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

they got sleepy or thirsty or needed to go to the bathroom.
    None of those needs were easily satisfied.
    Their “bathroom” was just a corner of the cave they all avoided as much as they could. It stank mightily.
    They had no bedding at all, not a single pillow or blanket. Sleeping on wet rock only left Nina damp and stiff and more tired than ever.
    And when they were thirsty, they had to go to the dampest part of the cave and lick the wall. The guard never brought water. Matthias got the idea to keep one of the cloth bags the food had come in, in order to soak up asmuch water as possible. (He told the guard they’d dropped the bag over in the bathroom corner. “He won’t come in here and check,” he argued in a barely audible whisper. And he was right.) Matthias put the bag at the bottom of the damp wall, where the water dripped constantly. When the bag was saturated, he carefully squeezed the water from the wet cloth into Alia’s waiting mouth, and then Percy’s, and then a few precious drops into Nina’s. Nina choked and spit it out.
    â€œYu-uck!” she screamed.
    â€œWhat?” Alia asked.
    â€œIt tastes terrible,” Nina complained. The water was unpleasant enough licked straight from the wall—it tasted like rock and sulfur and, distantly, some kind of chemical Nina couldn’t identify. But from the cloth bag the water tasted like rock and moldy bread and old, rotting, dirty bag. Maybe even somebody else’s vomit as well.
    â€œIt’s water,” Matthias said. “It’ll keep us alive.”
    Nina didn’t say anything else. But after that, she went back to getting her water straight from the wall, a drop or two at a time, and let the others squeeze all the water from the cloth for themselves.
    Nina suspected that the other three kids had had a much rougher life than she before they were captured by the Population Police. They didn’t seem to mind the darkness like she did; they didn’t seem to mind the lack of food. They didn’t complain about the stench of the bathroomcorner. (Well, they all smelled bad themselves anyway. So did Nina.)
    Nina tried as much as possible to sit close to the other kids—for body warmth and to keep the guard from tattling on her again. And maybe to learn something. But several times she woke up from a deep sleep and found that they’d moved to another side of the room and were whispering together.
    â€œThere was a draft over there,” Alia would say. “We got cold, but you looked comfortable. We didn’t want to wake you.”
    It sounded so innocent. Maybe it was innocent. But it still made Nina mad.
    I will betray them, she’d think. That’ll show them. And I won’t care at all.
    That was when she’d moan something like, “Oh, I miss my family so bad. Who do you miss?”
    Even Alia wouldn’t answer a question like that.
    And later, facing the hating man, Nina would be glad for the other kids’ silence. Because, with his piercing blue eyes glaring at her, she knew she wouldn’t be able to keep any secrets. She felt like he knew she really was an exnay. She felt like, if he asked, she’d be forced to tell him Gran’s full name and address. Whether she wanted to or not, she’d describe every single one of her aunties down to their last gray hair, and give their civil service ranks and departments.
    Fortunately, he never asked about who had hidden her.He just asked about Alia, about Percy, about Matthias.
    â€œGive me more time,” Nina would beg. “I don’t know them yet.” (Though, secretly, Nina thought she could spend centuries in the prison-cave with them and still not know anything about them. Percy was like a rock, hard and unyielding, revealing nothing. Matthias was no more talkative than a tree. Even Alia, who looked like the weak spot on their team of three, was quiet more and more, polite and nothing