Read Online Half Lives by Sara Grant - Free Book Online Page A

fist hitting gut. She doesn’t turn around. She’s
through with their silly fights.
    Bungle strides up next to her. ‘Don’t worry about them,’ he says.
    ‘I don’t. I do worry about you.’ She rams her shoulder into his and he knocks her right back. ‘What did you guys do besides wait for me?’
    ‘Nothing,’ Bungle says, glancing back at the other three. ‘Tinker and Buzz saw how far they could throw stuff. Joe chased after those lizard things.’
    Greta shouldn’t be surprised by their lack of brain function, but she is. Most days a pile of rocks would be more interesting than those three. The roar and scramble increases
and soon Joe, Tinker and Buzz are barging into Greta and Bungle as they pass.
    ‘So, Greta, what did you find on the mountain?’ Tinker asks, walking backward.
    ‘Nothing,’ she says. Da is the only one she’s told about seeing Beckett and the girl. She’s supposed to determine if they are a threat or an asset. Da
can’t leave anyone alone.
    ‘That smoke every night isn’t coming from nothing,’ Buzz says. ‘Da’s just going to send us back until we figure it out.’
    She knows he’s right. Next time she’ll convince Da to let her come alone. She doesn’t need their protection or disruption. They don’t know she’s sneaked
here once before and, if she needs to, she’ll sneak out again.
    ‘Maybe
I
should go to the mountain,’ Tinker says, and stops. ‘I will find the source of the smoke.’
    ‘You wouldn’t know what to do if you found someone.’ She speaks too fast. It’s too important. ‘You can’t go to the mountain. Da sent
me
.’
    ‘He sent
us
,’ Tinker says, puffing himself up. ‘I can make first contact too, you know.’
    She changes tactics. ‘Tink, you’re too big and scary.’ And he is. She hadn’t really noticed before how much he’s grown. He’s always been her stupid
younger brother, but he’s already as hairy as Da, and she could hide in his shadow.
    ‘I guess you’re right.’ Tinker smiles a toothless smile and some of what makes him scary fades away.
    Maybe that
is
why Da sends her. She doesn’t look intimidating, but she’s tougher than any of her brothers. They don’t mess with her, not really. All she
needed to do was to give Buzz one swift kick between the legs the first time he knocked her down. The others saw it and knew she’d do it again.
    The closer they get to Vega the tighter the buildings are packed together and the higher they climb. She can’t believe that all these buildings used to have people in them. How
did the world work with all those bodies crashing into one another? Even now, she feels trapped by the walls of her new home. Da claimed a building near the centre of Vega. He liked that it was
shaped like a big X.
    Greta doesn’t understand the ways of all the other people who have joined them. There’s one family that only comes out at night. Another is trying to grow things on the
roof of their building. She tried to tell them they’d have to cart water all the way up there, but they don’t seem to mind. One family prefers to live in the basement. They’ve all
survived, but in very different ways.
    Greta’s family searched for six years before they settled on Vega. Da plans to set up lookouts on each of the mountains. He’s trying to organize everyone. He says the only
way they will survive is to work together. He says they need to play to their strengths. The group he calls the Fighters stand guard. They’d as soon punch you as look at you.
    Greta’s family are Gatherers. She and her brothers zigzag through streets they haven’t travelled before. Tinker, Buzz, Joe and Bungle can’t help but explore the
buildings and come out with broken bits and pieces.
    ‘We can use this!’ Tinker says of a scrap of material with plastic loops clinking together on one end.
    ‘Look at this!’ Bungle shows Greta a metal pot with a broken handle. That is a rare find. Over the years these buildings have