Into the Wastelands: Book Four of the Restoration Series Read Online Free Page A

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    Heather held her breath as they searched her wagon. She could hear soldiers climbing on the wagon bed and shifting things around. Judging by the noise, quite a few of the grain sacks were removed and then restacked.
    Several more soldiers poked around the bottom of the wagon , and for just a moment , Heather had a most horrifying image. She saw the soldiers finding the trap door and opening it, thereby dumping her into the dust of the city gates. For one awful moment, she pictured herself rolling around in the dirt with her shirt over her face. Gritting her teeth, she forced the thoughts away.
    After what seemed like an eternity, but in reality had only been less than a quarter of an hour, the caravan started moving. They didn’t go far however, before they stopped again.
    For a moment, Heather couldn’t imagine what they were stopping for. She tried to imagine the scene in her mind. It took a few moments but she realized that the wagons hadn’t gone that far through the gates. They must have stopped to let the others wagons be searched.
    She let out a deep sigh and nearly choked. The dust was still thick in this little compartment and she had the overwhelming urge to cough. The need to cough was nearly unbearable and she so badly wanted to clear her throat, but she absolutely couldn’t. With the wagons stopped like they were, the wagon drivers or guards would surely hear. Or even worse, perhaps one of the soldiers would hear the noise and come to investigate.
    Heather clamped her right hand over her mouth and squeezed her nose. Still holding her nose, and unable to stop herself, she let loose with a cough.
    She held her breath and listened for the alarm. Her heart was beating fast and she thought furiously what to do. Nothing came to mind, but after a moment she realized there hadn’t been any alarm raised, no running footsteps. She allowed herself to breath again, but this time it was through her nose. She would not choke on the dust again.
    It took the city guards nearly three quarters of an hour to search all the wagons and the waiting was horrible. Once the wagon started moving again, things got even worse. The dust continued to fall and Heather kept her head covered with her shirt. The roads inside the city had been smooth and flat compared to the roads on the outside of the city walls. The only good thing was that due to the increased speed of the caravan on these old roads, the carts made an enormous amount of noise that surely would help cover up the groans of the hidden Guardians.
    After a short while, Heather twisted sideways and wedged her arms, the left arm against the ceiling and the right arm against the floor. This had the affect of protecting her head from bouncing off of the hard wooden slats. Plus, with her head turned more towards the floor, less of the dust was able to bother her. Heather was beginning to think that this trip might not be too bad, when the sun began to climb up in the sky and warm things up. Soon, her little hidden compartment was as hot as an oven.
    As it got hotter, Heather began to sweat. At first, it wasn’t so bad, but then her clothes began to get damp. With several hours still to go before lunch, the damp clothes and falling dust began to make her itch. The itching was atrocious and there wasn’t a thing she could do about it but endure.
     
    The day passed slowly and became almost unbearable for the smuggled Guardians. If there had been a way to sneak out and not get caught, then Heather most assuredly would have tried. But she knew that if she opened the trap door, then they would all be caught.
    Four times during the day, the caravan was stopped and searched by city guards. These searches were much quicker than the morning search at the city gates and did not delay them for long.
    In the mid-afternoon, Heather was reminded t hat she hadn’t eaten anything by the growling of her stomach. The hunger pangs were not that bad, but her tongue felt like it was swelling