The Lost Kids: A Young Adult Dystopian Romance by J.L. Smith

Author:J.L. Smith [Smith, J.L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: dystopian, young adult, Romance
Published: 2020-08-09T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

We left Paradise Falls armed with a bag of cash, thirty five thousand in notes. As an added bonus, our clothes were given back to us on departure, washed and pressed, which Neal told us had nothing to do with courtesy and everything to do with taking extra precaution. The mood was light as we piled into our truck, which was surprising given that we had just sold a chest of organs. I tried not to think about it, reminding myself that what was done was done and that it was all for a good cause anyway. Still, it was a gray area, a very dark gray area, and I knew it.

Regardless, it seemed to be understood by us all that we would not speak of it, from a moral standpoint, that is. We had the means to implement our plan, where the first port of call was locating the actors which Rayder had spoken about. We could only hope that they would take the bait and agree to pretend to be us.

“So, how are we going to find them, anyway?” Kieran asked that night, as we sat around our campfire, a good fifty miles from the underground city.

“There’s only one person I can think of who’ll know for sure,” Saffron said, taking a bite out of an apple.

Kieran regarded her for a moment, before replying, “Who, Madame Sonyaba?”

“Who else?” Saffron said, shrugging.

“Is she even still alive?” Kieran asked, shaking his head in apparent disbelief. “I thought she’d be way dead by now. She’s like a hundred.”

“We’d have heard if she was dead,” Saffron countered.

“Who’s Madame Sayaba?” I asked.

Flicking her gaze to me, Saffron answered, “Sonyaba. She’s this old lady whose business it is to know where everyone who’s anyone is.”

“Why doesn’t she know where we are, then?” I responded in confusion.

Shrugging, Saffron said, “Anyone can get themselves lost in the desert if they try hard enough. But, if anyone were to know where we are, it would be Madame Sonyaba.”

“But she doesn’t,” Kieran added. “Otherwise, we’d have been found long ago.”

“The actors, though,” Stef said, “they will want to be found.”

Rayder had approached the campfire at Stef’s last comment, having apparently gone in search of a hoodie, which he was putting on, the last of his tattoos disappearing from view as he did. “What’s that?”

“We’re just discussing how we’re going to find the actors,” Saffron filled him in.

“Madame Sonyaba,” he responded immediately, his eyebrows furrowed, as if it were obvious.

I felt a slight twinge of jealousy. It was ridiculous, but I could not help envy Rayder and Saffron, the way they were so in tune. My jealousy was short-lived, however, as plans to get to Madame Sonyaba were swiftly underway.

It was not a terribly long journey by desert standards, only slightly over two days’ south of us, but we had to restock our fuel supplies along the way, which dipped into the money we planned to use on the actors. There was nothing to be done about it,

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.