Read Online Jacked by Kirk Dougal - Free Book Online

eyes of all kinds of animals. Tar had seen picture books of zoos in Mr. Keisler’s apartment so he knew what some of the animals were called; birds and lions and elephants were there, mixed in with others he did not know. One looked like a long-necked lizard with wings, another was a horse with a large horn sticking out of its head. There were also little cars and two-wheeled vehicles that had seats on the inside, along with benches like the ones that sat in the old park.
    “What is that?” asked Toby.
    “Uncle Jahn called it a Mary Round,” answered Tar. “But he never told me who Mary was. He said it would play loud music and go in circles while little kids rode on the animals. It sounded like a big deal.”
    “I’ll bet it was pretty chilly,” Toby breathed. “You know, if you were a little kid.”
    “Come on. Let’s go see what the Black Shirts want.”
    Tar led them across the open area and into a wide hallway on the far side. This quickly opened up into an even bigger area that carried a little echo no matter how quiet the two of them tried to be. Tar shined his flashlight straight up and the glow barely reached the glass and metal roof over their heads, three floors above them.
    “Why doesn’t the sky shine through?” asked Toby.
    “There are metal pieces that roll down over the glass,” answered Tar. “I fixed one a long time ago but when it opened it made an awful sound and I was afraid people would know I was inside so I closed it and never opened them again.” He turned his light toward a silver and black stairway at the other end of the open area. “We need to get up on the second floor to see the school.”
    The air smelled stale as the boys moved toward the stairs. The last time he had been in the building Tar needed to wait before he could leave because some older boys were hanging around outside the loading area. He had been afraid they had found their own way in and he did not want to get caught in the dark with them. But everything inside still looked untouched with a layer of dust over the floor and the benches.
    Toby wandered off right and stopped just short of a shop front. A flexible barred gate hung about six feet from the floor, leaving the store open to anyone who wanted to go inside. But there was no reason to. Not anymore.
    “Not much left,” he said, staring at the empty shelves. “Wonder what happened to everything?”
    Tar shrugged.
    “After The Crash people got desperate. They grepped everything they could—clothes, paper, food—it was a real mess. There were fights in the streets and people got killed. There was nobody to stop them. The police all went hard boot because they were hooked into the Mind.”
    “Our teachers don’t really talk about it a lot,” said Toby. “But most of them aren’t much older than us so they probably don’t remember the before time. When I was little there were still a couple of older ones around but they just seemed…sad. They just never talked about it.”
    “Uncle Jahn doesn’t like to, either. Mr. Keisler told me once that after all the troubles started, that’s when the Black Shirts came around. They made the fighting stop and took care of the ones that went hard boot.” Tar walked toward the stairs again and Toby followed. “When I let it slip that he was telling me stuff about the Before Uncle Jahn got mad and Mr. Keisler stopped saying as much.”
    The stairs were strange. The steps had bar-shaped treads that were made of cracked rubber with a rounded handrail to match. But the sides were shiny metal and the risers were solid so they quickly made it to the second floor.
    Tar turned left and headed into an even darker hallway. Their lights showed the walls closing in and a ceiling appeared over their heads. The echoes of their steps were louder and when Toby stumbled over a small metal bar, sending it clanging off into the black, the noise echoed and made them both jump.
    “Sorry,” he mumbled.
    “It’s okay,” Tar