Sometimes We Ran (Book 2): Community Read Online Free Page B

to his squad. “We are moving out. Let’s go!”
    The squad started back to the truck. One of the soldiers nodded his head towards us and said, ”Let’s go.”
    Claire and I obeyed. At least we weren’t in handcuffs. Claire looked at me and started to say something, but I put my finger to my lips to tell her to stay quiet. No sense volunteering any information about us. Besides, they had a lot of weapons, including a nasty one attached to the roof of their vehicle.
    They herded us into the armored truck, and we sat down on one of the seats. If the outside of the former United Nations wonder truck was weird, the inside was even weirder. It looked like a mobile command center, all state-of-the-art electronics and wall-to-wall buttons and switches. The troops all came inside and silently sat down around us. The door closed, causing a brace of little white lights to come on overhead. I heard the powerful diesel engine come off idle, and we were off.
    Claire was sitting across from me, looking worried. I gave her an everything-will-be-all-right look. After all, the uniforms were American, the vehicle was from the UN, and we were not being restrained or anything. They took our weapons, but that was probably just a precaution.
    Still, I had to wonder as we picked up speed and drove away from the overpass: Was this a rescue or a kidnapping?

Chapter 3
Wallace and Odegard
    We rode in silence for a few hours.
    With no windows in the armored truck, I couldn’t see where we were going. It was west, I think. A couple of times, I was tempted to ask the stoic, silent soldiers what our final destination was, but I think they were under orders not to talk to us. The only voices I heard were the vehicle operators giving status reports to some base. Occasionally, I would feel the truck turn. We must be off the highway and on the secondary roads. I felt helpless. I didn’t know where we were or where we were going.
    I didn’t like not knowing where I was. This was beginning to feel like a kidnapping.
    Claire was sitting across from me looking nervous. When we first hit the road, she was grabbing the seat so hard her knuckles turned white. I told her through facial expressions to be calm down. Eventually, she relaxed a little. After so many weeks on the road together, we could practically read each other’s minds.
    The truck made another turn, ran for a bit at full speed, then stopped with a whoosh of brakes. The side door opened, and another uniformed soldier stepped into the vehicle. He had a medical insignia stitched on to his shoulder, along with the flag of the United States. He stepped in front of Claire and kneeled down. The medic-soldier fumbled around in his pocket and produced a small penlight. He turned it on, gently grasped Claire’s chin, and shined the bright light into her baby blues. He checked both eyes, then waved at the two soldiers seated on her right and left.
    “She’s okay. Bring her in,” he said. The soldiers stood up, and they escorted her off the vehicle.
    The medic turned and repeated the process with me. The soldier was a young fellow, only about twenty years old or so. I noticed he wore sneakers instead of boots. Really weird footwear for a soldier, I thought. He stepped in close. A light shadow of beard was on his face, and he was chewing some kind of gum. He looked closely at my eyes.
    “He’s good. Kind of bloodshot, but okay.” He nodded to the soldiers seated near me. They stood up, and I was escorted off the truck.
    I exited the truck into some kind of garage or quarantine building. Tables and chairs were set up along one wall, along with some small showers. The extra soldiers from the truck marched off into a hallway to another section of the building. A guard closed a chain-link fence behind them.
    Claire was seated at one of the tables. Two men, one older with snow-white hair and in uniform, and one in a dress shirt and tan pants, were asking her questions. She looked a little stressed. I was