Read Broken World (Book 3): Mad World for Free Online

some kind of code. Twos and threes, and a bunch of other stuff that sounded like total nonsense. We just want to know what we’re dealing with.” Her voice shakes, but at least she isn’t crying anymore.
    The brunette frowns, but she doesn’t look up. “You’ll figure it out, just like the rest of us did.”
    She walks away, heading into another part of the suite that isn’t visible from here. The few women who did look up when we first came in seem to have lost interest. They stare at the walls, the floor, their hands. The room is unnaturally silent.
    “What do we do?” Hadley whispers.
    I shake my head and slump back against the wall, trying to keep the terror threatening to rip me apart tucked away. “Axl will find us.” It comes out flat, and Hadley flinches.
    She swallows. “Until then?”
    I bite down on my bottom lip. Hard. “Try and stay safe.”
    ***
    Hadley and I huddle together in a corner of the room as night closes in. These women barely speak, and the silence is killing me. We’ve only been here for about three hours, but it already feels like days. My stomach growls, and in the absence of conversation, all I can do is think. Think about Emily, about Axl. About what lies ahead. My insides are one giant knot, twisting tighter and tighter as time passes.
    We have one pillow and one blanket between the two of us. There aren’t enough to go around, and we had to fight for these. The same goes for the food. Shortly after we got here, a few men came in and dumped a box of prepackaged snacks on the floor. The type of stuff you find in a vending machine, which is probably where they got it. The women scrambled for the food, and by the time Hadley and I figured out what was going on, all we could get was a package of brown sugar Pop-Tarts.
    It’s not even seven o’clock, but Hadley has already dozed off. Her head rests on my shoulder, and she’s breathing heavily, blowing my hair into my face every time she exhales. It tickles my nose, but I can’t make myself move to stop it. My insides are numb.
    Most of the other women are still awake, but I have a hard time looking at them. The blank expressions in their eyes makes my stomach ache. They all act like they’re waiting for something horrible to happen. Maybe they are.
    There’s a girl curled up under a blanket not too far from me. She has dark hair, and even though I can’t see much of her face, I can tell she’s young. Maybe seventeen. Her face is covered in bruises, and her eye is so black it’s swollen shut. I heard someone call her Megan, but she hasn’t spoken at all. Imagining what happened to her makes the Pop-Tart I ate threaten to come back up. I swallow and force it to stay down. I can’t afford to lose what little food I get.
    Hadley jerks awake when the door bursts open. The women around us shrink down like if they get close enough to the ground the men coming into the room won’t be able to see them. It doesn’t work, of course. The linebackers walk through the room, grabbing women and shoving them toward the door. This is the terrible thing all these women were waiting for. This is where Hadley and I find out what’s going on. Now I’m not sure I want to know.
    Hadley clenches my leg, and I freeze in place, holding my breath. She sucks in a deep breath. I guess she is, too.
    The same linebacker who dragged me into the suite a few hours ago stops in front of us. He looks right at me. “You’ve been requested.”
    His voice is higher than I expected, and for one crazy second I think of Mike Tyson. When he grabs my arm, something between a giggle and a sob pops out of my mouth. Hadley’s cries echo in my ears as the linebacker drags me toward the door, but I don’t fight him. There doesn’t seem to be much point.
    He pulls me into the stinking hallway, then releases my arm and shoves me forward. I’m so panicked that I’m gasping for breath, and when I inhale the stench of death, my stomach lurches. The Pop-Tart jumps to my