Read Vanished for Free Online Page B

"Please, God,"
she whispered.

    Logan pressed his ear to the boy's chest. A sickly thub
rewarded him. No spontaneous respiration yet.
    A dark-haired man stared out of the crowd that had gathered, his eyes eager. Drawn by accidents and violence, his kind
were the worst.
    Josh gasped.
    "Thank God," the mother cried.
    "Amen," Logan said. "Keep him warm and comfortable. I'll
send the EMTs down here as soon as they arrive."
    He got up and went to help Pappas.

     

chapter eleven
    TONE SPRAWLED ON THE FLOOR, UNCONSCIOUS UNDER
boxes of baby formula.
    Kaya cradled Angelina and tried to get her bearings. Had a plane crashed nearby? Or perhaps it had been an
earthquake. That wouldn't account for that strange instantthat instant that seemed to last forever-in which the world
stretched out of shape.
    Sarah leaned against the wall, dazed. "What happened?"
    "I'm not sure." Kaya punched in 911, but her cell was dead.
That didn't make sense. She had charged it this morning, had
made only a couple of calls.
    Stone groaned, his fingers twitching as if looking for the gun.
It wasn't anywhere in sight-maybe he had fallen on it.
    "We've got to get out of here." Kaya steered Sarah out the
front door. In her haste, the girl almost pitched headfirst off the
front porch-the bottom step had cracked in the blast.
    The scene out on the street was surreal. It was the same
old neighborhood Kaya saw every day-huge oaks and pines
lining the street, old Victorian houses that had been broken
up into multiple apartments, driveways crammed with cars
from so many tenants, bikes and riding toys, basketball hoops
and baseball pitch-backs, Fenway Variety Store on one corner,
the Starlight Diner on another.
    But the crash or explosion or whatever it was had changed
everything.

    The lack of engine sounds was unnerving. In this neighborhood, the background noise of cars, trucks, and factories was
a constant reality. People were out but not going about their
business. Instead they grouped on the sidewalk, a teen in gang
colors talking to a man in a sport coat, an anxious mother with
a toddler being consoled by a woman with a walker.
    The sky was so overcast that Kaya couldn't see the sun, but
the air was strangely clean, as if whatever had caused the booms
had purged it.
    She unlocked her car, motioned for Sarah to get in. She slid
Angelina onto the girl's lap-no time to hunt down a car seat.
    The front door of the clinic banged open. Stone stood there,
gun in hand, eyes searching them out. Kaya desperately turned
the ignition but only got click-click-click. She glanced around,
realized no cars were moving.
    "We've got to run for it. Hurry up." She grabbed Angelina
from Sarah and dashed down the driveway.
    "Get back here," Stone bellowed.
    Kaya stumbled and fell to her knees, clutching the baby
to keep from dropping her. Something pop-pop-popped over
her head, a dreaded noise she knew too well from growing
up here.
    "Get down," she cried, but Sarah froze, and before Kaya
could yank her down, more shots rang out.
    Sarah crumpled, a crimson splotch blossoming on her throat.
Only enough breath left to gasp, "Don't let ... him... " before the
light in her eyes died.
    Kaya crept into the street, found cover behind a car. Angelina dug little fingers into her neck but could only muster a
whimper.
    "Give me that baby," Stone shouted, "or you're next."
    Lord, save us, she prayed because she couldn't give this baby
to a madman.

    Stone stormed off the porch and lunged forward, bashing
into the sidewalk as he tripped on the same cracked step.
    Kaya ran down University Avenue for her life, and for
Angelina's.

     

chapter twelve
    ON HELPED CHLOE TO HER FEET, RUNNING HIS HANDS
over her face and shoulders, cupping her belly.
    "What happened?" Chloe's voice cracked, as if she hadn't
spoken in a hundred years.
    "I don't know. Are you OK?"
    "Sweetie, I'm fine. We were just trying to push one particle,"
Chloe said. "Just harnessing a natural