The Kill Order by James Dashner Read Free Book Online Page B

calm. Maybe it was just a simple earthquake and everything will be okay.
    They’ve been walking for ten minutes, not saying a word to each other, when they hear the screams up ahead. No. Not just screams. Something beyond screams. Pure terror, like people being slaughtered. Trina stops, turns to look back at Mark. Any doubts—or hopes, rather—vanish.
    Something horrible has happened.
    Mark’s instinct is to turn and run in the opposite direction, but he’s ashamed of himself when Trina opens her mouth and shows how brave she is.
    “We need to get up there, see what’s going on—see if we can help.”
    How can he say no to that? They run, as carefully and as quickly as they can, until they reach the wide platform of a substation. And then they stop. The scene before them is too horrific for Mark’s mind to compute. But he knows that nothing in his life will ever, ever be the same.
    Bodies litter the floor, naked and burned. Screams and cries of painpierce his eardrums and echo off the walls. People are limping about, arms outstretched, their clothes on fire and their faces half melted like wax. Blood everywhere. And an impossible surge of heat washes through the air, like they’re inside an oven.
    Trina turns, grabs his hand, a look of terror on her face that he thinks may be seared into his mind forever. She pulls him once again, running back to where they came from.
    All the while, he thinks of his parents. His little sister.
    In his mind he sees them burning somewhere. He sees Madison screaming.
    And his heart breaks.

CHAPTER 9
    “Mark!”
    The vision was gone, but the memory of the tunnel still darkened his mind like some kind of seeping sludge.
    “Mark! Wake up!”
    That was Alec’s voice. No doubt. Yelling at him. Why? What had happened?
    “Wake up, dammit!”
    Mark opened his eyes, blinked against the bright sun breaking through branches high above him. Then Alec’s face appeared, cutting the light off, and he could see more clearly.
    “It’s about time,” the old bear said through an exaggerated sigh. “I was starting to panic, kid.”
    That was when Mark was hit with the bolt of pain in his head—it had just been slower to wake than he had. The pain raged inside his skull, felt as big as his brain. He groaned and put his hands on his forehead, touched the slickness of drying blood.
    “Ow” was all he could say before he groaned again.
    “Yeah, you took quite the hit when we crashed. You’re lucky to be alive. Lucky to have a guardian angel like me to save your hide.”
    Mark thought it might kill him, but he had to do it. Bracing for the agony, he sat up. He blinked back the spots in his vision and waited for the pain in his head and body to subside. Then he looked around.
    They were sitting in a clearing surrounded by trees. Gnarled roots wove their way through pine needles and fallen leaves. About a hundredfeet away, the wreckage of the Berg lay cradled between two giant oaks almost as if it had grown there like some sort of giant metal flower. Twisted and bent, it smoldered and smoked, though there was no sign of fire.
    “What happened?” Mark asked, still disoriented.
    “You don’t remember?”
    “Well, not since whatever it was smacked me in the head.”
    Alec threw his hands up in the air. “Not much to it. We crashed and I dragged your butt out here. Then I sat here and watched you roll around like you were having a bad dream. Memories again?”
    All Mark could do was nod. He didn’t want to think about it.
    “I rummaged around in the Berg as much as I could,” Alec said, changing the subject. Mark appreciated him not digging any further. “But the smoke from the engines got to be too much. Once you can walk around without going eyeball up, I want to search some more. I’ll find out who these people are—and why they did what they did—if it’s the last thing I do.”
    “Okay,” Mark answered. Then a thought hit him, followed by a surge of alarm. “What about that virus