Under a Blood Red Sky Read Online Free PDF

but ash.
    ‘Back to work, bistro! ’ yelled a guard.
    Her lungs were shutting down, she could feel it happening, starving her brain of oxygen. She dragged at the air in a last desperate gasp but it was far too late. She felt herself fall.
     
    ‘She needs injections of calcium chlorate. That’s what they’d use to cure her.’
    ‘Anna, talk to me.’
    Anna could hear Sofia’s voice. It drifted softly down to her where she lay flat on her back, though for the moment she had no idea where that was.
    ‘Come on, Anna. You’re scaring me.’
    With an effort of will that left her quivering, Anna clambered up from the dark towards the voice, but instantly regretted it when the raw agony in her lungs returned. The jolting under her body told her exactly where she was: back in the truck. She thought about opening her eyes but they had lead weights on them, so she gave up. Still voices curled around her.
    ‘She’s too sick to work any more.’
    ‘Keep your voice down. If the guards hear, they’ll just dump her over the side of the truck to freeze to death.’
    ‘What she needs is proper treatment.’
    ‘And proper food.’
    A harsh laugh. ‘Don’t we all?’
    Sofia’s voice again, warm on Anna’s skin. ‘Wake up, Anna. Bistro , quickly, you lazy toad. I’m not fooled, you know. I can tell you’re… just pretending.’
    Anna forced her eyes open. The world jumped sharply into focus and she could smell the mouldy odour of damp earth as it emerged from its winter freeze in the forest. She was lying flat on her back, the sky black and sequinned above her, while much closer Sofia’s face swayed into view.
    ‘So you’ve bothered to wake up at last. How are you feeling?’
    ‘I’m fine.’
    ‘I know you are.’ Sofia’s voice was bright and cheerful. ‘So stop pretending.’
    Anna laughed.
     
    ‘I’ve decided,’ Sofia announced. ‘I’m leaving.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘Leaving.’
    ‘Leaving where?’
    ‘Leaving Davinsky Camp. I’ve had enough of it, so I’m going to escape.’
    ‘No!’ Anna cried, then looked quickly about her and lowered her voice to a small whisper. ‘You’re insane, you mustn’t even try. Nearly everyone who tries it ends up dead. They’ll set the dogs on your trail and when they catch you they’ll put you in the isolator and we both know that’s worse than any coffin. You’ll die slowly in there.’
    ‘No I won’t, because I won’t let the bastards catch me.’
    ‘That’s what everyone says.’
    ‘But I mean it.’
    ‘So did they, and they’re dead. But if you’re so hell-bent on going, I’m coming too.’
    Anna couldn’t believe she’d said the words to Sofia. She must be out of her mind. Her presence on the escape attempt would be a death sentence for both of them, but she was in such despair over what Sofia was planning that she just wasn’t thinking straight.
    ‘I’m coming too,’ she insisted. She was leaning against a tree trunk, pretending she didn’t really need it to hold her upright.
    ‘No, you’re not,’ Sofia said calmly. ‘You wouldn’t get ten miles with your lungs, never mind a thousand. Don’t look at me like that, you know it’s true.’
    ‘Everyone says that if you try to escape through the taiga, you must take someone with you, someone you can kill for food when there’s nothing but starvation left. So take me. I know I’m ill, so I won’t mind. You can eat me.’
    Sofia hit her. She swung back her arm and gave Anna a hard slap that left a mark on the cheek. ‘Don’t you ever say that to me again.’
    So Anna hugged her. Held her tight.
     
    Anna was terrified. Terrified of losing Sofia. Terrified that Sofia would die out there. Terrified she would be caught and brought back and shut in the isolator until she either dropped dead or went insane.
    ‘Please, Sofia, stay. It doesn’t make sense. Why leave now? You’ve done five years already, so it’s only another five and you’ll be released.’
    Only another five. Who was she