The Trap Read Online Free PDF Page A

down at Cassie, at her lotus feet. “You take this enclave!” he shouts, directing her to an empty enclave on the bottom row. “Don’t let anyone pull you out,” he
says as she dives in. “Kick and punch if you have to!”
    She nods frantically, pressing against the back wall.
    And then we’re sprinting down the corridor, the four of us. Bodies are flying everywhere, in opposite directions, colliding, bumping, cursing. It’s obvious that the siren has caught
everyone by surprise and out of position.
    Screams, shouts. Boys aggressively fighting over empty enclaves. Blood spilling, the cracks of noses fracturing, eyes blackening. We run past these scuffles, knowing better than to waste time.
Here and there, we sprint past a girl staggering on her lotus feet, tears streaming down, lips quivering in terror.
    Seconds pass, ten, twenty, thirty. Fewer and fewer people are running along the corridors. Mostly smaller boys, those pushed out or pulled out by older, stronger boys, their eyes darting from
side to side in growing distress. Ahead of us, a burly boy pulls out a skinny girl from an enclave, subduing her with a vicious kick to the rib cage. She doesn’t even try to regain the
enclave but takes off down the corridor in search of an unoccupied space, as fast as her plodding lotus feet carry her, anyway. She leaps into an enclave, and seconds later a skinny, tiny boy is
kicked out. He sprints off, doubled over with pain, fighting back tears.
    We turn a bend, race down another stretch. There. An empty enclave on the top row. We grab David, order him in there. When he protests—and he does so vehemently—Epap grabs him by the
scruff of his neck, barks something at him, then roughly shoves him farther inside. And then we’re sprinting again, trying to find another unoccupied spot. I glance back, see David’s
face pop out from the opening, his expression full of fear.
    By now, the corridor is empty of stragglers. It’s just the three of us. Whenever I glance into a passing enclave, a scowling, terrified face stares back, arms and legs ready to ward off
any attempt to supplant.
    The lights start to blink quickly. On, off, on, off; then faster,
on-off-on-off
. We stop, panic stalling us. The lights strobe manically, in rhythm with our frantically beating
hearts.
    “They’re all occupied!” Epap shouts, sweat pouring down his face. “There’s nowhere to go!”
    We need to go where there’s less people!
are the words in my mind, but before I verbalize them I’m grabbing Sissy and Epap, pulling them roughly. Back the way we came. Back
toward the smell of raw sewage.
    They don’t question me, only match me stride for stride. We break into a panic-fueled, mad sprint. We turn around a bend, gun down yet another corridor, force our legs to pound faster. The
smell of sewage grows more pungent.
    “You look left!” I shout at Sissy and Epap without breaking stride. “I’ll look right!”
    And almost immediately I see an empty enclave. Epap is closest to me and I grab him by the shoulders and, before he has a chance to react, throw him roughly into it. He shouts in protest, then
crashes against the metal sides of the enclave.
    I don’t stop, only continue to sprint faster, Sissy next to me, neither of us bothering to even glance back. We’re too far away now—Epap has no choice but to stay where he
is.
    And then, just as we reach the end of one corridor and start bounding down another, the siren stops screeching. It’s quiet. I hear only blood rushing in my ears and the rapid thumping of
my heart.
    A loud series of electronic beeps suddenly sounds from every enclave. From the top edge of each unit, a glass window starts to descend. The enclaves are about to be sealed off.
    “C’mon!” Sissy shouts, pulling me by the arms.
    The glass windows continue to fall, teasingly slow.
    Then Sissy is grabbing me by the neck and thrusting me into an enclave on the bottom row. It’s empty. But I catch myself