Free Children of the After: The Complete Series: A Young Adult Postapocalyptic Action and Adventure series by Jeremy Laszlo Page B

the man from his saddle. Smashing to the ground, the man’s head bounced as shards of glass scattered around him. Like a bullet, the beast rocketed off down the narrow street, its rider still entangled in the stirrups as he was dragged away at an alarming pace through the river of shattered glass and rubble. Just a foot away from Will the beast and fallen rider passed, spraying up shards of glass in all directions in their wake, but Will had no energy to move away as his vision failed again. The last thing he saw was Jack regaining his feet with a stricken look of panic on his face, as a strange shadow seemed to detach itself from the wall and slink across the street. Then the world went black.

Chapter Eight
    Jack didn’t know how much time they had until the man who pulled the wagon appeared to avenge his friend, but it didn’t matter. Nothing did. Except Will. Clutching his younger brother’s limp body in his hands he shook him vigorously, trying to get any sign of life out of him as tears streamed down his own face.
    “Breath, baby! C’mon, pumpkin, breathe for Sam!” Sam shouted over and over beside him as he fumbled with the cap to the inhaler.
    It was an old thing, having been stored for months in the medicine cabinet even before the day they were closed in the vault. Jack assumed it was more than a year old at this point and hoped that somehow it would still work. Laying Will’s head down upon his back he let it fall back, opening his airway, and he pressed the mouthpiece of the inhaler to his brother’s now blue lips. Forcing his mouth closed around the inhaler, he pressed down on the canister of medicine and struck Will hard in the chest with the open palm of his hand and waited. Nothing.
    On and on Sam wailed, begging the little boy to breathe but he refused to stir. Again Jack pressed down on the canister and this time he pulled Will’s face up and breathed into this mouth, pinching off his nose. He had never done CPR. Never even been taught, but he’d seen it on TV enough to have a basic idea of the concepts involved, and he employed them now as best as he could.
    Forcing another breath into Will’s lungs and then another, he paused and watched and waited. He still had a pulse but made no sign of improvement. Sam continued to scream at him. She’d reached some point beyond an emotional threshold he couldn’t afford to reach himself. Leaning down he breathed again into Will’s lungs. Watching for any sign from his little brother, his own breath stopped when Will twitched. Then, like a huge weight was lifted off the little boy’s chest, he heaved in a deep breath, coughing and sputtering as Jack pulled him up and clutched him to himself before Sam collapsed into them as well. There was no time. They needed to move.
    Rising with Will in his arms, knowing full well he couldn’t be expected to run, Jack ran for him, carrying his brother as fast as he was able to get away from possible pursuit. Sam followed behind him, but he dared not slow enough to look back. Racing back to the street their own home had been located on, he turned back in their original direction and ran. And continued to run for what felt like hours.
    Jack stopped when Will’s eyes finally began to flutter, as if they would open, and spinning he watched as Sam collapsed to the ground. Her makeup was a wreck, between her earlier crying and the sweat that now streaked down her face. She wasn’t accustomed to running like he was, and Jack imagined it was only adrenaline and fear that had kept her moving this long. But now that they had stopped, she was done. The running was over.
    Listening to her ragged panting, he retraced his steps, lowering Will to the ground to stretch his own muscles, now knotting in his back and shoulders. Sam wasn’t the only one who was through. Jack doubted he could continue carrying Will much farther. Looking and listening, he strained his senses in all directions but found no signs of pursuit. Even so, he