Sky on Fire by Emmy Laybourne Read Free Book Online Page B

gets closer to Denver.”
    Niko thought for a minute and then, without saying anything, he took the toll road.
    *   *   *
    Oh, Dean.
    It’s so bad.
    It’s so bad what happened.
    We took the toll road and we were making good time. We’d reached Parker, so that means we had gone about halfway to DIA.
    *   *   *
    I saw something standing in the road.
    The light from the headlights bounced off it and it was a gleaming shape. Like a ghost.
    â€œThere!” I said. “Something white.”
    I wiped at the Plexiglas windshield and squinted out. I saw it was a girl.
    She was wearing a white coat, somehow it was not too dirty, and her face was uncovered.
    â€œStop! It’s a girl,” I shouted.
    She had long blond hair. That white-blond like Max has.
    She held up her hands for us to stop. Her hands were bare.
    Niko slowed but didn’t stop.
    He honked the horn.
    â€œNiko, you have to stop!”
    â€œNo!” he shouted. “Too risky.”
    The girl opened her mouth and I could see she was screaming for us to stop, though I couldn’t hear her.
    â€œStop!” Sahalia shouted.
    The little kids joined in, too.
    Niko slammed on the brakes. “I don’t like it,” I heard him say.
    I opened the door mechanism. “Get in!” I shouted to the girl.
    Then I saw them coming.
    The darkness started moving, is what it looked like. And then shapes came out of it and I saw they were boys. Teenage boys in camouflage. Their faces had been painted, or maybe they’d used mud.
    Three of them rushed at me and I pulled the door shut. They banged on it.
    Niko tried to back up, but they’d gotten something behind the bus. I didn’t know what. But he kept trying to reverse and crashing into something over and over. (It was 2 motorcycles.)
    Two of them rolled a dead motorcycle in front of the bus.
    We were trapped.
    One of them, I guess the leader, came in front of the bus and tapped the butt of a rifle against the Plexiglas.
    He was wearing a scarf tied around his mouth and a black beret on his head. His eyes were rimmed with red and they looked wild.
    â€œWho are they?” Sahalia screamed.
    â€œCadets!” Niko answered. “Air Force cadets!”
    â€œHe’s O. He’s O!” I shouted.
    Niko laid on the horn.
    â€œGet out of the way!” Niko shouted and immediately started coughing.
    â€œOut of the way!” I yelled.
    â€œScrew you!” the leader shouted. “We want the bus!”
    â€œTell them they can come with us,” Niko said to me. He couldn’t yell loud enough for them to hear, through the mask.
    â€œYou guys can come!” I shouted. “We’re going to the airport.”
    â€œIf they throw down their guns,” Niko added.
    â€œIf you throw down your guns!”
    The leader jammed the butt of his rifle into the glass. “They’re killing people at DIA! Don’t you idiots know that?” he shouted. “They’re sorting them into groups and killing people who saw it go down. They don’t want any witnesses !”
    I looked at Niko.
    Sahalia was behind us.
    â€œHe’s crazy,” she said. “He’s paranoid.”
    Three other cadets had come to stand around their leader.
    â€œ He might be crazy,” I pointed out. “But what about the rest of them?”
    They were all wearing camouflage fatigues. None of them wore gas masks. I guess the rest of them were either type AB or B.
    â€œWhere’s the girl?” I wondered aloud.
    Then there was a bang and the little kids were screaming.
    I turned to see a cadet climbing in one of the back windows. He’d hacked it down with some kind of hatchet.
    One of them started kicking in the door.
    Niko got up and grabbed his backpack, which I know had the gun in it.
    But before he could get the gun out, the cadet got the door open and they were inside.
    â€œJesus H.!” the leader