Numbers Ignite Read Online Free

wanted to say. Maybe it was for the best—my mother wouldn’t have approved of them anyway.
    “That’s what I thought,” he said. “They were already prepared to execute you for turning against them. Now that the depth of your betrayal is known, it’s your family’s fate you are writing with your accusations and denials. Accept your guilt, and you can save them—and perhaps die with the slightest shred of dignity.”

 
     
     
     

     
    I was running through a city, terrified of something behind me. Not a person, but something nobody could stop, like liquid fire coming from the sky. It made a high-pitched whine as it approached, and I threw my arms up to stop it, knowing well that it wouldn’t help. The blast hit, its power blowing through buildings like they were made of paper. The debris went right through me as if I was invisible.
    The people around me, however, were not. A collective scream of terror went up but was silenced as roads, buildings, and people were blown to pieces. Liquid fire. I kept running; toward what, I couldn’t say, but I knew I couldn’t stop.
    When I got to what was left of a huge building, I dug through the debris until I found two bodies. One was a girl my age, beautiful and broken. The orange numbers on her forehead flickered as if her life force itself was fading. As I knelt, her distant eyes focused on me accusingly. “You killed me.”
    The other body was a woman too, though older, and her blonde hair was streaked with dark red. She sneered, exposing blood-stained teeth. “You think you’ve won, but I’m the victor here.”
    When I turned away, hundreds of bodies lay around, broken, some burning. The eyes watched me with a strange detachment.
    “You’ve killed us all,” they chanted as one.
    I woke up shaking. My eyes opened to a dirt ceiling bathed in a golden glow. Had the ghosts buried me alive? No, the dirt was several meters above my head and scraped smooth. My fingers grabbed at the surface beneath my back. A blanket?
    When I tried to sit up, pain slammed through my ankle. I gasped with the force of it, like a knife had been rammed into the bone. I lay back down, breathing hard.
    “I wondered if you’d ever wake up,” a boy muttered.
    I turned toward the voice. It was a boy. He looked brown from head to toe—brown hair, light brown skin, dirt-colored clothing. He sat in a chair that looked as if it had been carved and woven from desert brush. He looked about fourteen or fifteen, just slightly younger than me. Panic began to set in, adding to the pain. Did he know who I was? NORA could be on their way right now. I didn’t dare even move my leg, much less walk on it.
    The boy smiled. “Hey, calm down. I’m not going to hurt you.”
    “Who are you?” My tongue was still swollen and dry, and I sounded like a stranger. I took in the bed, the curve of the ceiling, the pieces of dirt floating softly down.
    “Coltrane. I saved your life.”
    I stared at him, trying to decipher his words. “I’ve never seen you before.”
    “That’s because you passed out after the snake bit your leg. Carried you on my back all the way here.”
    Snake. The memory rushed back. I tried pushing myself up on my elbows, slower this time, and looked down at the ankle that peeked out of the blanket. It was swollen beyond recognition. It looked like a huge fat man’s leg, all blue and purple. No wonder it hurt so bad.
    “Coltrane,” a woman’s voice said from outside in a warning tone. “Don’t mislead the girl.”
    He sighed. “Fine. Mom helped me carry you once we reached the tunnels, so not technically I didn’t carry you all the way here. She’s a physician, and she says you’ll be fine.”
    “Once you stop your yammering and get her some food and water,” the woman said, pushing aside a cloth that hung from the doorway and stepping inside. Her dress was a deep, brownish red, although her skin was the same light brown color as her son’s. Her long black hair hung to her