Gone to Ground by Cheryl Taylor Read Free Book Online Page A

the country, but as the man built upon his description of the camp, it began to take root in her mind.
    Then one afternoon he didn’t show up. When her meal was brought that evening, it was a different Enforcer escorting the shelter staff. The next day again he wasn’t there. She wanted to ask about him, but was afraid of causing trouble. Besides, he’d never even told her his first name. All she knew was that the tag on his navy blue uniform said “O’Reilly.”
    As the week went on, and O’Reilly didn’t come, Christina continued to think about the things he’d told her. She didn’t know if he’d been killed in an uprising. He’d said there were some in the APZs when the residents protested the rules imposed upon them. She was afraid that maybe he’d been a late victim of the disease that had taken her mother. But the thoughts that occupied her mind the most were those of the camp he’d told her about. The place where someone could live without worrying about this new government and this new rule where truth didn’t count for much. It sounded lonely, and Christina wasn’t sure if she could find it, let alone stay alive there, but it haunted her dreams more and more until she finally decided that, live or die, she had to try and get to it. She and her brothers.
    The first thing, though, would be to get out of this isolation cell. And to do that, she would have to play along with the adults in charge of the shelter. With her mind filled with O’Reilly’s descriptions, Christina waited for the shelter staff to arrive at the cell with dinner. As soon as the server got there, Christina would ask her to tell the administrator that she was ready to be a productive member of the APZ. Once she was out of here, she’d find her brothers and she would make a run for it; the camp he called Hideaway. 
       

6
    Two sets of wide, terrified green eyes met his as he stood in the doorway surveying the room. The woman’s oval face, leached of all color under her summer tan, took on a grayish tint, as though she’d aged twenty years in twenty seconds. The boy beside her flushed, his mouth open as if to protest. The woman’s hand rested on his shoulder, halting his movement and voice.
    For one second... two... a thousand, there was silence, then in a soft voice robbed of all color she asked, “Who are you?”
    When he didn’t answer her immediately, but stood in the doorway as still as a statue, watching them, gun in hand, she spoke again, this time in a stronger voice, though with no less fear.
    “How did you find us?”
    “Are you the only two here?” the man asked, even though he was sure he knew the answer. He was curious to see if she would lie and try and convince him that help was only a short distance away, and would be home at any time.
    The two plates on the side of the sink, the two glasses beside them, the two coats hanging on nails beside the door, and the two pairs of boots sitting underneath them all spoke of only two people being in residence. There was no indication anywhere in the front room that anyone else was living there.
    The woman watched his eyes roam around the room, resting here and there. Her gaze followed his, and apparently she realized that it would be useless to try and prevaricate.
    “Yes, there’s just my son and me. What are you going to do with us?”
    “Where are your guns?” He’d already seen one rifle on a rack near the door, but surely the woman couldn’t be such a greenhorn that she only had one gun. He saw her drop her head slightly and knew that it was true. Only one gun, and she didn’t even keep it nearby. Unbelievable.
    “That’s the only one. There by the door.”
    The man relaxed marginally, but didn’t let his guard down completely. Just because she didn’t have a gun didn’t mean she wasn’t dangerous. The proverbs of a mother bear protecting her young were accurate. There was nothing more cunning or more dangerous.
    He stepped further into the room and