. And better than life on the Farm.
    But the other teens seemed worn and suspicious. Hungry. And this cave they lived in—it may be safe, generally, when there wasn’t a Tick trapped inside with them, but it wasn’t hospitable. It was dark and even though it was warmer in here than it had been out in the Hummer, the air was cool and damp so that it already seemed to be seeping through her clothes.
    Still better than a Farm. Still better than “donating” blood to feed the Ticks.
    Carter led her and McKenna over to a portion of a cave, which had been walled off, and through a door. This must have been United Underground’s business offices. There was a large reception area and then a hall with closed doors on either side. Merc came in behind them, his grip on his rifle relaxed.
    “Where are you going to keep us in quarantine?” Carter asked.
    Merc nodded down the hall. “Thought we’d use your old office. No one moved in while you were gone, so it’s still empty.”
    “How long will we be there?” McKenna asked, following Carter down the hall.
    She was wiggling a little as she walked, so Lily asked, “Is there a bathroom in there? Or can we go first? We were in the car a long time.” McKenna wasn’t the kind to bring that sort of thing up, and even though Lily didn’t have to go right now, she had no idea how long they’d be in