Underground by Chris Morphew

Author:Chris Morphew
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUV001000, book
ISBN: 9781742736136
Publisher: Hardie Grant Egmont
Published: 2011-05-01T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

WEDNESDAY, JULY 1

43 DAYS

I leant forward on the couch, arms on my knees, staring across at the barricaded door. Waiting for Peter to wake up. Jordan was next to me, but neither of us had spoken since we sat down.

We’d spent the rest of the morning setting up Peter’s room, and moved him in there about an hour ago. The whole time, Jordan didn’t say a word more than she had to.

I couldn’t deal with it. I knew Peter would be mad at me, that was nothing new, but if I screwed things up with Jordan …

What hope did we have against the Co-operative if we couldn’t even stay on the same side?

All morning, I’d been looking for a way to fix things with Jordan. Looking for something I could say to put things back to normal. But what was there?

I knew part of it wasn’t even about Peter. It was about her family being in danger. Until we could get them out, everything was going to be partly about that.

I closed my eyes.

Peter. Jordan’s family. Kara and Soren. Mum. Mike, Cat and Tank. Jeremy’s disappearance. Jordan’s visions. The security cameras.

Tabitha.

It was already impossible. Already way beyond anything we could handle. If Jordan gave up on me – I felt the couch shift, and suddenly her hand was resting on my knee. My eyes snapped open.

‘Luke … I shouldn’t –’

She sighed. I turned to face her properly, panic signals blaring inside my head.

Jordan bit her lip and tried again. ‘You did the right thing,’ she said. ‘I hate it, but it was right.’

‘Jordan –’

‘No, just let me apologise, will you? You’re right. He’s not safe. I know he’s not. But if this is what’s happening to him –’

‘That’s him,’ I said firmly. ‘That’s not you.’

‘Not yet,’ said Jordan.

I reached across to – to what? Hug her? But there was a smash of metal on concrete from across the room and we both looked up.

‘What the crap is this?’

‘Think he might be awake,’ said Jordan, getting to her feet.

Peter’s eyes appeared behind the window, widening as we approached. ‘Hey! Get me out!’

‘Shh!’ said Jordan, meeting him at the door. ‘Calm down. It’s okay.’ She started lifting the first metal barricade out of its brackets. Slowly, like she didn’t want Peter to know what she was doing.

‘What’s going on?’ Peter demanded.

‘Hang on,’ I said, bending down to get the next barricade. ‘We’re coming in.’

‘Screw that,’ said Peter. ‘I’m coming out.’

‘You can’t,’ said Jordan, and I was glad it was her saying it, and not me. ‘You need to – just hang on a sec, okay? We’ll explain when we get inside.’

I lifted the last metal bar from across the door. Jordan pulled it open just enough to slip through. I squeezed in after her, fingers brushing across a lump in my pocket. The auto-injector pen I’d taken from the lab, just in case.

The room inside might almost have passed for a bedroom, if not for the misshapen walls. We’d dragged in

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