Saving Sky Read Online Free Page A

Saturday morning ?”
    â€œMouse!” Ana snapped. “Enough with the whining. Just get moving.”
    Sky could feel the urgency in the air. Her parents were anxious; everything was hurried. There was only time for a bare minimum of horse care before they gobbled down a skimpy breakfast, left the dishes in the sink, and headed for town.
    It was still dark when they pulled out onto the highway. The sun wouldn’t crest the hills for another half hour. Mouse loosened her seat belt and lay down, resting her head in Sky’s lap. Soon she was fast asleep.
    â€œDad?” Sky whispered. “Was there another call last night, after we went to bed? Or did I dream it?”
    Luke and Ana exchanged glances.
    â€œYes,” Ana finally said. “Another refinery. In Philadelphia.”
    â€œWas it—?”
    â€œDon’t dwell on it, Sky. It was pretty much like the others. We’ll have another blessing tonight.”
    â€œOkay.”
    Nothing more was said after that, but Sky understood that things were different now. Three attacks in a singlenight—that had never happened before. The war was…she searched her memory for the word she needed. It sounded like escalator . Escalating , that was it. The war was escalating.
    They turned onto Guadalupe Street, then into the Albertsons parking lot. It was crammed full. Hundreds of people had gotten there ahead of them. They had already parked and were waiting outside the doors for the store to open. On the street side of the lot, near the Wells Fargo drive-in bank, a small crowd had gathered by the ATM machine. There seemed to be some problem. There was lots of pushing and shouting.
    â€œOh, my sainted grandmother!” Ana said. “Wake up, Mouse. We’re here.”
    Luke found a place to park at the far end of the lot. It couldn’t have been farther from the store, but with the flatbed trailer hooked to the back, they’d known they were going to have problems. Luke pulled in and locked the car, and they hurried toward the entrance.
    They waited at the edge of the crowd, not wanting to push ahead of the others who had gotten there first. But more shoppers kept arriving, and they soon found themselves engulfed in a tight mass of bodies.
    A man could be seen inside, getting ready to unlock the sliding glass doors. Now the pushing intensified. Sky could feel someone’s fists digging into her back, urgingher forward. But she couldn’t move; there was no place to go.
    Suddenly Luke grabbed both girls by the arms and pulled them toward him. “We need to get out of here,” he said. “Somebody’s going to get hurt.” They were working their way through the crowd when the doors finally opened and escape became impossible. The bodies moved like a river in flood, rushing fiercely downstream. Luke wrapped his family in a strong embrace and held them firmly. They became a boulder, the four of them, strong against the rapids. The human river flowed around them.
    And then it was over. They stood there for a moment, gazing at the spectacle inside: people fighting over shopping carts, grabbing canned goods off the shelves and throwing them into bags.
    â€œI’m afraid to go in there,” Ana said.
    â€œI don’t think we should.” Luke checked his watch.
    â€œSurely they’ll calm down now that they’ve made it inside and are getting what they want. And they’ll have to form an orderly line to check out.”
    â€œMaybe. But it’ll take a long time, and I think the other stuff is more important. I say we skip the groceries for now and go to Home Depot.”
    â€œYou’re right,” Ana said. “Home Depot first.”
    They hurried back to the car and left the Albertsons parking lot, driving south on Guadalupe, past the historicold adobe Santuario with the polychrome Virgin out front, past the Railyard, and the park, and on down the long commercial corridor that led to the