Megamatrix Hero Within Read Free Page B

the Revolution." The man pulled a knife from his pocket and took a step toward the boys.
    Fletcher's heart was trying to beat its way through his ribcage and he couldn't feel his legs, even though he knew they were slowly backing him out of the alley. The moonlight glinted off the dirty blade in the man's hand and Fletcher's thoughts went to his mother's pale body. Would he wind up like that here, in this alley? Would Josh? He couldn't let that happen. Without Mom, he was all that Josh had left, and he couldn't let anything happen to either of them.
    He turned to run back to Miguel's house. It couldn't be more than a half mile. He hooked his arm under Josh's shoulder to drag him along, but his brother stood his ground, anchoring Fletcher like a dog chained up in the yard. The sudden jerk spun him around just in time to see the knife-wielding man attack Miguel.
    Effortlessly, Miguel side-stepped the thrust of the knife, grabbing the man by the wrist. He threw an elbow into the man's jaw, then punched the wrist hard enough to loosen the grip and send the knife clattering across the alley. Miguel finished the man off with a head-butt, breaking his attacker's nose and dropping him limply into a pile of garbage bags.
    "Hurry up," Miguel whispered as firmly as he could. "Someone had to have heard that."
    "No way," Fletcher protested. "We're heading back. I knew we shouldn't have come out at night."
    Miguel took off down the alley, and Josh was right behind him. That left Fletcher alone with the man who’d attacked them, and Fletcher wasn’t about to stay with him. He ran after his brother, making sure to avoid the groaning man in the trash.
    Eventually, they arrived at the ruins of an old building. Despite being in the heart of the city, it looked more like a jungle. Trees and weeds had grown over the walls that had probably been gleaming white at some point in the past. A fence surrounded the entire plot of land, adorned by signs with radioactive symbols. In no uncertain terms, everyone was to stay out.
    Once, long ago, it had been the headquarters for the Global Defenders before Technein had destroyed them all. The story Technein told everyone was that when they realized they had lost, the Global Defenders purposely set off a nuclear reactor beneath the base to meltdown. That was enough to keep everyone out. No one was curious enough to risk radiation poisoning.
    "Come on. Before anyone sees us," Miguel whispered, pointing to a hole in the fence large enough to crawl through.
    “Wait, we’re not going in there,” Fletcher protested.
    “What? The radiation?” Miguel asked with a chuckle. “You afraid you’re going to grow gills and start breathing underwater?”
    Josh laughed as he scampered through to the other side of the fence.
    A frustrated Miguel grabbed the fence that separated them and locked eyes with Fletcher. "We have to get off the street, Fletcher. Now either follow us or don't, but whatever you do, do it quietly."
    Fletcher watched them disappear into the darkness toward the ruins. He gripped the chain link fence with his fingertips and shook it with rage. No good could come of this. If the radiation didn’t get them, some of Technein's goons probably would.
    “I guess this makes me an idiot, too,” he muttered as he slipped through the fence and hurried after Miguel and Josh.
    The weeds were as high as his thighs and covered pieces of rubble that made it impossible to run without twisting an ankle. He had lost the others in the darkness and didn't dare yell out their names.
    As he neared what looked like a broken marble column wrapped in vines, his left foot got caught beneath a piece of slate. He struggled to free it, but the more he pulled, the more entwined it became in the weeds.
    As he leaned back to try a different angle of escape, something beneath his foot gave way. His leg sunk into the ground, and with a thud, he found himself hip deep in stone and earth.
    “Josh… Miguel…” he called out in