Armageddon's Children Read Online Free Page A

everyone, and all you could do was decide how you wanted to live: either inside the compounds like a caged animal or out on the streets like prey.
    Or, in the case of the Ghosts, you lived underground and tried to stay out of the way.
    It was Owl who knew the history behind the underground city. She had read about it in a book. A long time ago, the old Seattle had burned and the people had buried her and built a new city right on top. The old city had been ignored until parts of it were excavated for underground tours. In the wake of the Great Wars and the destruction of the new city, it had all been forgotten again.
    But Hawk had rediscovered it, and now it belonged to the Ghosts. Well, mostly. There were other things down there, too, though not other street kids because other street kids respected your territory. Freaks of various sorts. Lizards, Moles, and Spiders mostly—not the dangerous kind, though he guessed they could all be considered dangerous. But these kinds of Freaks ignored them, stayed away from their part of the underground, and even traded with them now and then. These kinds of Freaks were slow-witted and shy. They could be bad and sometimes scary, but you could live with them.
    The Croaks were the ones you had to be careful of. They were the ones who would hurt you.
    Something metal clanged sharply in the distance, and the Ghosts froze as one. Long minutes passed as the echo died into silence. Hawk glanced at his wingmen, Panther and Bear, the former sleek and sinewy with skin as black as damp ashes, the latter huge and shambling and as pale as snow. They were the strong ones, the ones he relied upon to protect the others, the fighters. They carried the prods, the solar-charged staffs that could shock even a Lizard unconscious with just a touch.
    Panther met Hawk’s gaze, his fine features expressionless. He made a sweeping motion with his arm, taking in the surrounding buildings, and shook his head. Nothing from where he stood. Bear had a similar response. Hawk waited a few minutes more, then started them forward again.
    Two blocks short of the Hammering Man, at the intersection of First and Seneca, movement to his left stopped Hawk in his tracks. A huge Lizard staggered out from the dark maw of a parking garage, its head thrown back. It moaned as it advanced up the street toward them, its approach erratic and unfocused. Blood soaked through dozens of rents in the thick, plated skin. As it drew closer, Hawk could see that its eyes had been gouged out.
    It looked like it had been through a meat grinder.
    Lizards, Moles, and Spiders were mutants, humans whose outer appearance had been changed by prolonged or excessive exposure to radiation and chemicals. Moles lived deep underground, and the changes wrought were mostly in their bone structures. Spiders lived in the buildings, small and quick, with squat bodies and long limbs. Only the Lizards lived out in the open, their skin turned scaly, their features blunted or erased entirely. Lizards were very strong and dangerous; Hawk couldn’t think of anything that could do this to a Lizard.
    Panther moved over to stand next to him. “So what are we doing? Waiting for that thing to get close enough to hug us? Let’s blow like the wind, Bird-Man.”
    Hawk hated being called Bird-Man, but Panther wouldn’t let up. Defiance was too deeply ingrained in his nature.
    “Leave it!” Panther snapped when he didn’t respond quickly enough. “Let’s go!”
    “We can’t leave it like this. It’s in a lot of pain. It’s dying.”
    “Ain’t our problem.”
    Hawk looked at him.
    “It’s a Freak, man!” Panther hissed.
    Bear and the others had closed ranks about them. Their faces were damp, and their hair glistened with droplets of water. Their breath clouded in the cool, hazy air. Rain fell in a misty shroud that obscured the city and left it shimmering like a dream. No one said anything.
    “Wait here,” he told them finally.
    “Shhh, man!” Panther