Free Immurement: The Undergrounders Series Book One (A Young Adult Science Fiction Dystopian Novel) by Norma Hinkens Page A

to help.”
    We stop outside a small two-man tent and Blade shoves me to my knees. My throat constricts with fear. He reaches for the nylon door flap, folds it back, and forces my head inside. “Welcome to the hole.”
    I sway back and forth, disoriented and dizzy from the blow to my jaw. The stench of sweat permeates the space. I blink to accustom my eyes to the darkness. There’s a body, gagged and bound, lying at the back of the tent. A corpse? Someone kicks me from behind. Tentatively, I crawl forward. The man’s eyes are swollen shut like two purple grapes. His head is shaved, but it’s hard to tell if he’s tattooed because his bruised skin is so mottled. A dry web of blood laces his face, crusting on his bulging nose and smashed right ear. His chest moves up and down, but I’m guessing by his uneven breathing that some of his ribs are broken. My heart races. Lemme show you what happens to suckers what diss me. I back slowly out of the tent on clammy palms.
    That’s when I see the grimy orange backpack stashed in the corner.

Chapter 11
    I press my knuckles to my lips. Fragments of rational thought explode in my head. Owen! I wheeze like I’m dying, unable to catch a breath, vaguely aware that Blade is stringing syllables into unintelligible words. I collapse in the dirt, silently screaming my brother’s name.
    “Git up!” Blade yells. He tucks the toe of his steel-toed boot beneath my torso and flips me onto my back. Blood trickles into my throat and I sit up and spit out another mouthful of gunk. My face pulsates with pain.
    Rummy rolls up some kind of cigarette and lights it, watching me with half-lidded eyes. I rock forward, violent chills running through my limbs. I can’t let them know they have my brother. They’ll use it against us.
    Rummy takes a drag of his cigarette. “That sucker told me the same boulder wack you did. Blowing smoke ’bout ‘scaping from Sweepers.”
    I gingerly touch the back of my hand to my swollen lips. “It’s true.”
    “Prove it.” Blade leans in close. “Prove you’re not just a filthy Sweeper snitch.”
    I rack my brains for something to tell him. Something that will give these thugs no option but to keep me alive. One thing comes to mind, but it’s a huge gamble. I fix my gaze on Blade. “I can take you to a Sweeper ship.”
    He raises his brows and glances at Rummy before turning his attention back to me. Rummy tosses his cigarette on the ground, grinds it beneath his boot, and heads my way, his face expressionless.
    “It crashed,” I stammer, as Rummy gets closer. “I can show you—”
    He lunges for my throat and squeezes hard, cutting off my air supply. “I swear I’ll pop your eyeballs out of their sorry sockets if you’re jerkin’ my chain.” He shakes me loose and hovers over me while I writhe around and catch my breath. “Where's this ship at?”
    I make a gurgling sound. My throat feels like it’s been cinched tighter than a bronc’s saddle. I might just have made the biggest mistake of my life. What if there is no Hovermedes? If Mason was lying about the abandoned ship, Owen and I are as good as dead. But I’m committed now. If the Hovermedes exists, I have to find it. I take a shallow breath. “A few miles east of my bunker.”
    “Ain’t that convenient?” Rummy juts his chin at me, his features hard and impenetrable. “How’d it get there, Butterface?”
    I hesitate, toying with several plausible answers. None that involve Mason. I’m reluctant to give him everything I know in case I need information to barter with later on. The Rogues will only keep me alive as long as I’m useful to them.
    “We dragged it out of the river,” I say.
    Rummy narrows his eyes at me until I feel my pupils dilate. I’m so tired I could collapse right now and sleep in the dirt, but I will myself to stare him down.
    He rewards me with a stinging slap across the jaw. “You mad dogging me or what?”
    I shake my head fervently, eyes now firmly