Dropping Like Spies - A Gallagher Girls Story

Chapter One

My throat was burning.  My lungs were collapsing.  My legs felt like they were moving all on my own—two rubbery limbs flying down the hill on their own accord.  Come on, Morgan.  Run.  You have to keep running.

The ground was uneven under my feet, threatening to snap my ankles with each step.  The trees twisted and turned in my path, so thick that only the slimmest streaks of light could slice through.

I had to keep going—keep plowing forward with all of the power that I had left in me.  He was so close behind.  I could feel the ground thump as each of his feet hit dirt.  He was right there.  He was right on my tail.

Suddenly the trees stopped.  I was open.  I was without cover.  Fear pounded through my veins, drumming against the insides of my ears and snaking underneath my slimy skin.  Electricity shocked my heart as if it were trying to start itself up again.  They’d see me.  They’d see me. 

The sun bore down from overhead, the air so hot and stale that it actually weighed on me.  I’d kill for a breeze.  Kill for a drink.  Kill.

More of them started coming.  They’d found me.  How had they found me?  There was a rat among my team.

I could feel him at my rear.  I could feel his breath on my neck.  Before I could turn to fight, there were hands on my shoulders.  Before I could turn to fight, I was on the ground.  My knees burned as they scratched the dirt.  My shoulders screamed as they caught my weight.  He had me pinned down to the dried grass, each blade poking and scratching at the bare parts of my back.  I kicked and screamed and used every offensive move in my collection, but it was no use.

He wrestled the disk out of my hands, keeping his knee on my chest just like we’d been trained to do.  Keep the air out of your opponent.  Make them beg for breath.  “Good try, Cap,” the boy said.  “But not good enough.”

He smelled awful and his dog tags hung from his neck, shining the summer sun straight into my eyes.  It was there, his chest moving in and out and his hands slamming my wrists down, that I realized just now much I wanted to avoid being at the wrong end of Will’s sword.

I shoved his knee off of me, resisting the urge to punch that goofy smile right off his face.  “I would’ve had it,” I insisted.  “But Bill led me down the wrong path.”

As if cued by the sound of his name, the second half of the pair ran out of the tree line.  “Ah, y’see Cap, that was your problem.”  He flashed me a smile.  “I was the rat.”

I let my head fall against the dirt, cursing myself for not seeing it sooner.  “Of course you were.  I should’ve known when you didn’t set up the booby trap.”

“You just thought I was bein’ clumsy,” Bill said, proud of he debauchery.  I should have known.  Bill is a lot of things, but clumsy isn’t one of them.

Will stood up, dusted off his jeans, and held his hand out to me.  I grabbed and in one fluid motion, I was up on my feet again.  “I trusted you, man,” I teased Bill.

Bill slung his arm around his best friend’s shoulders.  “Cap,” he said.  “I’d follow you all the way to the ends of the Earth.”  Then he looked at Will, absolute admiration in his eyes. “But for this one, I’d go straight to Hell.”

Will smiled and the two of them knocked fists.  “You know it.”

“Yeah, well,” I said, turning to make sure I didn’t have any dirt on my butt (because if there’s one thing I learned over my summer vacation, it’s that boys will never take you seriously when you have dirt on your butt).  “Maybe that’s where you belong after betraying me like that.”