Emerge Read Online Free PDF Page B

one easily had Mr. Chip not protected her.
    Now, in a tree half a mile from the settlement, I used my monocular to watch Ryder and Key. They emerged from the building they’d disappeared into over an hour ago—the same building Mr. Chip and Miss Blonde had run to the minute they arrived at the compound.
    The air was cool and crisp and darkness was descending. I’d freeze if I didn’t enter the compound soon, but I was hoping that Ryder and Key would tell me they’d found Christina before I made my presence known. What if she ran when she saw me? What if it was me she’d been running from all along? It seemed silly to think that I was the reason she ran from the city when we were only twelve, but I couldn’t take that chance. I had to find Christina and take her back to New Caelum to help my sister. According to Mom, the antibodies living in Christina’s blood were Willow’s only hope for survival.
    The girl they called Nina was showing Ryder and Key around. The three of them disappeared into a small house. I jerked the monocular away from my face, slamming it into my thigh. “Come on, Ryder.” I needed them to call me on their PulsePoint, but I had no idea if they still even had their PulsePoints on them. Were they taken when they relinquished the Taser? Did they leave them inside the truck?
    After a while, I decided to give up on Ryder and Key for the night. I’d have to find a spot where I could stay warm until morning. If I still hadn’t heard from Ryder by then, I’d enter the compound.  
    I hadn’t seen anyone on the hike out of the mountains or on the deserted roads near the settlement, so I assumed I was mostly safe out here. I climbed out of the tree and decided to go in search of an abandoned building or some sort of shelter that would protect me from the cold wind.
    I had only gone about a hundred feet when I heard what sounded like mild cursing. Under the cover of trees, I searched through the dark, thick shadows and barely made out the outline of a female form—it was the angry blonde I had been following all day, walking fast along the road. My luck had changed.
    “Cricket,” a male voice called out from the direction of the compound. “Cricket” didn’t look back, and if anything, quickened her pace. It would appear that she didn’t wish to be found.  
    I looked back in the direction of the voice; it was Mr. Chip, the guy who had hung close to Cricket all day. “You’re going to freeze,” he warned, then with a wave of the hand, he turned and headed back inside the compound. I was really starting to dislike him.
    Cricket darted away from where I was hiding. I decided to follow.
    She walked at a good clip. I found it difficult to keep up as it got darker out—especially since I had no idea where I was going, and I was trying to stay far enough back so as not to be heard.
    More than a dozen turns later, not only did I have no idea where I was, but I realized I had totally lost sight of Cricket. I peered through my monocular, turned to night vision, but all I saw was the dead end of a gravel road. Overgrown shrubs lined one side of the road, and a crumbling stone wall the other.
    I heard the sound of a howling dog in the distance, and in my mind it sounded very much like a hungry wolf. Leaves blew in the cold breeze, and limbs knocked together with an eerie crackling. I was growing colder. This had been a stupid idea.
    Using my night vision monocular, I searched for Cricket again. She had vanished. How was that possible? Just as I was about to give up, I felt a hard jab in my ribs from behind. “Don’t turn around,” Cricket said with a low, but very girly, voice. “Who are you? Why are you following me?”
    The muscles along my spine tightened, yet I smiled at the same time. I’d been had by a girl who was half my size and barely came up to my shoulders. “Cricket, I presume?” I tried to glance over my shoulder to get a good look at the blond beauty behind me.
    She poked me