Free Broken by Susan Jane Bigelow Page A

jacket.
    He ran to Broken’s room, but she was already up. She held Ian in her arms.
    "Time to go?" she asked.
    He nodded. "How did you get him away from Jane?"
    "She fell asleep. I hold him every night when she sleeps."
    Off in the distance, they could hear shouting. Had the mob come already?
    "We have to go now ," Michael said urgently.
    But guilt held him in place. He had to try.
    "Help me," he said. He banged on Lydia’s door. "Wake up! Mob! Get out, now! Now!"
    Broken caught on. They ran around the circle of the house, banging on doors. "Wake up! Mob!"
    People stumbled out into the hallway, rubbing their eyes.
    "What is this?" Andrew said. "Mike, what’s happening?"
"A mob is coming," Michael said. "They will burn the house down."
    "Of all the nonsense," Lydia said. "This house is fireproof. Isn’t it, Andrew?"
    Andrew turned red. "Sure. Sure, it is. I built it that way."
    Michael seethed. Cheap bastard. He didn’t and he can’t admit it.
    "They’re coming tonight," he said. "You have to go."
    "Nothing on the screens about it," deep-voiced Shawn growled. "No mob near here. We’re safe. Go back to bed."
    "I looked outside," Jane added. "Nothing. Michael, are you all right?"
    "You’re all in danger!" Michael said, getting hysterical. "Please, listen! I can see the future, I know it’s going to happen tonight! Please!"
    To his shock, Andrew laughed. "Oh, Mike, it’s been a hard day. And we’re all worried about Janeane. But we’re safe! I promise."
    Michael scanned each of their faces in turn.
     
    —Flames, flames…fire...
     
    Unavoidable. There were no other endings for any of them.
    "Burn, then," he spat, scared and disgusted, and turned his back on them. Broken followed without saying a word.
    Monica met them at the back door. He spun away, not wanting to see her future set aflame.
    "Take me with you," she said softly. Her jet-black hair was a mess, and she looked like she'd been crying. She wore a pack on her back,. "Please. I believe you. Janeane left me a note, explaining. She... she knew things, too. So I figure you must be right. Please?"
    He had three tickets.
    One for him. One for Ian. One for Broken.
    One for Monica? There weren’t enough. Still. Still .
    He nodded. "All right. Come on."
    The four of them set off into the harsh winter night.
    * * *
    They struck north, away from the riots. Half an hour later, as they crested a hill by the bank of the frozen Hudson, Monica dared to look back.
    The neighborhood where they had lived was a sea of flame.
    Broken put her arm around the young woman and led her away, as tears ran down both of their cheeks.
    Michael glanced at Monica. Her future was bound to theirs now. They walked down the hill as Ian moaned softly in the cold. The moon, silvery and uncaring, shone overhead.
     
     
     
     

[CHAPTER 10]
     
     
     
    T he streets north of New York were mobbed with people fleeing the carnage in the city.
    "What’s happening?" Michael asked a man with three children and a pack full of belongings slung on his back.
    "Black Bands are torching entire neighborhoods," he gasped, struggling under his heavy load. "Anyone with a UNP registration is getting hauled in."
    "Is anyone fighting back?" Monica asked.
    The man sighed. "Yeah. They’re getting killed. Black Bands were ready for ‘em."
    "I saw six cops turn on the Black Bands," a younger man said. "They got shot, too. But cops are fightin’ ‘em."
    "Good," a woman whispered viciously. "I hope they all die."
    "Which?" someone asked her. "Cops or Black Bands?"
    " All of them."
    Michael nodded. He’d seen this sort of day in some people’s futures. Many of them had been police or Black Bands.
    They blended in with the crowd, just four more refugees heading north. Several times along the way, they saw squads of Black Bands keeping watch over the road. Vehicles carrying more Black Bands and even some Army troops passed through the crowds, heading south towards the fighting. They could hear, from time to