Atherton #3: The Dark Planet (No. 3) by Patrick Carman Read Free Book Online Page B

it were being pulled
    downward.
    "What is this place?" Edgar said, though it came out slurry and
    weak.
    Along the walls of the hole Edgar could see that something had
    been here before. The walls were--what was it?-- scraped.
    Something big had passed through here more than once.
    Something really big. It was wide enough to span the space
    and touch the walls as it passed through. Edgar took two steps
    forward and then, to his great surprise, he heard a new sound
    from deep inside.
    Whatever it was did not sound happy to see him.
    CHAPTER 5ACROSS THE
    BURNINGBRIDGE OF STONE
    Teagan awoke with a start in the Silo. The whole world of the
    Dark Planet seemed to have turned ominously quiet apart from
    a single sound in the night. The sound of a bender being put to
    work on a child.
    "They took her while we were sleeping!" shouted Teagan. She
    glanced over, still hoping she might see her closest friend in the
    shadowy light drifting in from the hallway. But Aggie was gone.
    Only her covers remained in a bunch at the foot of her rusted
    old cot.
    "Quiet, Teagan," said a small voice from another bed. "Or they'll
    come for you, too."
    They were all awake now, so everyone had heard when the
    bender snapped against Aggie's skin out in the hal way. They
    had heard her cry, and its haunting echo. Red Eye and Socket
    kept the door to the barracks open for a reason.
    "Leave her alone!" said Teagan, sitting up in bed without a clue
    of how to stop them. And then she thought of the one person
    who might be able to help them and called out her name.
    "Hope!"
    "Teagan, no!" said the same small voice. "Lie down and act like
    you're asleep, you fool!"
    But it was too late. Red Eye's horrible shadow appeared in the
    doorway. His head was a misshapen silhouette of goggles and
    tousled hair. The bender swished back and forth in front of him
    as he entered barracks number three.
    There was another snap! from the bender in the hall, and the
    sound of Aggie's wince. Teagan began to cry. She hated the
    Silo so much it was almost more than she could take. She was
    very near doing something stupid like jumping out of bed and
    running to find Aggie in the hall. She dreamed of having the
    bender herself and using it on Red Eye and Socket, beating
    them until they ran outside and were eaten by the monsters that
    lurked there.
    "Hope's not going to help you. She knows better than to
    interfere in our business," said Red Eye. "The only person we
    answer to is Commander Judix, and she gave us free reign of
    this place a long time ago."
    The mere sound of the name Judix caused a wave of quiet
    gasps from many of the beds. Judix hadn't visited the Silo in a
    long time, but the Commander's power and cruelty were
    legendary.
    Red Eye stood over Teagan's bed, glaring down at her and
    running the hard edge of the metal whip against the rusting iron
    frame of her bed. He wiped his filthy nose on his even filthier
    sleeve. The light had made his eyes and nose run
    uncontrollably so that his face was damp and sickly in the soft
    glow of the room.
    "It's okay, Teagan."
    Teagan turned to the doorway and saw Aggie staggering in.
    Her voice was shaky, as if she were in shock, but Teagan also
    heard the ever-present resolve in her best friend's voice.
    "They're done," said Aggie, trying to gather herself together.
    "Just shut your eyes. Go back to sleep."
    Teagan closed her eyes, overcome by a feeling of
    helplessness. "That's what we like, a good little worker who
    gets her sleep at night," said Red Eye. He swung around and
    looked over the cots. "We're going to work all of you even
    harder than usual tomorrow because of this madness with
    Aggie. Get to sleep! All of you! If I hear one more peep out of
    this barracks before morning, every one of you's gonna be
    sorry."
    Socket laughed from out in the hallway, but it was not the big
    laugh he usually used. He was still hurting as much as his
    brother from the light they'd been exposed to. There was no
    hiding the fact that