Read Online Gated by Amy Christine Parker - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Amy Christine Parker
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shoulder so tight it has to be uncomfortable for him, but I can’t make myself relax.
“Just let me lead you, okay?” he whispers, his eyes strangely soft in the moonlight. The way he’s looking at me makes me shiver. There’s a hunger to his gaze. He pulls me closer, his chin resting lightly on my hair. I concentrate on not stepping on his feet so I don’t have to think about how close he is to me.
“Not a complete disaster. Good, Lyla!” Marie calls over Brian’s shoulder. She looks perfectly content. Once Brian finally slimmed down and muscled up, she fell for him hard. It shows in the way she looks at him now.
Marie and Brian are dancing too. I watch as she moves in his arms. It’s hard not to watch her when she dances.She’s beautiful. I mean, she’s not exactly unattractive when she’s
not
dancing; it’s just that right now she’s mesmerizing. If it wasn’t almost the end of the world and if we didn’t live in Mandrodage Meadows, I know she would be studying dance full-time somewhere with a proper teacher, not memorizing the old ballets and Broadway dance numbers that Pioneer has archived in our library. I wonder if she’s ever sad that she’ll never get the chance to dance the way she’s obviously meant to—on a stage in front of hundreds of people. I’ve never asked her about it. Regret is a given here, the price of survival. No one wants to dwell on it.
“Glad you came?” Will asks, pulling me in closer.
I nod into his shoulder. “I think so, yeah.” There’s a strange kind of magic out here by the river. It’s muddling my thoughts, making my mind drift into a current of what-ifs. What if my family never moved to Mandrodage Meadows? What if I didn’t know that the world is ending? Would I be here with Will or Cody?
I’m so caught up in my own thoughts that at first the high-pitched scream of our Community’s emergency siren doesn’t register. But then the meaning of it hits me like a cold blast of river water.
This is it.
The end.
And itȁ S>Anm" 9;s early.
“We have to get back. Now!” Will yells.
My heart is so icy all of a sudden that it hurts.
How could we have been so stupid?
The world spins around me.The stars seem way too bright.
Can we make it back in time?
None of us speaks. I rush to gather up our blanket. My hands are shaking so hard that at first I have trouble picking up the thin fabric, separating it from the grass.
“Just leave it and move!” someone says, but I can’t make myself stop trying to pick up the blanket and I don’t know why.
Will’s next to me in a flash. He’s yelling at me to go. I can see his lips moving, but the alarm seems to be sounding off from inside my chest now. It’s all I can hear. Will jerks me to my feet and we sprint toward the trees. We leave everything behind us, including the ladder we used to get out. My breath is so shallow now that I’m lightheaded. I try to take a deep breath. Fainting is not an option, there’s no time.
“Head for the front gate,” Will barks as we run.
The alarm is one long, uninterrupted howl. It hasn’t ever gone off like this before—not in the middle of the night without a practice drill scheduled. It’s only supposed to go off if the last days begin early—if Pioneer is somehow wrong about the exact date. But we should still have three months.
Can his visions be that far off?
I try to hold in the sob struggling to escape my chest.
I’m not ready, not yet
.
We are still almost half a mile from the gate to Mandrodage Meadows. I feel like my legs are breaking down, like any minute I’ll lose all my strength and go boneless right there in the middle of the trees. But even if thatdoesn’t happen and I manage to keep running, if we all manage to keep running, we might not make it. If they close the shelter door before we get there and this is real, they won’t reopen it—not even for us. We will be locked out, left to die with the rest of the world.
My breath is coming hard. I
“Just let me lead you, okay?” he whispers, his eyes strangely soft in the moonlight. The way he’s looking at me makes me shiver. There’s a hunger to his gaze. He pulls me closer, his chin resting lightly on my hair. I concentrate on not stepping on his feet so I don’t have to think about how close he is to me.
“Not a complete disaster. Good, Lyla!” Marie calls over Brian’s shoulder. She looks perfectly content. Once Brian finally slimmed down and muscled up, she fell for him hard. It shows in the way she looks at him now.
Marie and Brian are dancing too. I watch as she moves in his arms. It’s hard not to watch her when she dances.She’s beautiful. I mean, she’s not exactly unattractive when she’s
not
dancing; it’s just that right now she’s mesmerizing. If it wasn’t almost the end of the world and if we didn’t live in Mandrodage Meadows, I know she would be studying dance full-time somewhere with a proper teacher, not memorizing the old ballets and Broadway dance numbers that Pioneer has archived in our library. I wonder if she’s ever sad that she’ll never get the chance to dance the way she’s obviously meant to—on a stage in front of hundreds of people. I’ve never asked her about it. Regret is a given here, the price of survival. No one wants to dwell on it.
“Glad you came?” Will asks, pulling me in closer.
I nod into his shoulder. “I think so, yeah.” There’s a strange kind of magic out here by the river. It’s muddling my thoughts, making my mind drift into a current of what-ifs. What if my family never moved to Mandrodage Meadows? What if I didn’t know that the world is ending? Would I be here with Will or Cody?
I’m so caught up in my own thoughts that at first the high-pitched scream of our Community’s emergency siren doesn’t register. But then the meaning of it hits me like a cold blast of river water.
This is it.
The end.
And itȁ S>Anm" 9;s early.
“We have to get back. Now!” Will yells.
My heart is so icy all of a sudden that it hurts.
How could we have been so stupid?
The world spins around me.The stars seem way too bright.
Can we make it back in time?
None of us speaks. I rush to gather up our blanket. My hands are shaking so hard that at first I have trouble picking up the thin fabric, separating it from the grass.
“Just leave it and move!” someone says, but I can’t make myself stop trying to pick up the blanket and I don’t know why.
Will’s next to me in a flash. He’s yelling at me to go. I can see his lips moving, but the alarm seems to be sounding off from inside my chest now. It’s all I can hear. Will jerks me to my feet and we sprint toward the trees. We leave everything behind us, including the ladder we used to get out. My breath is so shallow now that I’m lightheaded. I try to take a deep breath. Fainting is not an option, there’s no time.
“Head for the front gate,” Will barks as we run.
The alarm is one long, uninterrupted howl. It hasn’t ever gone off like this before—not in the middle of the night without a practice drill scheduled. It’s only supposed to go off if the last days begin early—if Pioneer is somehow wrong about the exact date. But we should still have three months.
Can his visions be that far off?
I try to hold in the sob struggling to escape my chest.
I’m not ready, not yet
.
We are still almost half a mile from the gate to Mandrodage Meadows. I feel like my legs are breaking down, like any minute I’ll lose all my strength and go boneless right there in the middle of the trees. But even if thatdoesn’t happen and I manage to keep running, if we all manage to keep running, we might not make it. If they close the shelter door before we get there and this is real, they won’t reopen it—not even for us. We will be locked out, left to die with the rest of the world.
My breath is coming hard. I
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