Adrift Read Online Free PDF Page B

by himself all the time. And there was no one telling him to make his bed. None of that made it ok for them to shove him down there, though. He had gone from the sad, lonely boy they all whispered about when they thought he couldn’t hear to a troubled young man who didn’t even warrant whispers when they wanted to talk about him. Whatever reasons they listed, whether the little kid he hit was hurt as bad as they said or not, Tron knew they really sent him down to the keel so that they wouldn’t have to think about him anymore. Returning their intentional indifference with bitter hatred was one of the easiest things of his life.
    Except now that he was in this room, he knew that none of it was real. It didn’t matter that his parents were always busy, or that Father Andrei was more interested in talking at him than talking to him. They were family, and it was only now that he was kneeling in its ruin that he realized how important that was. Every one of the b odies, with skin ripped and covered in dark blotches of blood, was a part of that.
    Now he was really alone. Him and Kivi both.
    Kivi. The strange girl. The one people avoided thinking about almost as much as him. What were the chances that it would be the two of them, the only misfits in the incredibly tight-knit community, would be the ones who survived whatever happened to the Lucy? Things like that just didn’t happen.
    There had to be someone else. There were a lot of people here. He’d heard the dinner announcement before the world turned into a nightmare. Tron knew that would bring everyone pressing into the mess hall until it seemed the walls would simply have to buckle to fit all the people. As some pushed their way free, two more would fight in to fill the hole they left. It would be easy for the attackers to catch most of them here. But surely some got away. The room could only hold thirty or forty at once, which meant that at least that many were out in the corridors. But there weren’t any bodies out there. He was sure some were hunted down; the ones who came into his room were probably looking for people who’d run. There was no way he and Kivi were the only ones they missed.
    The captain. Jay never ate until everyone else had gotten their meals. He said that it was because he could only enjoy it after he knew all their bellies were full, but Tron always figured the slender man just didn’ t like to be packed in like the rest of them when he picked up whatever paste-based meal the priest and two helpers had prepared for that meal. Tron didn’t blame him. Since being moved to storage, Tron was only allowed in the mess for one meal a day, and he’d come to enjoy the peace that came with having his food delivered. He would probably wait out the crowds too, if he was ever given the choice in the matter. That meant there was a really good chance that Jay was nowhere near the mess when the attackers came. So maybe he was still alive, somewhere. After all, he was the only one that could turn off that horrible screeching alarm.
    He only realized he was standing up again after he’d been staring at a face he hadn’t been able to see before for some time. It didn’t look like her. She was such a pretty lady, with bright blue eyes and a distracted smile that was never far from her lips. But the pale, blood-flecked face was still his mother.
    Tron didn’t have any loud cries left in him. The tears that spilled from his eyes now were silent. They hurt more, like something vital was slipping out of him with each one. He backed away. He didn’t know how long he stared at her, but he knew he couldn’t do it anymore. This place was meant to be filled with so much life it was bursting with it. He needed to take care of Kivi and the engine and finding the captain. This room of death was chipping away at all the pieces of his sanity that Tron needed to do any of those things.
    The door hit his back lightly. It was only then that he realized he was moving. One