Zombie Ocean (Book 2): The Lost by Michael John Grist

so. I didn't mean anything by it. You're not upset about that, are you?"
    "No."
    She looked ahead to the windshield, to the flat orange horizon. "When will we see Amo and Lara?"
    "Real soon, I think. Cerulean, that's Robert, sorry, I read the comic too and I can't get his nickname out of my head, he thinks we'll be there this time tomorrow. Not much of a nickname when it takes longer to say than his real name, is it? Anyway, he wants to drive through the night."
    Anna disregarded much of this. "What time is it now?"
    Jake pulled a phone out of his pocket and it blinked to life. "Three thirty. Are you in a rush?"
    "Yes."
    "Can I ask why?"
    "Yes. I don't know. I don't like sitting still."
    He smiled widely. His feathery black hair made him look a little like a crow. "I suppose for someone who's been walking for basically three months, this is a lot of sitting."
    She shrugged.
    "Do you want to play a game?" he asked. "We've got lots on board. Amo stocked them for us."
    "No. Thank you." An idea came to her. "But could you…" she trailed off, looking for her backpack. Panic cut in. Her Daddy's phone was in it. "Where's my pack?"
    "It's OK, it's right here." He leaned back on the chair and slid it out of a storage hutch. "Everything in its right place." He held it out.
    She took it and dug around inside, coming up with her copy of Alice through the Looking Glass. "Can you read this to me?"
    He made his surprised face again. "Well, I, sure."
    "I can't read," she said, by way of explanation. "I just look at the pictures. I want to be able to read it, someday. Maybe you could teach me? It means a lot to me."
    "Sure." He took the book. "I'd be happy to. Now, where shall I start?"
    She laid her head back down on the rumbling leather seat. "Anywhere. I know it all anyway."
     
     
    They rode.
    It was very different from riding in her Daddy's sling. The people were there, and they talked, and a few times they ate something together, but they were always distant. Even Robert.
    Listening to Jake read Alice helped. It was like listening to old things after the coma, and keeping off the hurt, though this hurt was very different. It was all inside. Plus it seemed the stories might hold some secrets left behind by her father.
    Jake laughed a lot when he read, which was OK too. The stories were supposed to be fun, and his laugh sounded nice now.
    On the RV they also had a lot of cables to connect phones, and with Jake's help she plugged hers in. It charged up and she spent a long time looking at it, flicking through the screens. There was the phone screen, and the photos she could hardly look at without crying, and some games, and of course the flashing yellow dot that was her father, lost in an ocean of gray.
    She didn't want the others to see that so she huddled up in a corner of the back sofa.
    Some time late in the night, with Cynthia driving and Jake in the front seat beside her, she overheard Robert and Julio whispering in their beds.
    "We could find out where she's from," Julio whispered. His voice was easy to recognize though he didn't speak much. "It'll only take a minute. There must be addresses in there."
    "Why do we need to know where she's from?" Robert answered. "She needs to learn to trust us, Julio, and that won't happen if you take her phone."
    "Don't we need to trust her? Her stories about walking across the country can't be true. She's lying, and she could be leading us into a trap."
    "She's five years old. Don't take her phone off her, OK? Just leave her be."
    She held the phone more tightly. She brought up the gray screen for the Hatter's chip and watched the yellow dot blinking softly, like a pulse, so far away.
    She was the blue arrow. At least now she was going in the same direction as him.
     
     
    They came into Las Vegas in the early morning. The name meant nothing to Anna but the others were all excited. They had the windows open and laughed and joked loudly. Robert had her brought up to the front to see, and they