Evolution Read Online Free PDF Page B

carry the question to the
whole bar.  “Does anyone remember seeing Apollon during the battle with
Grey?”
    Nervous glances fly around, quickly followed by incoherent
murmurs and downcast eyes.  Perhaps they expected me to offer words of
reassurance after our recent ordeal.  Maybe that’s what Matt would
do.  But I don’t have time for that.  I want to know where my friend
is.  Now.
    I scan through their faces and gestures, looking for any
sign that someone knows something.  There’s a man in the back who is still
looking around.  He glances at me.  His gaze quickly falls to the
floor when he sees I’ve noticed.
    “Spit it out.”  My voice demonstrates exactly how thin my
tolerance is at the moment.
    He clears his throat, tries to talk, and has to clear his
throat again.  When he speaks, his voice is shaky.  He’s afraid of
me.  All these people are afraid of me.  “He was…  I saw him not
far off the marketplace, when the battle had just begun,” he manages,
finally.  “He was with that woman.  The herb-dealer who doesn’t
talk.”
    “Neveah?” I’m spluttering, before I even realize I’m saying
it out loud.  The thoughts come crashing together in my mind.  Matt
had Neveah.  Apollon and Neveah were together.  Does Matt have
Apollon?  And he’s not even admitting it?  Anger and fear drain the
blood from my face.
    I turn around and down my drink, absorbed in these
thoughts.  Dismissed, the others go back to their hushed
conversations.  Only when I turn to walk out of the bar do I realize that
their words are whispered quietly, hidden from me.  I stop at the door and
allow my eyes to scan over them.  Tension.  Fear.
    This thing with the Sentries has them more riled up than I
realized.  Perhaps I missed it because I was so focused on my own
worries.  On getting me and my friends out.  What I didn’t realize
is, as much as this development bothers me, I saw it coming.  At least
most of it.  The fact that the Sentries showed up wasn’t a surprise for
me.  But for them, it’s total shock.
    Not good for Matt.
    Not my problem.
    I turn and stalk out the door.
     
    ***
     
    I’m panting, bent over in an
alleyway, hands on my knees.  A sudden start, lots of twists and turns, a
shortcut through a crumbling building, and I seem to have lost Jacob and
Taylor, at least for a moment.  I’m pretty sure they’ll guess where I’m
headed, so I’ve got to get there before them and be gone before they arrive.
    I run the backstreets toward the
northeastern side of the Outpost, where our little shack is huddled against the
concrete wall.  I go straight to the door to let myself in, but it won’t
open.  Locked.  I pound on it urgently.
    “Jonas!  Let me in.  I
need to talk to you!”
    Nothing.
    I pound again. 
“Hurry!”  My heart is twisting inside me.  What if he won’t?  He
has to be in there.
    Still nothing.  I drag in
another breath.
    “Please!”  I pound with both
fists now.  “It’s important.”
    His voice: “Go.  Away.”
    I fight back the tears. 
“Jonas.  Please.”  I sound so defeated.  “Just two minutes. 
That’s all I ask.”
    Silence.  I lean my forehead
against the door, listening for anything.  For the sound of him coming to
let me in.  But there is nothing.
    Time is up.  I can’t risk
staying any longer.  Can’t risk what Matt would do to me or him or both of
us if he knew for sure that I was here.  I turn and rush off down the
street.  I put plenty of distance between me and my old home, then trudge,
hands in pockets, face turned down, until Jacob and Taylor find me.

Chapter 5: Not My
Problem
    There are whispers on the
streets.  A feeling.  When people see me, they look down and
away.  Pretend they weren’t discussing what they were discussing. 
But I have a pretty good idea of the panic that is silently running through the
channels of the Outpost.  I haven’t seen Matt, so I don’t know if he’s
aware of it.  If