The Last City (Wattpad Books Edition)

FOUR-KADEN

"Hey, Kaden, look!" Sam's face lit with delight as he tilted a comic book up to catch the sunlight streaming in through the windows.

"What is it?" I didn't move from my spot by the window, or lower my gun from its position trained on the street. When Issac said Sam needed to continue his education and broaden his horizons, a bookstore wasn't exactly what I'd envisioned.

"It's a Batman comic," Sam said, consumed with turning the pages, his bow forgotten on the table beside him.

"Batman worked alone—that meant he was always vigilant. Always alert and watchful," I said, hoping Sam would pick up on my hint. He didn't. Gabriel wanted us back at the clan tonight. At this rate we'd be late, if we made it back at all. As much as I loved pissing Gabriel off, I wasn't sure books were worth it. Then again, I hadn't seen Sam this happy in ages.

Issac finally returned from the stacks, his pack loaded with books.

"Let's go," I said, eager to move on.

But he stopped me, and held out a book of his own. "Here. This one is for you."

Curiosity made me stop, and look down at the cover. "Where the Red Fern Grows?" There were two red dogs and a boy on the front, and I tried not to scoff. "Let me guess, the boy grows up and the dogs die? Pass."

Issac laughed. "Yes, it's about a boy and his dogs. But mostly it's about working as a team. And the ones we leave behind."

I didn't read books before the plague, but I'd started to during those couple of years in the clan. I told Sam it was because we no longer had TV or football or social media, but really it was because of Issac. But I hadn't read a single book since Issac had died, not even the Bible he'd given me. It reminded me too much of him. For Issac, every book held a different lesson.

Standing before the massive wall, I wondered what lesson Issac would construct from this situation. Would he think everything we'd been through was worth it? A clan left burning in our wake. Countless lives lost. Months spent journeying through the mountains and then, just when Ara and I had drawn close, the two of us taken captive again. Ara and I had both sacrificed so much to follow her father's map here, to The Last City. And I'd lost her the moment she'd walked through the front door.

"Okay. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. We will do that." Ronnie, Talia's second, hung up the phone outside the wall. He towered over me, reminding me a bit of the massive Clydesdale horse he rode—yet somehow he had the smooth rosy cheeks of a twelve-year-old boy. I stared at him as he stood there, barely resisting the urge to shake him.

"Well?" I couldn't keep the panic out of my voice. The doors had sealed shut twenty minutes ago. I'd run down the road and begged Ronnie and Harrison to come back to the wall to help me demand entry. Instead, Ronnie had slowly picked up the phone and talked to the guards inside while I tried not to rip the phone from his hands.

"Well what?" Ronnie stared at me with calm brown eyes. The night should have been dark with the swirling snow, but the wall's lights blazed above us, blinding us to the shadows that lay beyond.

"Where is Ara?" I demanded. "Is she okay?"

"She's fine. Apparently, she knows the Chancellor. We'll be getting three times the normal reward."

Harrison whooped and thrust his sword—which I refused to call Jessica—into the air. "Three times! Did you hear that, K-man?" He slapped me on the shoulder; I barely felt it over the shock coursing through me. First that they had turned Ara in for a reward—they definitely hadn't told me that—and second that Ara could possibly know someone here. "Why didn't you tell us you knew the Chancellor? We would have turned you in for a reward too!"