Phoenix Files Volume 2: Blood in the Ashes by Chris Morphew

Author:Chris Morphew [Morphew, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
ISBN: 9781743583296
Publisher: Hardie Grant Egmont
Published: 2015-06-23T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 4

FRIDAY, JUNE 26

48 DAYS

For a few seconds, I just stared at the ground. Waiting for it to split open again. Waiting for them to come after us.

Then something crunched a little a way off.

I froze. For a second I’d forgotten that Kara and Soren weren’t the only ones chasing us.

‘Security,’ hissed Jordan, yanking my arm. ‘C’mon!’

We bolted into the trees. I looked back, didn’t see anyone, kept running anyway. They were still after us. And, last I’d heard, their orders from Calvin were to shoot on sight.

The bush grew thicker up ahead. Long, spindly grass hiding a minefield of rocks and holes and tree roots. Jordan dived into the grass, dragging me down with her, and we took cover behind a towering eucalypt. I pressed myself against the base of the tree, straining to listen over the buzz of the cicadas.

I didn’t hear the footsteps until they were right on top of us. A slow, heavy crunching of boots. A few metres away, maybe less.

Jordan bit her lip, grabbing my hand.

The footsteps stopped. I heard a yawn from the other side of the tree. All he had to do was take one more step, and we were dead.

The ground crunched again and I almost ran for it. More footsteps. He was moving.

He was moving away.

I waited until the noise died off, and sat up in the dirt, head spinning.

It was morning, sky still getting lighter, which I assumed meant we’d been down there for a day and a night. Mum had probably reported me missing by now. Or not. Maybe she’d had a late one at work last night and hadn’t even realised I was gone.

‘Let’s go,’ Jordan breathed.

‘But –’

‘You think he’s the only one out here?’

I got up and started walking, hardly believing that Shackleton wasn’t still watching our every move from his office. It had been close to a month since he’d had Dr Montag put the suppressors in us, and I had to keep reminding myself that we were free to move again.

Not that we had anywhere to go. Even if Shackleton still wanted us alive – and that was pretty a massive if at this point – Calvin had other plans. And apparently he was willing to go behind the boss’s back to see them through. There was no going back to our normal lives (or what had passed for normal in Phoenix, anyway). That was all over now.

The bushland slipped past me like it wasn’t real. I was somewhere else, caught up in the twisting and churning in my stomach. In the last twenty-four hours I’d been beaten up, shot at, chased through the bush, paralysed, kidnapped and knocked unconscious – and it had all been for nothing.

We’d found Peter. He’d been right there.

And I’d run away.

‘It’s not your fault,’ whispered Jordan, like she was seeing into me. ‘There was nothing you could have –’

‘I left him!’ I said. ‘I saw him fall and I ran anyway.’

‘We both ran,’ said Jordan.

‘Yeah, but you didn’t –’

‘What were you gonna do, Luke? Take them both on by yourself? Look at you.

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