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Back Run, Hide, Fight Back Save as PDF
Chapters (62)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Notice
  3. Dedication
  4. Map
  5. Newspaper Extract
  6. Survive
  7. One Hundred Miles
  8. So Many and So Fast
  9. Start to Die
  10. Fish in a Barrel
  11. Because of the Blood
  12. Can’t be Real
  13. Waiting to Die
  14. Panic
  15. None of Them
  16. Trapped
  17. Video Game
  18. Like Her Life Depends on It
  19. Before He Sees Us
  20. It’s Your Lucky Day
  21. Just a Shell
  22. The World’s Best Reality Show
  23. How Long
  24. No Matter What Happens
  25. The One Who Decides
  26. What You Need to Do
  27. One Last Time
  28. The Biggest Secret Ever
  29. What They Want Me to Believe
  30. Who He Really Is
  31. People Like You
  32. I Believe She Is Saying
  33. Wake Up
  34. We Told You What Would Happen
  35. Slowly, Slowly
  36. Everything Is Under Control
  37. Come with Me
  38. The Last Thing They’d Expect
  39. They Can’t Shoot All of Us
  40. Go Down Swinging
  41. Not Running Away
  42. If You’re Going to Lie
  43. Every Rattle and Click
  44. Infinitesimal
  45. No Safe Place
  46. I Didn’t Know
  47. Straight to the Source
  48. Nothing but the Breathing
  49. Anything Other Than Killing
  50. You Honestly Believed
  51. Three Inches Away
  52. Not Anymore
  53. Refusing to Crack
  54. On the Trigger
  55. Over
  56. All Too Much
  57. Together, We Can Make a Difference
  58. A Note From the Author
  59. Other Mysteries by April Henry
  60. Honors for April Henry
  61. About the Author
  62. Newsletter Sign-up

DISPATCH: 10-4. They have been advised.

Slowly, Slowly

SLOWLY, SLOWLY

5:23 P.M.

The explosion was so powerful that it rattled the cage of Miranda’s ribs.

Grace cried out, and Cole pulled her to him. “That wasn’t any flash bang,” he whispered to them over her shoulder. “That was a bomb.” His mouth twisted. “I can’t believe they did that.”

“One of them exploded his vest?” Javier asked.

Cole shook his head. “I think they set a booby trap for the cops.”

A scream came from the other side of one of their walls. “Parker!” It was a little girl. Panicked. And very close. “Parker! Parker!”

Miranda braced herself for the sound of shots. But all she heard was the faint murmur of two men’s voices.

Now Miranda’s phone vibrates. She pulls it out with a shaking hand. It’s a text from her dad.

The cops think a bomb took out the cops who were coming in. Pulling back & reevaluating.

How long until they come? she texts back.

It takes him so long to respond that Miranda already knows the answer before she reads it.

May be long time. Are you sure no way out?

She texts back, We’ll try to think of something. She can’t stay penned up here any longer, shaking from withdrawal, the seconds crawling by.

Be careful. I love you.

Love you too. Tears burn her eyes. Saying good-bye to people is already horrible, but having to say it over and over is worse.

Everyone but Grace—who is still sniffling into Cole’s shoulder—is watching her. “My dad says that explosion was a bomb. It took out the cops who were trying to save us.”

Amina looks at the computer. “The reporter is also saying it was a bomb.”

Miranda’s whisper is light as air. “He said that it might be a long time before the cops can come for us.”

Grace lifts her head, her eyes shining with tears. “I can’t take this. Waiting to die.”

“The longer we stay here,” Javier says, “the better the chance they’ll find us.”

Miranda tries to imagine spending hours and hours here. Days.

“What if we tried that back corridor again?” She points. “We haven’t heard any shots for a long time.”

“I don’t know.” Grace finds an edge of her blouse that isn’t bloodstained and wipes her eyes. “What if it’s not safe?”

“And this is?” Amina says flatly.

“Too bad that back door don’t have a peephole,” Javier says.

A peephole would only show something directly in front of the door. They need to know if there’s still someone in the corridor. But if one of them pokes their head out to discover the answer, they could die.