Escape Under the Forever Sky Read Online Free Page A

water stung my cheek, but I couldn’t wipe it away. I lay like that for a really long time.
Where am I? What’s happening? Mom, Mom, Mom
. . .
    I saw that one of the wallboards was too short, leaving a small opening near the ceiling. There was no screen over it, which meant that a lot of nasty beasts could get in: mosquitoes carrying malaria, rabid bats, giant stinging beetles that could fly into my hair and pierce my scalp with their huge, snapping pincers, venomous snakes, poisonous lizards.
    That’s why all the windows at the residence have screens. Oh God, I want to go home
.
    What am I going to do? How am I supposed to know what to do?
    Maybe . . . maybe I could start by sitting up
.
    No. No way. Not yet
.
    I lay very still and quiet, trying to calm down so I could think clearly. I took big, deep breaths until finallymy chest didn’t shudder anymore when I exhaled.
    Okay. Now
.
    First I had to get my hands in front of my body. I rolled onto my back and, grateful for my six years of gymnastics, folded myself into an upside-down pike position, with my legs and feet pointed straight back behind my head so my knees touched my nose. Then I wiggled my bound hands out from under my back, bent my knees to my chin and pushed my feet through the circle of my arms. My shoulders burned with that excruciating prickly ache you get from being stuck in a bad position for too long. I stared at the rope that bound my wrists. It was thick and a little frayed, and the knot looked complicated. I tried to pull my wrists apart, but there was no give at all. This thing wasn’t coming off without a knife. My stomach lurched.
    Okay, now I’ll sit up. Here we go, Lucy, on three
.
    One. Two. Three
.
    I sat up slowly because moving hurt so much. It felt like there were a hundred ice picks stabbing my head. Plus, my contact lenses were glued to my eyeballs, and my ribs and right hip were throbbing. What was wrong with my hip? I lifted up my T-shirt. There wasn’tmuch light, but I could see a huge bruise, purple and swollen. It must have happened when the man with the nasty teeth jammed me with his knee.
    I could still feel that dirty rag smothering my face. It was hard to breathe again. I yanked up my knees and buried my eyes in my kneecaps, hugging my legs as hard as I could.
Mom, where are you? Please, please, please, come get me. Daddy, help me, please
. . .
    I cried and cried until my sobs squeezed out some of my fear, leaving behind a numb, empty void.
Let me just curl up into a ball and die
.
    Okay, Lucy, somehow you’re going to deal with this. Three deep breaths and then you’ll figure out what to do next
.
    One. Two. Three
.
    I tried to focus on what a scientist would do in a dangerous, unfamiliar situation. What would Jane, Dian, and Biruté do?
Hey, Dian Fossey was kidnapped too, and she survived
. I refused to think about the fact that a few years later she was murdered.
Completely different circumstances, totally unrelated
.
    I’m sure every police officer in Ethiopia is looking for me right now. They’re probably almost here already. I bet my mother called the president of the United States, who called the prime minister ofEthiopia and told him to find me or else. My parents will do whatever they have to do to get me back. They will pay any ransom, gather an army, and never stop until they find me
.
    But what could I do in the meantime? What did Leakey’s Angels do when they first got to the bush, deep in the heart of nowhere? They made hypotheses. They observed. They considered the facts.
    Then they took action.
    I crisscrossed my legs and exhaled. First, I’d note my surroundings: I was sitting on a straw mat that was covered by a brown wool blanket. The room had one small opening near the ceiling and one door. There was one wooden crate with one kerosene lamp on top of it. Since the lamp made the only light in the room, it had to be nighttime. I checked my watch: 10:13 PM . And