Follow Me Through Darkness Read Online Free PDF Page A

again.
    “Next time that happens, try to catch the little bugger. Those are a delicacy in these parts.” I can hear the amusement in his voice.
    I can’t wait to get out of here. Away from the iron and dirt walls. From the smell and the darkness and the rats. This is not why I came here, to be trapped underground, and I know it’s part of my journey but I’m ready for the next part. I’m ready for the end.
    I run into something hard and bounce back like a rubber ball. Bayard looks down at me, his brow furrowed and his face taut with annoyance. Twice I’ve run into him.
    “We’ll be sleeping here tonight. This is a safe area.”
    I look around him at the makeshift steps leading up to a higher platform. We climb the steps and up here, torches line the walls. The golden glow is bright enough that I can see my feet for the first time today. My gray-laced shoes are cloaked in black, but I can’t tell if it is dirt or darkness.
    All around me are oddities. Everything from glass bottles to keys hanging off strings to tattered books litter the ground and are crammed into the shelves that have been built into the walls. The whole space is overflowing in Old World treasures.
    “Third tent down from here,” Bayard says.
    His steps are wobbly and wide as he moves in front of me. I adjust my pack on my shoulders and follow behind him. As we pass the row of books, I try to make out any of the titles, but it’s too dark. Some of the covers are destroyed, while the others are just too dark for me to see. I desperately want to explore them. I’ve only touched twelve books from the Old World. A small group of us used to meet on the beach next to the barrier that separates the Compound from the Old World and dream about what it had been like.
    Rowan was the first one to bring us a book from this world. His forbidden stories were wrapped in the shell of “approved” reading, books that the Elders and the director deemed good for us to know. Those approved stories all fit the same kind of mold and were nothing like the books Rowan brought us-books about a king and his knights and the great battles and injustices they fought. Or the one about creation in a garden of perfection with Adam and Eve, and the misery they set forth by pursuing the forbidden. We shared the stories, passed them around in secret for the entire year before Rowan was transferred. I never had the chance to ask him how he got the books. Now I know I never will.
    Bayard puts his hand on my shoulder, and the sudden movement makes me jump. “You’ll be out of here soon. I know it’s hard if you’re not used to it.”
    I look up and meet his dark eyes. There’s a hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth, probably forced and more out of pity than anything else, but it warms me. The look’s gone as quickly as I see it.
    The flap of the tent in front of us pops out in our path, and with it comes a lady shorter than me. Her hair is back in a bun, pulled close to her head except for the poof that rests on top.
    “Bayard Toffy! Look at you! It’s been ages since I’ve seen you!” The woman’s practically yelling it, she’s so excited. I’m sure there’s no one around who doesn’t know we’re here now.
    She and Bayard hug, chattering quickly in a language I don’t understand. I never knew the people in the Old World spoke differently until I got here. To be fair, I never knew there were people. English was the standard before the Preservation, but Rover said the Remnants spoke in Spanish once they were established. That way, if any were found, they could pretend they didn’t understand. We didn’t get to learn Spanish in the Compound; we’d learned only enough about the Old World to teach us a lesson about gratitude toward the Elders for saving us.
    They stop talking and look at me. “This here is Neely. I’m guiding her above,” Bayard says in English. He looks at me with something almost like pride. The look sticks with me and rattles something in