The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan Read Free Book Online Page A

We’ve never forced anyone to serve the Recruiters. We’ve never had to.
    There have always been volunteers willing to risk their lives on the promised reward of guaranteed access to the Protected Zones and full citizenship to all who serve. While anyone with unique skills or enough goods to trade can pay the exorbitantrents to live in the Dark City, only those who serve the Recruiters are guaranteed a place to live, and those who distinguish themselves in service don’t ever have to pay rents.
    Except for the ones on the stage. Even after two years with the Recruiters they will not be allowed.
    The punishment stuns me with its harshness. To be forced to serve, with no reward.
    “Aren’t you a smart one not to get caught up in that mess,” the woman next to me says, patting me on the back.
    But I was with them , I want to tell her. I should be up there with my best friend. I shouldn’t be hiding. I shouldn’t have run away but I don’t know how to change it.
    And even if I did, I can’t find the strength or the words to step forward and turn myself in. I hear the Chairman speaking more but I can’t make out what he’s saying. I just stand there staring at the cages. Staring at Cira. They seem just as shocked as I am and it makes me ill how the Chairman has meted out his punishment in public like some sort of sick spectacle. Though I shouldn’t be surprised, since the Protectorate has never really cared about our town; we’re too far away from the Dark City and became useless after the pirates took over the seas.
    Around me people begin to flow out of the square and I catch snippets of their conversations.
    “Could have killed us all …”
    “Can’t believe the Council would do such a thing …”
    “They brought it on themselves …”
    “Those poor kids …”
    I can’t move. I can’t bring myself to leave. So I just stand there, a rock in the middle of a river.
    My best friend is being sent to the Recruiters. Everyonethere last night will be sent away, sent to the lines of the war to fight the Mudo, with no possibility to reap the traditional rewards of service.
    Except me. And what scares me more than anything else is the thought that I won’t get away with it.
    And then questions begin slipping into my head: Why didn’t the others tell on me? Why didn’t they tell the Council that I was also there?
    What happens if they tell on me now?
    I glance back at where the Council is huddled around the Chairman to the left of the platform, surrounded by the parents of the Infected and quarantined. Some are resigned and some angry, shouting and crying and pleading. But no one is there to speak for Cira. As an orphan, all she had was Catcher and now he’s gone.
    I don’t want to face her but I know I have to. No one stops me as I shove my way to Cira’s cage. She doesn’t see me at first but Blane does and she pushes toward me, fury creasing her face.
    “Feeling guilty?” she yells. She slams her hands against the bar. “Come to taunt us?” She leans forward.
    I jerk my head around, looking to see if anyone else heard her, and she just laughs. My cheeks flame. I’m embarrassed at having been called out on my cowardice and ashamed that we’re on opposite sides of these bars. And then Cira steps forward, places her hand on Blane’s arm, and Blane moves away. Leaves us alone.
    I’m surprised to see my friend with so much sway over this older girl.
    “Cira, I’m sorry,” I murmur, because I don’t know what else to say.
    “It’s okay,” she says. “You were smart to run. To get away.”
    I shift, feeling only more uncomfortable. “I didn’t want to,” I tell her. “It was Catcher—he told me to go and I didn’t think.” I have to force my mouth to speak his name, my voice breaking at the sound of it.
    Her fists clench around the bars. “Where is he?”
    “I …” I shake my head, swallow. In my mind I see the bite on his shoulder, see the blood trailing down his arm. I thought Cira