The Capture Read Online Free Page B

night, and now thatthere were Sisters with us, we had to travel a little farther to find some privacy.
    I lowered my head and had nearly dozed off again when it suddenly occurred to me: who would be tiptoeing ? Who was that considerate? Normally, when guys had to whiz, they just tromped off into the woods, did their business, and tromped back. No one tiptoed .
    I sat back up. Argos was awake, a low growl rumbling in the back of his throat. The two of us peered into the dark.
    A moment later I saw fireflies, tiny white dots etching circles in the black. They hovered and swooped and I was mesmerized by their movements.
    But as they grew closer I realized they weren’t fireflies at all—and my heart nearly exploded from my chest. At the very top of my lungs I yelled the first and only word that came to mind.
    â€œAmbush!”
    We scrambled to our feet, simultaneously grabbing weapons and shouting questions.
    â€œWhat’s going on?”
    â€œWhat do you see?”
    â€œWho is it?”
    It was like we’d never been in a battle before. Cat was the smoothest of all, of course, nocking an arrow before the rest of us were even standing.
    In no time, bullets were whistling past our ears, the headlamps poking through the woods. Headed straight in our direction.
    A flare rocketed skyward, bathing the night in eerie luminescence, and I got my first glimpse of the attackers. There had to have been at least fifty of them. Two bullets bit the earth at my feet. I did a little dance and stumbled to the ground.
    I was just pulling myself up when I heard a sharp whistling sound, growing steadily louder. A moment later there was a huge explosion. Dirt and rocks and shrapnel sailed through air, throwing everyone off their feet. Whoever was standing next to me went flying, as if some giant hand had swatted him aside.
    More mortars followed, but even scarier than that was the sight of Brown Shirts, surging toward us like a tidal wave. The flare’s green light made their silhouettes flicker like monsters’.
    â€œDouse the fire!” I yelled. As long as there were even smoldering coals, the soldiers would have no trouble picking us off. Someone threw the contents of their canteen on the embers, and white smoke billowed up.
    I scrambled to find the person who’d been hit. His moans led me to him, and even by weak moonlight it was clear who I was looking at.
    Cat.
    His left arm was like spaghetti, an explosion of redsinews and dangling muscles. He’d already lost a ton of blood and was barely conscious. At the sight of it—his limp arm and ashen face—I grew suddenly clammy. The horizon tilted. It was all I could do to keep from passing out.
    I felt a pull and realized Flush was tugging at my shirt. “What do we do?!” he shouted.
    I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to calm myself. Steady breaths. Steady. And suddenly it wasn’t Cat I saw, but the woman from my dreams—the one with the long black hair. She was kneeling on prairie grass, hands atop my shoulders, her eyes locked with mine.
    â€œBook!” Flush screamed, and my eyes popped open. “What do we do?”
    Flares exploded in the sky and mortars exploded on the ground. These Brown Shirts meant to kill us then and there.
    Meanwhile, the Less Thans stood in a half circle staring down at Cat, their expressions vacant and disbelieving. The sight of him gasping for breath stopped us in our tracks. It was as if we’d lost the power to act. Lost even the ability to think straight.
    Without knowing what I was saying or why I was saying it, I began barking out commands. “Twitch and Dozer, lay cover with your arrows. Hope, spread out your best shooters and hammer the Brown Shirts from the sides. Red and Flush, pound them with rocks. Therest of you, get back up that ridge ASAP.”
    Everyone went into motion.
    â€œWho’s got Cat?” Twitch asked, nocking his first arrow.
    â€œMe,” I said, and before