The Indigo Thief by Budgett Jay

Author:Budgett, Jay [Budgett, Jay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mason & Manchester Publishing
Published: 2014-09-22T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 24

I lay awake for hours while Phoenix’s words rang in my ears. He was going to kill me. There’d be no finding Mom, no saving Charlie, not if Phoenix had his way…

There was a deafening bang, and the sharp crack of shattering glass pulled Bertha from her sleep. “Get up, Car Battery!” she shouted, slapping a pillow across my face. “Jesus, get out of bed! We’ve gotta get off this boat and back to New Texas!”

Another bang sounded, and flames flickered on the spiral staircase from the roof above. It sounded like bombs were being dropped on the rooftop gardens. The shattering sounds must be the solar panels, splintering into millions of pieces.

Bertha dragged me along the stairs as flames raged on either side of the boat—both the front and the back were on fire. She pushed open a shop’s door and stuffed her mouth with three pastries from a glass display case, urging me to do the same.

“Umph uh umph uhh umph’ll uh!” she shouted.

“What?” I asked, eyes darting around the room as I searched for an exit.

She tossed me a cinnamon roll and swallowed her pastries. “It might be the last meal you’ll get for a while. Eat up.”

She stuffed her mouth with three more pastries and pointed toward the window before grabbing a chair in the corner and smashing it against the glass. New Texas loomed not far away. We dove headfirst and swam toward the island. Around us, boats lit the sea with their roofs of fire. New Texas was trapped in a circle of flames.

Bertha pulled herself onto the shore. “You wait for the others. I’m firing up the engines.”

“But we’re surrounded.”

“Just wait for it,” she said as she ran toward the fort. “The Caravites just need a minute…”

I scanned the water for other Lost Boys, and saw someone leap from a boat’s fiery roof. Another window was smashed open, and two more shadows dove in. I wondered when Captain Vern would order the Caravan to unfurl and run.

Kindred and Mila swam to the shore, followed by Phoenix. All three hurried past me and ran toward the island’s center.

“Shit,” muttered Mila as she ran past.

“Oh, dear,” Kindred whimpered behind her. “Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!”

There was a siren, and then the boats shot apart, forgoing their single-line formation and instead launching individually into the night. The Caravan disintegrated in front of my eyes. Its boats’ flaming roofs raced off to distant corners of the ocean, flickering like the stars we’d once had in the sky.

As the Caravan crumbled, I saw flashes of Federal boats firing bombs in the distance. Somehow they’d found us outside Federal waters, in the middle of the ocean, and it looked as if they’d brought the whole naval fleet. The mammoth ships sat like sleeping giants, stirring only with the occasional cannon’s flicker. The pastry ship where Bertha and I had slept sank in front of me. It was lucky Bertha’s snores had frightened the boat’s usual occupants into other lofts for the night.

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