Among the Betrayed by Margaret Peterson Haddix Read Free Book Online Page A

thought she knew what he meant.
    â€œWell, it hasn’t done any good so far, has it?” she challenged. “You’re still stuck down here, and they haven’t fed you, and they haven’t even given you soap to wash your face!”
    â€œThey haven’t killed us, either,” Alia said softly. Nina stared at the younger girl. When I was six, I wouldn’t have known to say something like that, she thought. I was still a baby, playing with dolls and dressing up in the aunties’ old clothes, pretending to be a princess. And I had four old ladies treating me like a princess.
    â€œI’m sorry,” Nina said. “I didn’t mean to do anything wrong.”
    But she’d let the hating man think she was going to spy for him. She’d eaten his food, and that was like . . . like taking blood money or something. She hadn’t refused anything. She hadn’t screamed and hollered and told him that the Population Police were wrong. She hadn’t demanded that he set Matthias and Percy and Alia—and herself—free.
    Nina bent her head down, too ashamed to look at the others.
    A scraping sound behind her saved her from having to say anything else.
    â€œFood!” Alia said delightedly.
    The guard was opening the door. He tossed in a dark bundle, then shut the door and retreated.
    Alia reached the bundle first. She grabbed it up and took it over to the boys. Matthias held the candle so they could all see in.
    â€œOoh, Nina, look!” Alia squealed. “There’s one, two, three, four, five . . . eight slices of bread! They’ve never brought more than six before!”
    â€œThere’s one more of us now, silly,” Percy said. “We still get two each.”
    â€œOh,” Alia said.
    Nina moved over with the other kids, feeling like she’d crossed some invisible line. She squatted down with them and peered into the bag. It held the same kind of hard black bread she’d had for her first meal in prison. There wasn’t even any butter or apples to go with it. After her feast with the hating man she couldn’t pretend to want this bread.
    â€œYou know what?” she said with studied casualness. “I’m not really hungry. Why don’t you all take my slices, too?”
    They all stared at her.
    â€œAre you sure?” Alia asked. “I don’t think they feed us every day.”
    â€œThat’s okay. You take it,” Nina said.
    They didn’t need any extra urging. In seconds the three kids had gobbled up all the bread. Nina did notice, though, that Matthias had a strange way of dividing up Nina’s share of the food: Alia got a whole slice, and Matthias and Percy split the other one. Nina’s full stomach ached, watching the others eat so hungrily.
    When they were done, they searched for any dropped crumbs and ate those as well. Nina hovered beside them, pretending to look for crumbs, too. Then they all sat back, happily sated. Nina sat down beside Alia, and Alia leaned over and gave her a big hug.
    â€œThanks, Nina. I hope you don’t get hungry later. I think that was the best meal I ever had.”
    Nina could have brought Alia fresh, beautiful rolls, but she hadn’t. Instead, she’d let the little girl have old, moldy, practically inedible black bread just because Nina herself was too full of the Population Police’s fine meal to pretend to want it. And now Alia was thanking her.
    Nina felt guiltier than ever.

CHAPTER ELEVEN
    D ays passed. Nina had no idea how many, because nothing happened with any regularity. Sometimes the guard brought food; sometimes the guard pulled one of them out for questioning. Sometimes Matthias decided they could light the candle for a few minutes—but only for Alia, only when he thought she needed it.
    Nobody knew when any of those things would happen.
    Other than that, they could measure their time in the prison-cave only by how many times