The Scavengers (After The Apocalypse Book #1)

Prologue

Prologue

"Ohgreat. It's you.I thought you'd given up on trying to sneak into our parties. Youknow you don't belong here." The brown haired girl who guardedthe entry to Cell Block B hadn't changed much in the last 6 months.The tips of her stringy curls were pink now instead of black. Herblueberry printed t-shirt was as tight as a second skin. It clung toevery ripple on her skinny stomach and showed every rib, as was thefashion lately. She held out her hand expectantly.

Ittook me several seconds longer than it should have to realize thatshe wanted to see the little scrap of blue paper Drake had pressedinto my hand as we'd left the assembly. I stuck my left hand intomy bag, almost hoping I'd lost the sweaty little piece of paper.

"Ugh."The girl sighed with obvious irritation as she watched me dig. "Whydon't you spare us both the embarrassment and just go back to BlockE. I know you don't have an invite."

Iwas incredibly tempted just to walk away. Losing the invite wouldgive me an excuse to turn around, go back to my own bed and crawlunder the covers for the next three days. Except that, as ofyesterday evening, I didn't have my own bed anymore. I shudderedand pulled the invite free of the purse lint. I pressed it into thegirl's outstretched hand and smiled at her, not kindly. "Actually,I do have an invite."

Thegirl raised a heavily plucked eyebrow at me as she took it. "Who'dyou beg this off of?" She dangled the invite in the air as if itwere a particularly disgusting bug that needed inspection.

"Noone. Drake Bledsoe gave it to me." I wasn't trying to brag. Ijust couldn't see any point in standing around at the entrance tothe party while the door guard debated whether or not I was trulycool enough to be let inside.

"Drakeinvited you?" The girl did a double take. She looked me up anddown. I could feel disapproval, maybe even disgust, radiating off ofher as she took in my chaotic, frizzy curls and the frayed hem of myfavorite, and only, party dress. The blue taffeta skirt had beenheavily beaded twenty or thirty years ago. Now half of the beads weremissing. Most had fallen off as the glue that held them on had aged.Some had torn off when the dress had snagged on one object oranother. Missing beads or not, the dress was still the nicest pieceof clothing I owned. Unfortunately, it was shabby and borderline uglycompared to the dresses that the girls who lived in Block B owned. Ishould probably have been ashamed, but I was too exhausted to beembarrassed.

InsteadI nodded and shrugged at the girl. "Why would I lie?"

Sheopened her mouth as if she was going to say something and thenthought better of it. "I think you're telling stories-," shestarted as a burly guy in a tight black shirt joined her at the door.

"Youhaving problems Danni?" He asked. He had short, close croppedorange hair and flat, black eyes. He stared down at me for a minuteas Danni held up my invite. His look wasn't nearly as unfriendly asI had been expecting.

"Shesays Drake invited her," Danni the door guard told the newcomer.The disbelief was clear in her voice.

"Ofcourse he did," the new guy replied. He smiled down at me. He had alot of teeth. Far too many for his mouth. "You don't know who sheis?"

"Um,no. Should I?" Danni stared at him with obvious distaste.

"Getout of the way, Danni." The guy put one arm across her midriff andpulled her to the side of the door. He gestured for me to walk pasther. "This is the girl who stood up in the middle of the assemblytoday and called the Powers That Be 'bloody fucking liars'." Hegrinned at me.

"What?!"Danni gaped at me and then looked back up at him. "I heard aboutthat but I thought Noah was screwing with me. She's thatgirl?"

"Iam," I admitted with barely a nod.