Welcome to the Jungle by Matt London Read Free Book Online

let you borrow it if you want.”
    Rick’s mouth hung open. Evie waved a hand in front of his face to make sure he hadn’t slipped into a video-game-induced coma.
    The boy with the lasso finished roping corn and started walking toward the compound.
    â€œWhat about the corn?” Rick asked, indicating the huge pile of yellow ears in the middle of the clearing.
    â€œAw, the carrying carrots will pick that up when they come through these parts. So follow me! Don’t want this opportunity to go bad on the vine.”
    â€œHey wait a minute,” Evie said as they started to follow. “You never told us your name, Mister Cowboy.”
    â€œThe name’s Sprout Sanchez, ma’am.” He flashed a ten-gallon grin. “Now follow me. We’ve gotta get y’all to the Prof right away.”

RICK, EVIE, AND THEIR NEW GUIDE SPROUT CUT A QUICK PATH THROUGH THE COMPOUND. RICK tried not to get distracted by the incredible sights. Professor Doran’s farm was the coolest science lab Rick had ever seen. It felt so . . . organic. And not like overpriced-fruit-at-the-grocery-store organic. There was something about the way the crops and the buildings all fit together. Everything felt natural, like all the pieces were in their proper place, which was funny because the space felt messy too. It was all just . . . right.
    When he asked Sprout about this, the boy kicked a pebble down the dirt path. “Well, shoot, Rick, that’s just the Prof’s way of working. He lets everything grow the way it wants—even me. The Prof says that’s why I grew so wild, because no one tended to me.”
    â€œYou don’t have any parents?” Evie looked concerned.
    â€œNo, ma’am. Just the Prof, and the robots on the farm. But they’re more like pets than parents, if y’all know what I mean.”
    Rick couldn’t imagine what life would be like without any parents. He depended on his mom and dad for everything. His mom encouraged him and praised him, and his father challenged him and piqued his curiosity.
    Rick took a closer look at Sprout—at the way he stood straight as a celery stalk and rarely let that big smile leave his face. Only recently had Rick found out that his dad had been an orphan himself. It was something Doctor Grant had told him in the Arctic, back on the Mastercorp research submarine. Rick had no idea who his biological grandfather was, but he knew his dad had been lucky to have Jonas Lane adopt him. It appeared that Sprout had been lucky too, having found his own brilliant scientist to mentor and care for him. It made sense that Professor Doran would be friends with Rick’s parents.
    Sprout pointed over the ridge in front of them. “The Prof’s lab is just past here. Try not to look if you can help it.”
    The kids crested the ridge and beheld a startling sight. The beautiful patchwork of farmland ended abruptly, at the edge of a barren waste. Beyond the ridge, the land was dark and cracked, the terrain pockmarked with huge craters. Every few moments, a smoking light would cut through the sky and smash the ground with a loud explosion.
    KRA-BOOM!
    Rick covered his ears. “What are they doing?”
    â€œBomb testing,” Sprout muttered. “Sometimes missiles. Sometimes firearms. Some days they send armies of robots out there to pummel each other.”
    The vein in Rick’s forehead throbbed in anger and disgust. What a terrible contradiction, this vast absence of life so close to all that Professor Doran had created.
    â€œWho is ‘they’?” Rick asked finally, his craving for justice bubbling in his throat.
    â€œWeapons manufacturer. Goes by the name of Mastercorp.”
    Rick knew Mastercorp all too well. They were the corporation that had originally funded his father’s development of the Eden Compound. When his dad discovered that Mastercorp wanted to use the Eden Compound as a weapon,