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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

The barista drops her paper cup—just lets it splash on the floor—and flees into the back of the coffee shop. Where’s Miranda supposed to go? What’s she supposed to do?

Is she going to get shot? Is she going to die?

She tries to climb over the high counter. But the front is a rounded glass display case for pastries and cookies. Her feet can’t find purchase. She slides back down to the floor.

POP, POP, POP.

A bullet shatters the glass of the display case next to her chest.

Before the next one finds her, Miranda darts away.

She and the other people in the food court are fish in a barrel, the way her dad likes to say, to note how easy something is. Like shooting fish in a barrel.

Miranda feels for those poor fish now, swimming in frantic circles with no way to escape.

Because of the Blood

BECAUSE OF THE BLOOD

3:54 P.M.

Grace Busby tries to lift her mom, but it’s like trying to pick up a rag doll that weighs a hundred and thirty pounds. Grabbing her mom’s wrists instead, Grace starts to drag her away. She curls her shoulders and tucks her head, hoping to provide less of a target.

She won’t think about how pulling her mom over the linoleum is easier than it should be. Because of the blood.

Lately, Grace has seen a lot of blood. Most of it her own, filling up test tube after test tube. The doctors made a hole in her chest, about where her mom’s is, only Grace’s has a plastic cap over it.

A guy in a green apron runs up to her. His name tag reads JAVIER. “You have to leave her.” He pulls at one of Grace’s arms. “She’s dead.”

“But she’s my mom.” The woman Grace is dragging doesn’t look like her mom, though. Not with her hair dyed dark, and her skin so pale. Her eyes and her mouth are both half-open. Neither of them moving.

“You can’t help her.”

“I can’t leave her.” Past Javier’s shoulder, she sees a middle-aged guy in a business suit fall to his knees. He’s clutching his neck with both hands, but red pulses out between his fingers.

“Your mother would not want you to die.” He grabs Grace’s wrist. “Now come!”

She stumbles after him.

Can’t be Real

CAN’T BE REAL

3:55 P.M.

As she runs from the coffee shop, Miranda tilts her head back. The shots are coming from the second floor of the mall, which is open in the middle. There are no stores up there, just office space, the two floors linked by escalators. Three men in black ski masks are leaning over the black railing and shooting long black guns, like AKs or something.