Jonah Havensby Read Online Free PDF Page B

concrete and rocks of different shapes and sizes. These must have been the things people chucked through the windows from time to time to watch the windows break.
    He went to one of the large machines and found it covered in a thick layer of dust. It was so large it went from floor to ceiling and had a long conveyer belt that snaked halfway through the room, but seemingly ended into open space. He couldn’t tell what it would have been used to make.
    He heard a noise in a far back corner that gave him a start, but he didn’t see anyone. Then he heard it again. The rustling of paper. But he still didn’t see anyone.
    He made his way cautiously toward the noise, bent over in a defensive but sneaking position. It seemed somehow comical to try and sneak up on someone in a completely open room, but he continued with that approach anyway.
    When he was closer to the wall the rustling happened again. He made a sharp yell and nearly jumped out of his skin when a raccoon appeared from under a pile of scrap papers and darted to the corner of the room, then stared at Jonah menacingly.
    Jonah had never seen a raccoon before. Well, not in real life. He’d seen chipmunks and he’d seen a deer once, but no raccoons. His father had told him he had to take care around wildlife, because they were more scared of you than you are of them. That made them dangerous because you couldn’t know what they would do.
    Jonah put up his hands in a calming gesture. “Easy there,” he said to the raccoon. “You stay away from me and I’ll stay away from you. Deal?”
    He backed away slowly with his hands in the air. When he was sure the raccoon wasn’t going to follow, he turned around, only to bump into the railing of a long metal staircase. The stairs lead up to a room with a row of windows that looked down onto the open first floor. He skirted the railing and went up the stairs two at a time.
    There was an open door at the top of the stairs. When he went in, he found it was a long office. The walls were painted a fading yellow, and the paint was chipping in places. There was an empty metal built-in bookshelf along the far wall. The floor was old, bleached wood, and covered in dust. There were piles of what looked like saw dust here and there.
    Something along the window was covered with a large furniture cloth. He pulled on the cloth and it revealed a long control panel, with buttons and switches. In the center, the panel had a microphone that could be angled this way and that. The control panel didn’t seem to have any power at all, not that he dared to try to turn it on.
    There was another furniture cloth behind him and he pulled that too. Here was a large built-in roll-top desk. He tried the roll-top and it slid up easily. There was nothing inside. He tried the drawers and found them empty as well.
    There was an oversized clock on the wall above the desk. The numbers and the frame were made of metal, set on a light tan backing. It looked slightly out of place here, a little too artistic for the surroundings. It gently ticked away the seconds. He didn’t see a power cord, and doubted if it had batteries that would last as long as this place had been empty. It must have been connected to power in the wall.
    There was another door by the built-in bookshelf and he walked over and opened that. Here he found a bathroom. The floor was a light blue tile, and was stained and chipped in a lot of places. The walls were gray-blue and people had written different things in a variety of different colors. It was a very small room. It didn’t have a shower or a tub.
    He flushed the toilet to see if it still worked. It seemed to be just fine. Then he turned on both taps on the large utility sink. The water ran brown for a second or two and then ran clear. He let it run another few seconds and then cupped his hands underneath and brought the water to his mouth. It tasted normal, but once again, it seemed like the hot water wasn’t working.
    He looked at