Among the Enemy Read Online Free PDF Page A

Police officers stepped back, as though their work was done.
Matthias had seen no striped pajamas, no holey shoes. But it was nearly dark—how could he be sure?
"Do you think he'll let us go now?" someone whined.
"Sir, should we search the rest of the area?" another man asked.
Matthias held his breath.
"No," the leader decided. "We did what we came to do. We could spend our whole lives looking through this wasteland, and for what? Back to headquarters! Now!"
The Population Police officers melted back into the woods on the other side of the road, as silently as if they were shadows themselves.
"Matt-Matt," Alia murmured.
"Shh," Matthias said. "Wait."
    It was too dark now to see Alia's face; he couldn't be sure if she was awake or not. He couldn't be sure what she'd heard or what she understood. He waited long, agonizing minutes, in case the Population Police came back. Then he whistled a soft imitation of a whip-poor-will. He and Percy had used that as a signal many times before.
Poor-will! Poor-will! echoed below him. Except it wasn't an echo. It was Percy.
Matthias felt like screaming for joy, rushing down the hill immediately. But he stopped himself. He picked up Alia again and inched through the darkness. He had to call and wait for Percy's answer again and again. Each call and response unnerved him. Percy should have been moving toward Matthias as Matthias moved toward him, so they could meet halfway. But Percy's Poor-will! Poor-will! stayed in one spot
Finally, after what felt like hours of stumbling through near-total darkness, Matthias thought he was close enough to whisper.
"Percy?"
A hand grabbed Matthias's ankle. Matthias crouched awkwardly, almost thrown off balance by the weight of Alia's body. He felt around on the ground. Dead leaves, furry moss, Percy's bloody leg ...
Bloody?
"Percy!" Matthias hissed, fear overriding caution. "What happened to you?"
    "Bullet," Percy said. It sounded like he was talking through clenched teeth. "Shot."
    And then Matthias felt Percy's head loll over to the side, against Matthias's shoe.
Percy had passed out.
    Chapter Seven

    As well as he could, Matthias tried raising Percy's head up again. But it was impossible to balance Alia on his lap and lift Percy at the same time.
    "Percy, no, I need you," he argued.
    He remembered how Samuel had always said, "God will never give you more than you can bear." But how could Matthias bear this? Both Percy and Alia injured and in such great pain and maybe dying ...
    "Oh, God, no," Matthias whispered, or maybe he was crying. He reached out for Percy's leg again, as if he believed his plea would make the wound miraculously heal itself. But blood was still seeping out along the gash in Percy's pajama pants. Lots of blood. Percy whimpered and jerked away from Matthias's hand.
    Shouldn't touch, germs, infection, Matthias thought in a jumbled way. He was too horrified to think clearly, but the words "soap and water" fought their way into his mind.

    I’m in the wilderness! Where am I supposed to find soap and water? he wanted to shout. But then the answer came to him.

The cabin.
    If Matthias had stopped to consider how hard it would be to get both Alia and Percy down to the cabin, he might have given up right then. But the thought that kept cycling through his mind was, Can't leave Alia, can't leave Percy, can't leave Alia, can't leave Percy. . . If he put Alia down to carry Percy, she might freeze to death before he could come back. If he left Percy behind and took Alia first, he might not be able to find Percy again in the dark. And then he'd have to wait for the morning light, and Percy could have bled to death by then.
What if Percy bled to death anyhow?
Don't think about that, he commanded himself.
He forced himself to concentrate on shifting Alia's limp body to one side, so he could support her with just one arm looped around her waist. With his other arm he reached down—awkwardly, almost toppling over—and wedged his hand under Percy's