Blood Moon by Gwendolyn Harper (books for students to read .TXT) 📕

Iowa. A week later I circled back just to see… but the Kentucky camp was empty. There weren’t even goon squads left patrolling.”

Nicole turned, reaching for Caitlin with a shaking hand.

“Iowa,” she whispered. “That’s only one state over.”

Clutching her fingers tight, Caitlin nodded. “It’s close.”

“We could make it,” Nicole said. “We could stock up, head out—”

From his station by the tent’s zipper flap door, Max cleared his throat. “Um, there’s just the issue of the massive herd in between us and the state line. Not to mention the goon squads and drone patrol.”

Caitlin leaned forward, glaring sharply at him. “Yeah. We’re aware of those.”

Pressing his palm to her knee, Booker made a soothing circle with his thumb, keeping her grounded.

It wasn’t much—barely noticeable to most of the people around them.

But she felt the instant Nathaniel saw. Felt the anger quickly followed by heartbreak.

As she shifted her gaze, he looked away, jaw clenched tight.

“What I meant was,” Max continued. “You’re going to need more than just a few extra supplies and a night’s rest. You’re going to need to plan a route around the herd, and then figure out how to dodge the militias. That takes time, due diligence, help…”

Booker smirked at him. “You offerin’ then?”

Straightening, Max shrugged. “Well, yeah.”

Caitlin blinked. She hadn’t expected that.

“Why?” The question flew from her mouth.

Max’s expression became sorrowful. “I don’t think you understand how many of us lost people to the exile. Families were split up. Children were left without parents. My husband and baby daughter are still inside one of those Ark camps, and I don’t know if I’ll ever see them again or if they’re…” He trailed off, swallowing roughly. “We’ve all been surviving out here together, but that’s it. Surviving. But if we could find our families again… We might get a chance to live.”

The crowd in the tent grew quiet, everyone lost inside their own memory loop of tragedy.

“We’ve tried finding a way back to the camps,” Max continued. “But we didn’t have anyone who had insider knowledge of how these things operated. Until now, that is.”

Everyone’s attention became laser focused on Booker.

Frowning, Booker glanced back and forth before gesturing to himself.

“Me?”

Max smiled. “You clocked my gear, I clocked your tattoo.”

Staring down at where his flannel shirt sleeve was rolled above his forearm, Booker attempted to hide the ink, but it was too late.

“Not that many marines left in the world who aren’t strapped into a Humvee gunning down people as if they’re rotters.”

Inhaling deeply, Booker bobbed his head in agreement. “Yeah… Got that right.”

“Were you with them?” Trish asked, eyes lit up with fury. “Were you one of those—”

“No,” Caitlin cut in. “Booker’s a good man. He never hurt anyone.”

She ignored the sensation of being watched. She already knew who was staring at her.

Trish eased back. “Then how would he know anything about the camps?”

“Well, not to honk my own horn here, but I was right about them moving the camp to Ohio, and then Iowa,” Booker said, leaning forward on his thighs. “They’re looking for places with low population rates and lots of land. The goon squads are grunts with shoot to kill orders, just as if they were in hostile territory.” He smirked to himself. “I guess they are, given the state of things now.”

Luna tilted her head, intrigued. “What about the herd of dead ones?”

“Y’mean the mother-herd drawn in by the radio tower?” Booker glanced over. “Cae figured that one out.”

“A low frequency transmitted through speakers,” she said. “It attracts them and subdues them as long as they’re not distracted by anything. The Ark camp installed it.”

Nathaniel scowled. “It’s nowhere near the Iowa camp.”

“Exactly,” she said plainly. “They’re making sure Geeks don’t get too close. They must’ve learned their lesson from before. They’ve effectively made an undead moat, separating them and anyone who might try to come back to one of the Arks.”

One of the men—Steve, Caitlin thought—who had been quiet until then shifted on his crate, scratching behind his ear.

“A few weeks back, a search party went out to Oklahoma looking for supplies and people who wanted to join us. They stumbled across a smaller Ark, but there weren’t that many guards, and there certainly weren’t any radio towers transmitting noise to rotters.”

“They make it out okay?” Booker asked.

Steve nodded. “Barely escaped the Humvee that spotted them, but yeah.”

“Caitlin, what did you call it when we were out there?” Nicole murmured. “Just before we met Max.”

“A test area,” she said.

Pieces rapidly clicked into place.

“The Kentucky camp got moved again, supposedly to a place with a lab and lots of space. The radio transmitter is keeping Geeks in one area and docile, and it’s under surveillance—not just a couple of goon squads that drive by once in a while, but twenty-four-hour motion detection and drones. All of you had blood work done and then were kicked out seemingly for no reason…”

Booker leaned in a fraction. “Cae?”

“They’re looking for a cure,” she breathed. Gaze lifting, she said, “That’s why they took your blood. They weren’t checking you for infection, they were looking for antibodies.”

“And that’s why they have that huge zombie herd,” Nicole added. “Easy access to the virus. They’d be able to see how it’s mutating, how it spreads. They could map it just like any other disease.”

“We were exiled into a world with a life-threatening zombie virus when they knew we didn’t have the immunity against it?” Luna curled her lip in disgust.

Caitlin stared across at her. “Because they wouldn’t be able to use you to create the vaccine. Your blood doesn’t have what they need.”

“It also means they wouldn’t be able to test it on ya,” Booker said. “They’d need to try it on folks who