Carrier by Vanessa Garden Read Free Book Online Page A

heart and I was silently pleading with him for advice, as though the picture could talk.
    Then it came to me — a letter. I needed to plant a letter on the fence, at our little spot.
    Springing from the bed, I seized my pocketknife from my bedside drawer and began picking at the nails that supported the boards covering my window. It was too dark and depressing in here and I needed some light to write.
    Finally, after nearly five minutes, one of the boards gave way and swung down so that it hung lopsided and allowed a triangle of light into the room, making my eyes squint.
    It was overcast outside, the clouds a near-blinding silver, like a sky of mirrors.
    After tucking Jeffery C away, I retrieved Alice’s journal. There were several empty pages at the back that she’d never had the chance to fill and I tore one of them out for Patrick’s note.
    With pen in hand I stared at the blank page for a long time, my pulse throbbing in my ears. My words had to be cryptic in case Mum found it.
    I tried several things out inside my head before putting pen to paper.
    â€˜Not tonight,’ was my first thought, but I scrapped it. It might encourage Patrick to return the next night, when he still wouldn’t be safe. ‘Don’t ever come back,’ was definitely not an option, because it meant not ever seeing him again. So instead I settled on ‘ Danger here. I’ll find YOU. ’ Because I knew I would. Even though I didn’t know how I’d do it. Nothing was going to change my mind about breaking out of this place and breaking free of Mum’s rules. He needed me. His brothers needed me. And I had to get my father’s glasses to him. I owed him that. Mum owed him that.
    I knocked the end of the pen against the hard cover of the journal, making a tap-tap sound. If only I’d asked Patrick where he lived, at least then I’d know in which direction I needed to walk.
    With the note tucked safely in the back pocket of my jeans, I let my head flop against the pillow so I could think.
    Now I had to find a way to get outside and place the note without Mum catching me in the act, which was going to be hard considering I was supposed to be sick.
    My eyelids fluttered open at a gentle knock against my bedroom door. The sky seemed darker. Had I fallen asleep?
    Mum poked her smiling face into the room. ‘I thought you might have been asleep. You looked pretty tired earlier.’ Her eyes narrowed on the loosened plank of wood but she didn’t say a word about it.
    â€˜Here we are.’ She set down the bowl of steaming soup. I could see the vegetables swimming around in it and thought of the stew I’d made Patrick. With a pang in my heart I hoped that he and his brothers were faring well and not starving. Though Patrick was tall and muscular, I could tell he was leaner than he was meant to be and I hated to imagine the littler versions of him as skin and bone. And I had to force myself not to think about him out there in the wild, with his bad sight making him vulnerable to Carriers and whatever else remained of mankind.
    â€˜Thanks, Mum,’ I said, easing into a sitting position, careful not to move my pillow so that Alice’s journal or Jeffery C would show. Once Mum was gone I’d have to find a better hiding space than the one I already had.
    She stayed and watched me eat the soup which made me paranoid that she’d drugged it, but there was nothing I could do but eat it. Though it tasted delicious, it failed to fill my insides which had turned hollow since I understood I wouldn’t be meeting up with Patrick tonight.
    Just when I thought she’d never leave my side, Mum announced she was going on a hunt.
    â€˜We need more rabbits since the girls ate the smoked ones. I’ve decided not to wait until tomorrow. Want to come?’ She waggled her eyebrows at me, a grin spreading her lips wide.
    Although my gut reaction was to shout, ‘Yes!’ I