Grip (The Slip Trilogy Book 2) Read Free

protect our citizens from the unauthorized illegals that threaten to destroy us.

Chapter Two
     
    I t’s only been three days and Benson Kelly’s already sick and tired of being holed up underground. He misses the freedom of going anywhere and doing anything, something he’s relished since the day his father gave him a fake identity and forced him to swim across the Mississippi. Now, like when he was confined to the indoors for the first eight years of his life, he feels safe but stuck. Not living life the way it’s meant to be lived. Not free.
    He’s never been free, not really.
    He and Check and the others have already explored every part of the Lifers’ facility, the place called Refuge, and now all he wants to do is go outside.
    “Not possible,” a surly Lifer from Montreal had said when Benson asked if they could leave. He’s a Digger from Montreal, having entered the RUSA illegally five years earlier when he and nine others managed to burrow beneath the Border Wall along the Canadian border. His name’s Simon (pronounced See-mone) and the rumor is that the other nine were killed by Border guards, with only Simon surviving, giving him a reputation as a real badass. Apparently he joined the Lifers not long after that.
    The Lifers are the radical anti-government group who’ve been blowing up various parts of the nation’s capital as a protest against Population Control. Just thinking about the aftermath of the Lifers’ handiwork—the burned and charred bodies; the destroyed buildings; the fear and panic and mobs—makes it hard for Benson to breathe.
    “The air is so thick down here,” Benson says, bouncing a ball against the metal wall next to his small, metal-framed bed. Check sits next to him, his legs crossed. He squints at the ball as Benson throws it, which makes his already narrow Asian eyes appear closed.
    “Like cold pea soup,” Check says, grabbing the ball and chucking it at Harrison Kelly’s head.
    Harrison’s hand flicks up and he snatches the ball just before it hits him in the face.
    “Amazing,” Check says. “I’ve never seen anyone with hand/eye coordination like that.”
    Harrison shrugs. “I was born with it,” he says. Although it sounds like a cocky comment, Benson suspects it’s not. More like a fact. His twin brother might have identical features to him—sparkling turquoise eyes and golden blond hair—but that’s where the similarities end. Harrison is confident to a fault, prone to periods of brooding, and far more outgoing than Benson. Not to mention his superior hand/eye coordination and athletic ability.
    Already he finds himself looking up to Harrison like a big brother. A big brother who was born a mere two minutes before him. Two minutes that changed both their lives, making Harrison a legal citizen of the RUSA and Benson a wanted fugitive, even as a helpless baby.
    “Have you ever even seen pea soup, amigo ?” Gonzo asks. Gonzo is standing in front of his own bed, repeatedly trying to rest his arm on Rod’s shoulder. Rod repeatedly pushes him off. The pair are Jumpers from Mexico, having successfully crossed the Border Wall by flinging themselves from a homemade drone. And both are a little crazy.
    Check glowers. “It’s an expression, genius.” Although it’s typical for Rod and Gonzo to argue with each other, Check usually stays out of it. After three days without sunlight, everyone’s tempers are high.
    Rod pushes Gonzo. Gonzo pushes Rod.
    “Do you two ever stop?” Harrison says. “What, are you in third grade?”
    “Nah, hombre , we never even made it that far,” Rod says. “School is for spoiled douche bags with rich douche bag parents. Comprende? ”
    Harrison is off his bed in a second, throwing himself at the two Jumpers. His fist connects with Rod’s cheek, knocking him back. Gonzo throws a punch of his own, but Harrison dodges it and shoves him hard.
    Benson and Check give each other a “Why me?” look and join the fray. While Benson