No Easy Way Out Quotes

“How much of an idiot was she? She’d morphed into one of those girls she’d sworn never to become: hanging on a guy who was a total jerk. But then a voice inside her got all offended, He’s not a total jerk. He helped you investigate the ice-skating rink. He liked you. He kissed you. Like this amounted to anything other than a desperate rationalization for having fallen for the wrong guy. God,”
― Dayna Lorentz, No Easy Way Out

“Guess you’re not the golden boy anymore, Shrimp.” Marco slipped by like a fart in the wind and joined Mike in his skybox. •”
― Dayna Lorentz, No Easy Way Out

“The hero returns!” Drew shouted, arms akimbo, beer sloshing from his cup. The girls in the audience turned to see what fresh meathead had arrived. “I”
― Dayna Lorentz, No Easy Way Out

“People did not react well, it seemed, to interruptions in their routine.”
― Dayna Lorentz, No Easy Way Out

“Why didn’t you run?” Lexi asked. “When you first saw the bomb, you could have just grabbed me and Dad and left and none of this would have happened.” Dotty didn’t yell, which was in itself a surprise. “You’re right,” she said. “I could have run, we could have escaped. But what if one of us was infected? What if we brought this flu out into the world? This is the deadliest flu virus anyone’s documented. Millions—and I’m not exaggerating, millions of people in the tri-state area alone would have died. Around the world, who knows? Billions? So I made a sacrifice. I made a very hard choice to choose the whole planet over the individual needs of myself and my family. I hope you can understand that, if not right now, then someday.” Lexi”
― Dayna Lorentz, No Easy Way Out

“No,” Mike said. “You go talk to the Tarrytown guys. They should all be on the first floor catching lunch. See if you can’t convince them to join our cause.” “How convincing should I be?” Drew said, swinging the bat. Mike grabbed the bat. “We want them to help us, not join the guys trying to kill us.” Drew seemed deflated at having to leave his bat in the pile. “I don’t think I want your help,” Shay said. She was like a different person, all in-your-face and shut-the-hell-up. Mike slid the radio back into his cargo shorts. “I don’t think you have a choice.” “I”
― Dayna Lorentz, No Easy Way Out

“No,” Mike said. “You go talk to the Tarrytown guys. They should all be on the first floor catching lunch. See if you can’t convince them to join our cause.” “How convincing should I be?” Drew said, swinging the bat. Mike grabbed the bat. “We want them to help us, not join the guys trying to kill us.” Drew seemed deflated at having to leave his bat in the pile. “I don’t think I want your help,” Shay said. She was like a different person, all in-your-face and shut-the-hell-up. Mike”
― Dayna Lorentz, No Easy Way Out

“When she came out, Preeti was waiting by her cot. “You coming to breakfast?” she said accusatorially, as if Shay had already abandoned her for a second time.”
― Dayna Lorentz, No Easy Way Out

“Maybe he got busted at the party?” Ginger, always trying to be helpful.”
― Dayna Lorentz, No Easy Way Out

“She gave herself over to their ministrations.”
― Dayna Lorentz, No Easy Way Out

“It was separate from the other theaters, which were being used by the school during the day for child placation and in the evenings for general entertainment of the masses, and he’d confirmed with a guy on security that the IMAX was abandoned.”
― Dayna Lorentz, No Easy Way Out

“Shay looked at him like he’d just peeled off his skin to reveal the alien hide beneath.”
― Dayna Lorentz, No Easy Way Out

“These people you let escape? They smashed the front windows of the Jessica McClintock store and were caught defacing the mannequins. How do I explain this to the other mall residents? This makes it look like we don’t have control.” “You don’t have control.” Marco wondered why this was such a revelation. “If we don’t provide the illusion of control, we’ll have anarchy. Your job is to help me project this illusion. And if you can no longer manage your job, I am going to have to relieve you of your card key and all privileges of non-compliance that up until now you have enjoyed.”
― Dayna Lorentz, No Easy Way Out

“A second person jammed something into Marco’s ear. “What the hell?” he asked. “Normal temp.” It was a woman’s voice. “Asymptomatic.” The baton lifted.”
― Dayna Lorentz, No Easy Way Out

“Normal temp.” It was a woman’s voice. “Asymptomatic.” The baton lifted.”
― Dayna Lorentz, No Easy Way Out

“She tried to sleep—she was exhausted, it should have just happened—but closing her eyes did not stop her mind.”
― Dayna Lorentz, No Easy Way Out

“Ryan grabbed Marco’s arm. “I have to see her.” Marco glowered back at him, not sure if Ryan could see in the dim light the amount of pissed-off-ness he felt. Ryan didn’t back down. “It’s your funeral,” Marco said, and continued to walk. Ryan stumbled slightly, trying to keep up—aftereffects of the flu? “So Shay’s your girlfriend?” he asked, panting as if walking was too much for him.”
― Dayna Lorentz, No Easy Way Out

“Why were Mike and Drew listening to this guy? A week ago, they’d been trying to, no-joke, kill him. The change was freaky.”
― Dayna Lorentz, No Easy Way Out

“Mike pulled his T-shirt off, spat onto it, then came at Ryan. “Lemme get that,” he said in a faux mommy voice. Ryan smacked him away. “I’d rather let my face burn.”
― Dayna Lorentz, No Easy Way Out

“Steve’s last thoughts were of the virus. He saw the spikey orbs bouncing in front of his eyes. How lovely they were. Vicious and lovely. •”
― Dayna Lorentz, No Easy Way Out

“He flipped through the initial intake forms for everyone in the mall. After Mr. Ross had input all the raw data, he freely parted with the hard copies; for all his work on computers, Steve liked paper. Now that there was no electricity, this peccadillo proved useful. At”
― Dayna Lorentz, No Easy Way Out

“In those first days, they’d thrown everything but the kitchen sink at those infected. Vaccination didn’t work to protect people, and antivirals proved useless, as usual. The CDC had ordered him to abandon the willy-nilly disbursement of the drugs for fear of wasting stores when the nation was on the verge of a pandemic. Somehow the senator had finagled a few crates for them, but Steve hadn’t bothered prescribing them. Why throw good medicine after bad? He”
― Dayna Lorentz, No Easy Way Out

“those first days, they’d thrown everything but the kitchen sink at those infected. Vaccination didn’t work to protect people, and antivirals proved useless, as usual. The CDC had ordered him to abandon the willy-nilly disbursement of the drugs for fear of wasting stores when the nation was on the verge of a pandemic. Somehow the senator had finagled a few crates for them, but Steve hadn’t bothered prescribing them. Why throw good medicine after bad? He”
― Dayna Lorentz, No Easy Way Out

“Steve had become fascinated with the flu early on in his career. He’d been shocked to learn that more people died from the Spanish flu than in all of World War I. In America, whole towns were wiped out; children died in their homes because there was no one alive left to care for them, every adult having been taken by the virus. Carts rolled through the streets of cities collecting corpses piled in the gutters and on the porches of houses. Ordinances were passed forbidding such things as handshaking; and schools, churches, stores, and theaters were closed to try to prevent the spread of the disease. He couldn’t believe he’d never been taught about this pandemic before med school. How could this not be in the consciousness of every American? Jazmine”
― Dayna Lorentz, No Easy Way Out

“Influenza was a terrible, yet fascinating foe. It was one thing the first time you met it, and something completely different the next. It liked to mutate, was almost designed to do so. Every time it replicated in a cell, there was a slight mutation in the antigens on the surface of the virion. But it was bizarre for the virus to have changed so radically in so short a time. It was almost as if a new strain of the flu had been introduced—from where, though, could it have come? Steve”
― Dayna Lorentz, No Easy Way Out

“Marco had determined that a shock-and-awe entrance to the battlefield would best serve their purposes. Thus, Heath hefted a chair through the glass reception window of the mall offices, crawled in, and buzzed open the door. Much to everyone’s surprise, the offices were devoid of people. “What”
― Dayna Lorentz, No Easy Way Out

“See how it’s all coming together?” Marco replied, hefting Shay’s coat. Everything was coming up chaos. Mike”
― Dayna Lorentz, No Easy Way Out

“Maddie looked around at the forest of legs in front of them. “Pray?” Ginger closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around her friend. “Dear God,” she began. “I was kidding,” Maddie said. But Ginger continued to pray in silence. It was all she had left.”
― Dayna Lorentz, No Easy Way Out

“Second, Lexi was not the kind of person who would run blindly through the halls. Lexi thought stuff through. She would know that stumbling around the halls after a lockdown was utter idiocy. She would hide out. So exploring the stockrooms was both a defensive maneuver and part of the overall plan. They”
― Dayna Lorentz, No Easy Way Out

“Ginger staggered to walk straight. “What can’t you believe? That Lexi’s lost?” Maddie gave her that I’m-sorry-you’re-that-slow look she often flashed. “Lexi disappearing I can believe. She went after Marco, obviously. What I can’t believe is that I was right. From the beginning, I was like, they’re just going to blow the mall up with us inside it, and I was totally right!” She laughed. What she said was not remotely funny. “No.”
― Dayna Lorentz, No Easy Way Out