The Capture Read Online Free Page A

crown of a tree swaying forward and backward as though pushed by a violent wind. And then it comes crashing to the earth. Whoompf! They feel the vibration from where they stand. The throaty rumble radiates up their feet.
    A moment later, another tree does the same, wobbling in one direction, then the other, before arcing through the air and slamming to the ground. Thwump!
    What’s going on? Hope wonders, her body rigid with fear. How can a forest be collapsing on itself? What could be ripping trees from the earth?
    All at once, they hear another sound: engines. But different than the Humvees from the other night: louder, gravelly, hulking. And now the biting smell of diesel.
    Cat motions them forward, and at the top of a ridge they look down and see a sight they can’t quite believe: enormous bulldozers knocking down trees, clearingout a swath of forest, creating an ugly, barren scar in the middle of the wilderness.
    On the sides of the vehicles is a symbol they know too well: three inverted triangles. The insignia of the Republic of the True America. And the drivers of the bulldozers are none other than Brown Shirts, clad in their customary black jackboots, dark pants, and brown shirts.
    The Sisters and Less Thans watch, mesmerized. A building project— in the middle of nowhere! It makes no sense. As trees tumble to the ground and great shovelfuls of dirt are ripped from the earth, the Less Thans and Sisters can’t begin to understand it.
    What are they building? And why here?
    When they finally tear themselves away, Hope feels her heart hammering against her chest. She knew they’d run into soldiers—she just didn’t think it would be so soon. But it’s more than that. It’s the mystery of not knowing what they’re up to that disturbs her most.
    â€œCome on,” Cat says. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
    They march the rest of that afternoon and evening, sleep little, and march all the next day, trying to put as much distance as possible between them and the Brown Shirts. When they stop the following night, the few words they speak are colored by exhaustion and anxiety.
    â€œAre we safe here?” Helen asks.
    â€œShould be,” Hope answers. “That wasn’t a searchparty. It was a construction project.”
    â€œFor what?”
    She shrugs.
    â€œWhatever it is,” Twitch says, “they want it hidden.”
    â€œGreat job leading us to safety,” Dozer says to Book, magnifying an eye roll. A few others laugh in support.
    They drift away and prepare for sleep, and Hope and Cat exchange a glance. Not tonight , her expression says.
    As Hope lies down on a bed of weeds and pine needles, she remembers her conversation with Book—about what they intend to do after freeing the Less Thans. What she didn’t tell him was that, yes, she does have something in mind. In fact, it’s the other reason she didn’t stay in the Heartland. She has unfinished business—that she knows for certain.
    Colonel Thorason. Chancellor Maddox. Dr. Gallingham.
    The camp overseer. The ruler of the territory. The sadistic doctor.
    She doesn’t care what order; she doesn’t care how it happens. But she will see to it that they pay for what they did to her sister.

7.
    T HE NIGHTMARE WAS THE same: the hollow, vacant stares of Less Thans imprisoned in the bunker. They gazed at me with oozing sores and pleading eyes and begged me to do something. To free them. To get them out of there.
    They reached for me with their bony fingers and I jerked awake. But it wasn’t the dream that woke me, it was sound. I’d heard something.
    I lifted my head and looked around. Everyone was fast asleep . . . except a lone figure tiptoeing through the woods. I couldn’t tell who it was—just a fuzzy silhouette in passing moonlight—but I figured it was probably someone going off to take a leak. Guys did it all the time in the middle of the