The Prey by Tom Isbell Read Free Book Online

human.”
    â€œSo what’d those LTs do that got them punished?”
    Cat stopped. “You’re not listening. You all are prey, and your camp is one big hatchery. Those six LTs did nothing more than have the bad luck to get sent here. Period.”
    â€œA hatchery?” Flush repeated.
    â€œA place where fish are raised, then released into rivers so fishermen have something to catch. You’re just a bunch of Less Thans—being raised to be hunted.”
    â€œSo why teach us anything at all?” I asked.
    â€œâ€™Cause otherwise it’d be like shooting fish in a barrel. If it’s too easy, it’s not sport. There’s gotta be some challenge.”
    In its own sick way it made a kind of sense.
    For the next hour no one spoke. We descendedthrough dense woods, moving as quickly as darkness allowed. Skeleton Ridge was no place to be at night. I don’t think I took a breath until we caught sight of the camp far below, its lights sparkling.
    â€œHow do you know all this?” I asked.
    â€œBecause I’ve been on the run. I’ve seen people. I’ve talked to them.” His eyes grew suddenly distant. “Before I came here, I stayed with a man and his two daughters. They put me up in their cave. They told me things—like how afraid they were of the Republic and its Brown Shirts. They were running from soldiers. Everyone’s running from soldiers.”
    â€œBut that doesn’t—”
    â€œListen,” he said, his piercing blue eyes cutting through the dark. “All of this is true—the proof is right under your nose. Or under the Brown Shirts’ noses. You rescued me in the desert, I told you about the Hunters. That makes us even. What you do with this is up to you—I don’t give a shit. I’m getting the hell out of here and going to the next territory.”
    With that, he turned and scrambled down the mountain.
    That night my mind was reeling. I dreamed of her again: the woman with long black hair. We were running through the field of prairie grass, the air so pungent with gunpowder it wrinkled my nose. Behind us camethe same awful sounds as before: screams, explosions, the sharp crack of bullets.
    Only this time there were others running, too. Cat. My friend K2. Cannon. All running for their lives.
    The old woman pulled me low to the ground, and when she opened her mouth to speak, I didn’t force myself awake. This time I let her talk.
    â€œYou will lead the way,” she said.
    I waited for more.
    â€œI—I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I stammered. “ What way? And who on earth will listen to me ?”
    She smiled briefly and then disappeared, vanishing into the gunpowdery haze.
    I woke with a start, my T-shirt clinging to me from perspiration. All around me, LTs slept soundly. I wondered if any were haunted by dreams as I was. Wondered too if I would ever begin to understand mine.
    As I tried to get back to sleep, I thought of what Cat had said as we descended the mountain.
    Right under the Brown Shirts’ noses.
    Something else, too. The stuff about that dad and his daughters. I wondered where they were now—if they’d escaped the soldiers and made it to freedom. Wondered if I’d ever find out.

10.
    H OPE NOTICES THE OTHER girls seem oddly subdued. Repressed. Haunted , even.
    The only thing that’s clear is that Hope and Faith aren’t the only sisters. In fact, as Hope looks around the mess hall at the hundred or so other girls, it seems as if the vast majority are related.
    â€œWhat’s with all the twins?” she asks the girl opposite her. She’s tall with red hair and there’s something in how the other girls look at her that makes Hope think she’s in charge.
    â€œYou’ll find out,” the girl says.
    â€œYou’re not going to tell me?”
    The girl’s eyes narrow. “What’s to tell? Everyone’s