Read Online Children of the Uprising by Trevor Shane - Free Book Online

for five minutes, waiting for a message. “How long is this going to fucking take, Chris?” he muttered to himself. The bell rang. The other students began to flow into the hall. He watched them stream out of their classrooms, grinning and giggling. “Fuck it,” Evan said to himself and slipped the phone into his pocket. “It’s not like I’m going to be watching porn during history class.”

Seven
    The buzz in the compound didn’t die. It only grew, like a balloon inflating to the verge of exploding. Then Max and Christopher arrived. Addy was sitting behind her desk when the two of them walked in. She was working with mapping programs, evaluating new locations to pick up people running from the War. She had options—Palm Beach, Miami, Orlando, even Tampa. She had heard that the close proximity to so many cities was one of the reasons that Reggie had decided to put the compound outside of Port St. Lucie. Still, she was having trouble concentrating. She was trying to ignore the excited, secretive whispers around her, but she was failing miserably.
    When Max walked into the building with the stranger, the whispers stopped. The talking stopped. Everything stopped. The room became completely still and silent. Everything but Max and the stranger was put on Pause. Everyone stared at the stranger. Addy, still confused, stared at Max. Max caught her glance for a moment and smiled. Then he wordlessly escorted the stranger through the building towards Reggie’s office.
    Addy had had enough. She needed to know what was happening. She got up from her desk and walked over to a woman who had named herself Angelina after some obscure Bob Dylan song. She was sweet, and though Addy wouldn’t say they were friends, Addy liked her well enough. “What’s going on?” Addy whispered to Angelina once Max and the stranger had walked past them. “Who is that?” she asked.
    â€œThat’s the
Child
,” Angelina said. Not even her whisper could cover up the excitement in her voice.
    â€œThe child?” Addy asked, confused. “He doesn’t look like a child to me,” she said, following the stranger with her eyes. He was young and not very tall, but she wouldn’t have called him a child. He looked like a man. He looked strong and fierce and his eyes glowed.
    â€œChristopher,”
Angelina said.
“The Child with the parents.”
Angelina’s words were little more than nonsense, but Addy finally understood. She could barely believe it. He was here. Max hadn’t been teasing her when he had told her that he was going on an important job. She wished she had known what was going on before they walked through the door. She would have watched Christopher more closely. She would have joined the others and stared at him unabashedly. Christopher. The Child with the parents. Addy would have killed ten men at that moment for the chance to talk to Max. Not only was Christopher real and alive but
he
was actually
there
. Addy had no idea what it all meant or what it all would mean. All she knew was that her life now felt larger and more important than it had felt only moments ago.
    Maybe it was a good thing that Addy hadn’t known that the stranger that Max brought into the compound was the Child. If Addy had watched Christopher closely when he walked through the door, she wouldn’t have seen the person she had heard stories about since she herself was a child. Instead, she would have seen a confused and scared eighteen-year-old boy. She didn’t get a close look, though, so she didn’t see reality. She only saw the legend.

Eight
    Christopher felt uncomfortable being marched through a room full of strangers. Hell, he would have been uncomfortable being marched through a room full of people he knew. He hated being looked at. He hated being watched. He’d spent his life trying to avoid being watched by people he couldn’t even see. Now Max