The Chosen Ones Read Free Page B

onto
his arm before he had a chance to bolt. “What is it?”
    He turned toward me, those
innocent eyes wide with fear. “The beautiful ones, they’re here! Run!”

 
 
    Chapter
2

 
    “You want to live?” Suddenly Will
loomed over me, sword in hand. His appearance jerked me from my stupor. He tore
Jim from my grip and shoved the boy down the hall. “Get off your ass. You
don’t, you’ll die under their hands.”
    The sound of terrified screams
startled me. The noise was too much like the killings that had happened at the
castle, the shrieks I’d heard when I’d lived in the compound. Fear held me
immobile and all I could do was stare down that dark hall, waiting for the
beautiful ones to appear and destroy me for good.
    Will shoved a sword into my
hands. “Jimmy, find Kelly and gather the kids.”
    I fumbled to grasp the
cumbersome, unfamiliar weapon. “Wh…what do I do with it?”
    “Cut off their heads,” Will
explained. “It’s the only way to make sure they’re dead.”
    I stared unblinkingly at him.
“Cut off their heads?”
    The words made no sense to me.
Before I could ask him to repeat his command, because surely I’d misheard him,
he spun around and raced toward the great room, into the fray. I wondered, for
a brief moment, if I would ever see him again. It was an odd disconnected
thought, like wondering if it would rain that day, and not really caring either
way.
    “Run!” someone cried, the
high-pitched scream raising the fine hairs on the back of my neck.
    Slowly, I lowered my gaze to the
sword. It might as well have been one of the computers I’d read about in my
books, for it made about as much sense. I didn’t know how to fight. I,
apparently, didn’t know much of anything. The absurdity of it all had me
laughing for the first time in weeks: a harsh, dry cackle that made me sound
more like a witch than a human.
    Shaking my head, I tried to
clear my muddled mind. I wasn’t sure which terrified me more, my crazed,
wayward thoughts or the idea of the beautiful ones arriving. One thing was
clear…I needed to move or I would die. Somehow I managed to tuck my feet underneath
me, and using the wall for support, I stood. The sword began to slip from my
damp hands. I caught it just before it clanged to the floor. But I didn’t have
time to breathe a sigh of relief. The screams and shouts of those in the great
room echoed like an endless nightmare down the hall, rolling toward me and vibrating
against my skull. The attacks were happening all over again. But this time, I
had a feeling I wouldn’t survive.  
    “Run!” a nameless human cried
out, a shadow that darted by me.
    Run where , I wanted to scream back. Instead, I squeezed my eyes
shut, and tried to pretend I was anywhere but there in that crumbling building.
Why couldn’t that mind-numbing darkness come now? But no, I was left with only
cold, harsh reality. I gripped the hilt of the sword tighter. I’d hide until
they left. They wouldn’t make it down here, this far into the building. Will
would stop them, wouldn’t he? Another cry echoed down the hall. I cringed,
sweat breaking out across my forehead. The scream was closer. Too close.
    The beautiful ones had arrived,
and they were headed my way.
    The sudden pounding of footsteps
had me pushing away from the wall, sword gripped tightly in front of me. Jim
burst from the darkness, followed by five other children.
    “Hurry, Jane,” he panted, the
look of terror in his innocent eyes almost my undoing. “We’re headed to the
children’s ward to hide. Come with us!”
    But he was gone before I could
question him further, the other children following his lead, melting into the
shadows toward some unknown destination. They’d done this before, they knew
where they were going. I knew nothing.
    “Wait!” I called out, but my cry
was lost within the screams of those from the great room.
    Terror gripped me in its icy
clutches and wouldn’t let go. It took all the strength I