Underground by Chris Morphew Read Free Book Online Page A

fast and slow, like someone was messing with it in a computer program. Like the words were speeding up on the way out of her mouth and she had to fight to hold them back.
    Calvin held up a hand, stopping the other two guards. He stepped forward on his own. ‘Miss Park, please, you’re not well. Dr Montag is waiting to –’
    He hesitated as a porch light flashed on across the street. The front door opened and a couple stepped onto the veranda. Ms Benson, our science teacher, and a guy who must have been her husband.
    â€˜Amy? Is everything all right?’ Ms Benson asked. Then she caught sight of Calvin. ‘What’s going on?’
    â€˜Back inside, please,’ said Calvin firmly.
    â€˜Ms Benson!’ cried Amy. ‘They’re trying to –’
    â€˜ Miss Park!’ Calvin barked. ‘Do not make this any more difficult than it needs to be.’
    More lights were coming on now. I saw the blinds go up in the window of another house.
    She started backing away again, and I realised she had the same problem with walking as she had with speaking. Her steps were clunky, exaggerated, deliberately slow, as though moving at this speed was unnatural for her.
    â€˜Chief,’ Ms Benson tried again, still standing her ground, no idea how dangerous this could all get. ‘Amy’s parents are just up the street. If you like, I could –’
    Amy whirled around and ran.
    Jordan gasped next to me.
    It was like someone had hit fast-forward on the remote. Amy was halfway up the street before I even knew what was happening, quicker than any human being should be able to move.
    But somehow, watching her, it was like the most normal thing in the world, as though she was the one travelling at the right speed and it was the rest of us who had a problem. All the clumsiness was gone. This was how she was built to move.
    Calvin’s men sprinted after her, but they didn’t have a chance.
    More doors began to open. More people coming out to investigate. Calvin quickly put away the fury on his face, and started shooing them back into their houses.
    Ms Benson backed inside, a fearful look in her eyes. Calvin was going to have a hard time covering this one up.
    â€˜I’ve changed my mind,’ I whispered. ‘I want them all to believe him that everything’s okay.’
    Jordan looked at me like I’d lost my mind.
    But if the whole point of this town was to keep us blindly going on with our lives until Tabitha was released, if it was just to make sure these last hundred days were safe and happy and peaceful …
    Then what if weird stuff like this kept happening? What if people started seeing this creepy little Pleasant-ville for what it really was?
    What if Shackleton decided there were more important things than keeping the peace?

Chapter 8

    S UNDAY , J UNE 28
46 DAYS
    â€˜Right outside my house,’ I said, looking through the blinds of the bedroom window. ‘You think they’re trying to send a message?’
    We were back in the empty house next door to mine. Out on the street, maintenance guys were slotting a tall, black pole into a hole in the concrete. There was a shiny half-sphere at the top, like the pole was wearing a bowler hat. And, according to the article in the Herald , that half-sphere had four cameras inside, feeding full three-sixty degree surveillance back to the security centre. Not that they needed it with the tagteaming guards swarming around my house.
    I dug around in the box for the last of the dry biscuits Jordan had allocated us for lunch. ‘Want it?’
    Jordan shook her head and I shoved the biscuit into my mouth.
    We’d waited in Lauren’s front yard for another half-hour last night while Calvin got everyone back into their houses, then slinked back here with our bag of groceries. It turned out to be mostly biscuits, canned fruit and uncooked pasta. Not exactly a balanced diet, but at least we weren’t going to