Twisted World: A Broken World Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

wasn’t working. She was about to unravel. I knew it. She knew it. Hell, probably every neighbor we had knew it.
    “Did you go to work today?” I asked against my better judgment.
    “You know I can’t,” she hissed.
    I squeezed my eyes shut while mentally tabulating my own credits. It wouldn’t be enough. Not even with the credits Dad had stashed away.
    The image of Suzie’s slum flickered through my mind and a shudder shook my body. No. That would not happen. I’d sell myself in the entertainment district before I allowed that to happen to us.
    When I opened my eyes, Mom hadn’t moved an inch.
    “We’re going to lose our apartment,” I said, hoping to talk some sense into her. I needed her help. I couldn’t do this alone.
    “Is that what you’re worried about?” she snapped, her eyes somehow growing larger.
    “Yes, and you should be too.”
    Don’t scream, Meg. Don’t do it. Someone will call the Judicial Officer and Parvarti will show up. It will put her in an awkward position.
    “I can’t worry about an apartment!” Mom hissed, her voice quieter this time. Her brown eyes left my face only to dart around the apartment again. It was like she thought someone was listening in on us. “Your father is missing. They took him.”
    “No one took him,” I said even though I had no idea what had really happened to Dad.
    Mom nodded so fast that her hair fell into her face, covering her eyes. She didn’t push it back. “The CDC has him. They had Angus there. They used him for years. Kept him alive even though they told us he was dead. Just so they could create a vaccine. It worked for a while, but when the virus mutated they had to start all over. Then he finally died and it mutated again, and they needed someone else. Someone new. Your dad .”
    It wasn’t the first time she’d thrown the crazy theory at me, but it didn’t get any easier to hear. Even though I didn’t believe it for a second, the idea that someone was holding Dad captive and using him like a lab rat made me physically sick.
    “Stop it,” I moaned, choking back the tears. “Please.”
    “I can’t!” Mom threw her hands in the air, and for the first time I noticed how thin her arms were. Almost skeletal.
    She wasn’t eating. I’d suspected as much, but seeing all the weight she’d lost sent a shiver shooting through me. I’d already had so much taken from me, and I wasn’t sure if I could stomach losing her too.
    Only, I didn’t know if she could be saved at that point.
    “Dad isn’t immune,” I said calmly. “They would have told you when you got here. Joshua said it a thousand times—”
    The second the words were out I knew they were a mistake, but it was too late. The trigger was there and she was ready to pull it, blowing a bullet through the last bit of hope I had that she wasn’t losing her mind.
    “He said it, but that was before. Then Axl disappeared and no one had a clue where he went. How does no one know? It doesn’t make sense. Then Joshua started looking into it, and next thing you know we’re being told there was an accident. An accident !”
    She paced as she talked, her fingers picking at the hem of her dirty shirt. Her mouth moving so fast that the words spilled out like a waterfall, flooding the room and my head until I felt like I was on the verge of drowning.
    I backed away until I was at the front door, and when I slipped out, she was still pacing. Still jabbering away like something was eating at her brain. Chomping on it until the Mom I knew didn’t exist.
    I shut the door, but her words didn’t fade completely.
    In the safety of the hall, I exhaled and sank to the floor. My head fell back, bumping against the door. I focused on the ceiling. It was a textured pattern that was so familiar I probably could have drawn it in my sleep. Row after row of two inch white sunbursts spread from one end of the hall to the other, only interrupted by the recessed lights and smoke detectors. The familiarity