Invasion USA Read Online Free PDF

from cuts they had received in the wreck.
    And worst of all, they were running straight toward her .
    Too late, she tried to throw the Nissan into reverse and get out of there. The men were already beside the car, waving their guns at her and yelling in Spanish. One of them yanked the back door open and jumped in. “Emily!” Carla shrieked. “Don’t hurt my baby!”
    The other man jerked the front passenger door open and shouted at Andy, “Get out!”
    â€œLeave us alone!” Andy yelled back at him. “Mom! Mom! Do something!”
    The man grabbed Andy’s arm and twisted. Andy cried out in pain. Carla said, “Leave him alone!” and leaned over to swat at the man.
    He jammed the muzzle of the bulky gun he held against the side of Andy’s head. “Tell him to get out, or I’ll kill him.”
    Carla never would have guessed that she could be so scared, so consumed with horror, and still keep functioning somehow. She knew she had no choice but to cooperate. “Andy,” she said, trying to keep her voice calm, “get out.”
    â€œBut Mom—”
    â€œI’ll be all right, but you have to do like I told you and get out.” She knew she wouldn’t be all right. These madmen would likely kill her. But that would be fine as long as they didn’t hurt her children. All her frustration, and her weariness were forgotten now. All that mattered was that her children survive this insane ordeal. As Andy shakily unbuckled his seat belt and started to get out of the car, Carla added, “Take your little sister with you.”
    â€œNo time,” the man said. He grabbed Andy again and pulled him out of the car, Andy yelling as he fell heavily to the sidewalk and rolled over a couple of times. The man lunged into the front seat, jabbed the gun toward Carla, and grated, “Drive!”
    She took her foot off the brake, put it on the gas, and stepped down hard on it. The Nissan surged forward.
    In the back seat, Emily wailed, not sure what was going on but able to tell that something was very wrong.
    Carla’s hands were so tight on the steering wheel she thought it might break in her grip. She knew the men had to be criminals of some sort, which meant she and Emily were now hostages. Hostages almost always died in these sorts of things, didn’t they? But the ones who survived cooperated with their captors. She said, “I’ll do anything you want, take you anywhere you want to go. Just don’t hurt my baby.”
    â€œShut up,” the man in the front seat snapped at her. “Make a block and then go back east.” He reached over and jerked the wheel in her hands. “Now!”
    Carla spun the wheel and skidded through the turn. She made a block, turned again and then again, came back out on Main Street and headed east. In the rearview mirror, she saw smoke and dust and running people and flashing lights. She hoped the lights meant that the police were coming after her.
    She drove fast but not recklessly. Main Street was also the highway that ran through Little Tucson. As Carla drove past the Baptist church, she saw the cars in the parking lot and knew that Vacation Bible School had started for the day. And Andy was late. She bit back a sob. She didn’t want to annoy the gunmen by being weepy.
    A cold ball of fear rolled around in her stomach. No one seemed to be following them. Was it possible that in all the confusion, the authorities didn’t know that the two gunmen had carjacked her? Maybe nobody was even looking for her. Maybe no help was on the way.
    No, that couldn’t be. Andy would tell them what had happened. That is, he would if he could talk. He had been lying awfully still on the sidewalk the last time Carla had seen him. Maybe he had hit his head when the man threw him down and was knocked out. Maybe he was—
    She wouldn’t let herself think anything worse than that. She couldn’t. She