Read Evadere for Free Online Page B

together here and there and from what Jo had told me, but really, how was I going to pull this off?
    I opened my mouth but nothing came out. I clenched my hands together in front of me and looked at them. Licking my dry lips, I tried again. “A Scave,” I whispered.
    He made a disapproving groaning noise as he circled me now, looking me over. I felt as if I he were my predator. He had to be some sort of leader of the Scaves, I guessed. “How is this so?” he questioned.
    “I …” Jo stuttered.
    “Be quiet,” he commanded her, holding up the stick to point in her direction.
    Jo’s head shot downward.
    “Where did you find them?” he asked.
    “At the bottom of the mountain,” Rooney replied.
    “Where were they coming from?”
    “If I had to guess, it’d be near farming,” Rooney continued.  
    “You’re running from the farming contributors?” This ugly, frightening creature stood before me once again. One of his pointy teeth scraped against the bottom of his lip and a little drop of blood ran down to his chin. I watched in disgust as he brought up his arm with his beard wrapped around it and wiped it off with his hair.
    “Yes,” I whispered.  
    “Jo,” he said in another growl turning around. “Where’s the sack?”
    “She left it on the beach,” Rooney answered for her. “It’s gone.”
    A loud hissing noise came from the Scave’s throat. Jo backed away from him. She was just as terrified of this thing as I was and she lived in a group with him. “What is your opinion on this matter?” he questioned Rooney who didn’t seem quite as juvenile while in the presence of his leader.  
    “I’m not sure I believe she’s a Scave,” Rooney told him.  
    The other Scaves from the crowd all grumbled in concern over my presence.
    “Were you sent by someone?” the man asked me.
    “No,” I said quickly.
    “Perhaps by royalty ?” He winced a little as he emphasized the word royalty as if it pained him to say it and had to do so slowly in order to get it out. “Surely they wouldn’t sacrifice their own to spy on us, unless they wanted you dead.” He pressed his face closer to mine, and I felt my eyes water up from the rank smell protruding from his mouth.  
    “I …”
    “I don’t believe you!” he shouted before I could even finish.
    A burning radiated down through the center of my chest and into my stomach. I took a few steps backwards.  
    “You couldn’t survive on your own all this time.” He sniffed me, then gave me a look of pure disgust. “You’re clean, healthy.”
    “Karn!” someone shouted out.  
    Everyone slowly turned around to look at two Scaves who had just entered the campsite, both of them appearing very similar to their leader, yet a little younger and stronger as they had more muscle built up. They looked just as hideous with their jagged teeth and long hair pulled back into a messy ponytail. They had two others with them, males, whose feet and hands were bound together with wire that had been placed on so tightly, their skin was bleeding. Their mouths were gagged.
    “You,” the Scave leader snapped, pointing his staff at me. “Wait here. I’m not done with you yet.” He slowly limped over to where they stood. “What is this?”
    “We found them hanging around the bottom of the hill,” one said.
    “They were alone,” the other added, his voice huskier.
    The contributors’ eyes widened as they took in the sights around them. They appeared physically very normal , like a human. I wondered how long the Scaves had been on their own out here trying to survive. They were frail-looking from lack of nutrition, yet still had such a fierceness and determination about them.  
    How was I going to get out of this? I couldn’t stay here and pretend to be a Scave. I was lost in this strange world and mingling with creatures I didn’t know the first thing about. I had nowhere to turn as the certain doom awaiting me began its overwhelming descent upon my mind,