Soul Seekers Read Online Free PDF

weevils,’ he said. ‘The only meat we’ll get today.’
    Cas had managed not to throw up as the old man had bitten off a chunk of bread and chewed it mightily. Cas discarded his own chunk of bread by tossing it between the bars of the prison wagon, only to hear an uproar of cries from their fellow prisoners, who scrambled to grasp through the bars at the forlorn chunk of bread as it rolled away down the track.
    A pack of mangy dogs converged on the bread and tore it to shreds.
    ‘You fool!’ one man shouted, his teeth stained brown and yellow and his narrow jaw covered with a thin, curly beard. ‘That was fine eatin’!’
    Emily held out her chunk of bread to him. ‘Here, have mine, I’m not hungry.’
    The man whirled and snatched the hunk of bread from her hand before curling up in one corner of the wagon, shielding his prize from the jealous gaze of other prisoners as he munched through it.
    The army had camped on open ground a mile outside the city of Boston, a thick belt of forest standing between them and the city limits. The sun had descended beneath the horizon amid belts of cloud wreathed in flaming sunlight, and Cas was alarmed at how dark it was becoming without the comforting glow of streetlights. The woods were dense and black, the night sky above so dark it was utterly featureless.
    Siren and Jude both gave their bread to Kip, who grinned thankfully as he chewed.
    ‘God bless you,’ he said between weevil-filled mouthfuls.
    ‘Why are you a prisoner, Kip?’ Cas asked, watching as hundreds of pitched tents began to glow in the light from dozens of camp fires.
    ‘I was caught thieving,’ Kip admitted miserably, ‘from a farmer’s grove two nights ago. Lucky not to have been shot on sight, I guess. But I’ll be hanged now f’sure.’
    Cas looked Kip over. His clothes were old, ragged and stained with the dirt of decades. His beard was long and unkempt, his eyes buried either side of a long hooked nose, and his teeth were worn and stained with age.
    ‘How old are you Kip?’ Emily asked, perhaps thinking the same thing as Cas.
    ‘Me?’ Kip replied. ‘Why, I’m forty three.’
    Cas’s eyes widened.
He’s only two years older than my father!
Kip looked about seventy years old. Siren whispered from where she sat behind Cas.
    ‘People in 1776 didn’t always live as long as we do, and they didn’t have medicines and drugs or good food either.’
    ‘I noticed,’ Cas replied, watching as Kip tucked into his second piece of bread.
    ‘We’ve got to get out of here,’ Jude said from nearby. ‘You heard what he said: your father is going to be hanged tomorrow and probably us too.’
    ‘He’s our best chance of getting out of here,’ Siren said. ‘Your father worked on the experiment – he must know what happened, maybe have a way of putting this all right. Either way we’ve got to stop him from being hanged.’
    Cas nodded but he was stumped. ‘I can’t think of any way out of this wagon.’
    ‘Perhaps I could ask to use the bathroom?’ Emily said.
    ‘That would only get one of us out,’ Siren muttered. ‘And you’d be escorted.’
    ‘What’s the bathroom?’ Kip asked between mouthfuls.
    Cas almost blushed in the darkness. ‘You know, when you’ve got to go.’
    ‘Go where?’
    ‘To pee,’ Siren snapped.
    Kip chuckled as he bit off another chunk of bread. ‘You wouldn’t be escorted,’ Kip said, crumbs spilling from his lips. ‘You’d just go there.’
    Kip pointed to a darkened corner of the prison wagon. In the flickering light of the camp fires Cas saw a ragged hole hacked into the floor.
    ‘Oh,’ was all he could think of to say.
    Emily grasped his shoulder tightly and pointed at the hole. ‘Jude’s right, we have to get out of here because I’m not using
that
!’
    Cas sighed. ‘I’m working on it.’
    The camp quietened down as the evening turned to night and Cas was surprised to see how quickly the soldiers and prisoners all fell asleep. He had read