Children of the Underground Read Online Free PDF Page A

She knew Evan wasn’t used to any of this, not like her. He hadn’t grown up with the violence and the death and the paranoia. If they were going to escape the fire and the bullets, she knew that she was going to have to lead him out.
    Addy crawled closer to Evan, pulling her body next to his. He was lying on the floor, his face as close to the carpet as he could get it. He was trying to catch his breath, like a drowning man gasping for air. “We’ve got to find a way out of here!” Addy shouted at Evan, trying to break through his paralysis. “We’ve got to make a run for it!” Addy reached out and grabbed Evan’s hand. Evan felt her hand land on top of his. In the growing heat of the room, Addy’s hand felt almost cool. “Are you ready?” she asked him. He was young and strong and wasn’t about to let himself die lying on the floor. He didn’t ask Addy where they were running. He simply nodded.
    They stood up together and ran.
    Addy’s plan was for them to run for the door. She couldn’t think of any other way out. She probably should have known that their attackers would have the door covered. Once standing, Evan and Addy could barely see anything but smoke and, dancing amid the smoke, the red lasers from the sights of their attackers’ guns. Even holding hands, Evan and Addy had trouble seeing each other. They could hear the crackling of the burning fire, though, and they could hear the gunshots. They kept running. As they neared the door, the sound of the gunshots became more frequent and they could hear the sounds of people moaning. Then Evan lost his footing and toppled to the floor, pulling Addy down to the ground with him. Evan looked back. He’d tripped over a body. Now that he was on the ground, below the line of smoke, he could see the bodies lining the hallway. He counted four of them. Then he heard a scream, and both he and Addy knew that it was the scream of someone being eaten by the fire. More bullets flew in through the open door. Whoever was attacking them was literally trying to smoke them out of the house. The attackers stood outside with their guns and their uniforms, waiting for anyone who managed to escape the fire through the door. They must have started the fire by shooting some sort of firebomb through a window while everyone was sleeping. Then they watched the door, picking people off as they ran out, like plastic targets in a carnival game. The gunshots weren’t single shots. They were rips of automatic fire, sounding like a snare drum from hell, gunning down everyone who emerged from the smoke. Evan looked at the bodies, trying to see if he could identify the body of his friend, but even below the smoke it was far too hazy to tell.
    Evan and Addy were still clutching each other’s hands. “The window,” Evan shouted. It was on the other side of the room, away from the door.
    â€œThey must have that covered too,” Addy yelled before coughing a violent, spastic cough.
    Evan looked around them. He couldn’t see any flames, only smoke, but he learned quickly that he didn’t need to see the flames in order to feel their heat. His skin was roasting. “We burn in here or we take our chances with the window,” he said to Addy. More gunshots echoed through the air like an exclamation point on Evan’s words. The screams seemed to have stopped for the time being.
    â€œWe’ll have to break the window,” Addy said. “We’ll never get it open.” Each word was an effort. “We can throw something out to distract them and then jump.”
    â€œThere’s a chair in the corner,” Evan said. He crawled over and grabbed the chair before dragging it back to Addy.
    â€œWe’ll do it together,” Addy said to Evan. “On one, we break the window.” She took a breath. “On two, we throw the chair out. On three, we jump.” They both knew that they