UnBound - Neal Shusterman Page 0,74

Colton.”

At first it seems as if nothing’s been done to him . . . but as he turns his head in the direction of Colton’s voice, Colton can see that Jenson no longer has eyes. Instead he has a second set of ears where his eyes should be.

I know a way to make him listen, the doctor said. Colton shudders.

“Help me, Colton. Get me out of here.”

Colton tries, but the keyholes on Jenson’s shackles don’t match any of the keys on Kunal’s key chain.

“Please, Colton! You’ve got to! You’ve got to.”

“I’m trying. . . .”

And then from outside come shouts in Burmese and gunshots. He hears a girl scream. Is that Marisol? Karissa? More gunshots, and then a barrage of machine-gun fire. Something’s gone wrong! Colton takes a step away from Jenson to peer out the door.

“No, don’t go!” Jenson wails. Then quieter. “If you can’t free me . . . then kill me. Please, Colton. I don’t want to live like this.”

Colton understands. He wouldn’t want to live like this either. He pulls the pistol from his waist and aims it at Jenson’s scarred forehead.

But he can’t pull the trigger. He can’t. He just can’t.

“I’m sorry, Jenson,” Colton says. “I’m sorry.” And he turns and runs, knowing that if he does live through this night, he’ll never be able to forgive himself for his moment of weakness. For his failure to give Jenson what he truly needed.

10 • Kunal

Kunal blames it on the moon. Had it been a moonless night, they would have been under full cover of darkness. He should have waited a few more hours, until after the moon set—but he was anxious, and it clouded his judgment. Now all could be lost.

He hears the shout of the first guard, which draws the attention of the second. He can’t see them yet, but knows the direction the shouts are coming from. Marisol panics, running toward the tree—but she doesn’t know where to go. She’s heading toward the wrong side. Karissa goes after her. Then one of the guards fires. It hits Karissa, and she goes down in a scream of pain, but that doesn’t stop her. She rolls over and begins firing the gun Kunal gave her in the direction of the guards.

Then the small Thai boy—was his name Gamon?—loses control. He has not said a word since he was brought here, but suddenly he runs out into the center of the courtyard, screaming a war cry at the top of his lungs. Kunal had taken whatever weapons he could carry when he raided the armory. He hadn’t given much thought to which weapons he handed to who. Gamon has a submachine gun, which he now fires wildly at anything that moves.

And it’s just the diversion that they need.

“The left side of tree,” Kunal tells Kemo. “Between the roots. Go now!”

Kemo runs, grabbing Marisol, while Karissa limps behind them. The guards’ attention is on Gamon, who has already taken down at least four. Lights come on upstairs—but not the big floodlights—which means there’s still time, if they can just make it to the tree.

11 • Colton

Colton races into the courtyard, not quite sure what he’s seeing. Bodies litter the ground. He doesn’t know whose they are. Then he’s grabbed. He turns, ready to use his gun this time, but it’s Kunal.

“Go now!” Kunal tells him. “Now! Last chance!”

They run to the tree, taking the long way to keep under the overhang of the upstairs balcony, shielded from the moonlight.

In the courtyard, whoever’s screaming and firing that machine gun is taken down by a shot to the head. Was that . . . was that Gamon?

“Down there! Go!”

They’re at the roots of the tree. Something smells awful. All around them, a terrible stench. Smells like gasoline…

Kunal pushes him, and Colton plunges down the hole that’s barely large enough for him to fit, birthing him from one world into another.

“Are you okay?” It’s Kemo. Karissa’s there and Marisol. Karissa groans. She’s been shot, but she’s alive.

Colton turns to the hole, expecting to see Kunal climbing down behind him—but he doesn’t come.

“Kunal!” He’s already failed one friend today; he can’t fail another. He climbs a pile of broken bricks back up toward the hole.

“Colton!” shouts Kemo. “What are you doing?”

The gunshots have stopped. Colton pokes his head out from between the roots. Kunal is nowhere. But someone sees him and is running toward him. It’s not Kunal. It’s Sonthi. He raises his gun—

And suddenly the whole world is engulfed in