Trapped! Read Online Free Page A

Mrs. Sunburg said, “but this one is scared and hurt. I don’t want to make herinjuries worse by having her try to get away from me.” She backed away from the pig. “I’ll wait for the rescue truck,” she said. “Those people are more experienced than I am.”
    Half an hour later a big white enclosed truck, with graphics of animals painted on the sides, chugged up the hill and came to a stop. Two men hopped out. Both wore caps and navy blue jackets with white lettering that said FOOTHILLS ANIMAL RESCUE .
    One man was about the age of Alex’s dad. His dark hair was gray at the temples, and his face had a leathery look as if he’d spent years working outdoors. He carried a rope.
    The other, younger man had so many rings in his ears that he looked as if he had a spiral notebook on each side of his face. His green hair stood up in short spikes all over his head. “Hey!” he said. “Awesome animal!”
    “She’s a big one, isn’t she?” the older man said.
    “Hi, Eric,” Mrs. Sunburg said to the older man “Hi, Jacob.” She quickly introduced everyone as the two men knelt beside the pig and gently felt for injuries.
    “There’s no way we can hoist this baby by hand,” Eric said. “We’ll have to turn the truck around and load her with the lift.”
    “What can we do to help?” Alex said.
    “Stay out of the way, and watch for traffic. Not likely any vehicle will come along, but we need to be alert.”
    As they talked, the men got the rope tied around thestruggling pig’s middle, a feat that took ten minutes and all of their strength. Then Jacob held the end of the rope while Eric turned the truck around.
    It wasn’t easy to maneuver a U-turn on the narrow gravel road, but Eric managed to do it. Fortunately no other vehicles came along while all this was going on.
    Jacob stood beside the pig, his feet braced in the gravel and his hands gripping the rope, trying to control her while the truck backed closer, making a BEEP-BEEP sound that scared the pig even more than she already was.
    “Don’t be afraid, Piccolo,” Benjie said. “He won’t hit you.”
    Alex and Rocky held their hands up, moving them closer together to show Eric how far he was from the pig.
    The truck stopped two feet from the pig. Eric got out, rolled the back door up, and pushed a button, which lowered a metal platform down to the gravel. The platform didn’t look much bigger than the pig, and Alex wondered how much weight it could hold.
    Jacob tossed the end of the rope to Eric, who stood on the platform and pulled while Jacob pushed on the pig’s back. She had quit struggling and lay still, as if she had given up and would accept whatever happened. Her eyes still looked fearful, though, and no matter how hard the two men pushed and pulled, the pig didn’t budge.
    “We’ll help,” Alex said.
    “You kids push,” Eric said. “We’ll both pull.”
    Alex, Rocky, Mary, and Benjie lined up along the back side of the pig while Jacob joined Eric on the platform.
    “We’ll go on the count of three,” Eric said. “One. Two. THREE!”
    The kids shoved as hard as they could. The two men pulled. The pig squealed her protest as she slowly slid onto the lift. “Now hold her steady,” Eric said. “Don’t let her roll off.”
    Eric let go of the rope with one hand long enough to press the lift button; the lift slowly began to rise. Eric and Jacob stayed inside the truck, keeping the rope taut.
    Alex knew that he and the others couldn’t do anything about it if the heavy pig started to roll off the lift, but he kept his hands firmly on the pig’s back as the lift rose. The other kids did the same.
    Alex held his breath as the pig rode upward.
    “Easy now,” Eric said. “Good girl.”
    When the lift was level with the bed of the truck, it stopped. Eric pushed another button that made the outside edge of the lift tilt slightly upward. As soon as that happened, the men were able to drag the pig off the lift and onto the floor of