Strangelets by Michelle Gagnon Read Free Book Online

back. The girl looked ready to club something, and judging by the look in her eyes, she wouldn’t mind starting with Sophie.
    “No luck still?” Declan asked.
    “Just more cement.” The girl dropped the bar, and it hit the floor with a clank. “All the walls are lined with it.”
    Sophie peered past her. More sloppy holes like the ones in her room dotted the hall.
Construction my ass
, she thought. They were tearing the place apart. And that must have made a lot of noise, she suddenly realized; why hadn’t anyone appeared to check up on them?
    Could it really be true
?
Were they trapped
? Sophie brushed the thought away. Impossible. Odds were this was just some nutty morphine dream she was trapped in. Any minute now, she’d wake up on her deathbed. She closed her eyes and pinched her arm, wincing at the pain. She opened them to find Declan giving her an odd look.
    “We’ve tried everywhere,” Anat was saying. “There’s no way out.”
    “Sophie, this is Anat,” Declan said, patting her arm reassuringly.
    “We’ve met,” Sophie said, trying to look less scared than she felt. “Twice, if I’m not mistaken.”
    “Yes.” Anat blinked. “Sorry. I did not understand what was happening.”
    “No problem,” Sophie said, although the apology seemed half-hearted. “So you haven’t been able to find a way out?”
    “No.” The girl glowered at the nearest wall. “The entire hospital is encased in cement. A crazy person built this place.”
    “No argument there,” Declan murmured.
    Sophie considered suggesting that the crazy people largely seemed to be
inside
at the moment, but she wasn’t really up for another shaking, or worse. She understood why the others were so desperate to get out of here, but for her it seemed to be a moot point. Although if she got rid of them, at least she’d have some peace and quiet.
    “The vents,” she blurted, pointing up. “That air is coming from somewhere, right?”
    They followed her finger. Anat’s brow furrowed. “I can’t fit in there,” she said bluntly, examining the narrow metal frame. A faint gust teased her long black hair.
    “No, but Yosh can. Zain too, probably. If we get them out, they can find another exit for the rest of us!” Declan exclaimed. “Brilliant!”
    Unexpectedly, he planted a kiss square on her forehead. Sophie managed a wan smile in response. “All right, then. If you’ll just help me back to bed …”
    But he wasn’t listening. “Nico! Zain! Yosh! C’mere, we’re going to give something else a try!”
    Sophie gritted her teeth. Anat glared down at her like she was something unpleasant she’d found under her shoe. Other teenagers straggled down the hall, closing in ranks behind her: Yosh, Nico, and Zain, according to Declan. They were all bleary-eyed and covered in fine white powder.
    The gravity of the situation suddenly hit her. This was no dream. She was a prisoner, stuck here with a bunch of strangers; one of whom had already basically attacked her. AndDeclan, cute though he was, definitely didn’t seem like a choir boy. Her presence had to be some sort of mistake. Had the hospice accidentally transferred her to a juvie prison ward? The thought wasn’t comforting, especially since they were in the middle of plotting a prison break.
    And she’d just helped them.
    “Hey,” Sophie said, clearing her throat. “Maybe we should just sit tight. Someone will probably be coming soon.”
    Anat looked at her like she was nuts, and Declan’s eyes narrowed. “I think if they were coming, they’d have popped in by now, yeah?”
    “Well,” Sophie said, digging for an explanation. “There might have been some sort of emergency. Maybe they got stuck outside and are trying to get in.”
    “Which is why we need to get out,” Anat snapped.
    “She has a point,” Declan said. “We get out then we’ll know what’s what, yeah?”
    Sophie couldn’t come up with an argument against that, at least not without accusing them all of