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Breathe And You Die.

  7 p.m.

  Matt woke up coughing. The smell in his nose was rank, a mix of rotten eggs and dead meat. Where was he? And why did his head hurt? He slowly opened his eyes. Weird. He was lying on bare floorboards in a room he’d never seen in his life. He still wore his school clothes, now scuffed and torn. If this was a dream, it was convincing. Thick smoke hovered a few inches above his head. More of it poured in from a vent high in the ceiling. Here, down by the floor, the air was almost clear.

  It didn’t take a science degree to know the smoke was poison. If he sat up, and breathed it in, he’d be dead. Matt tried to think. Last thing he remembered, he was leaving school late after his karate lesson. His Kata had been good and the Sensei, his teacher, was pleased with Matt’s progress. What else? There’d been a van with tinted windows, slowing down alongside him. Then … nothing. He coughed again, he could feel the gas exploring his lungs, trying to shut him down for good.

  It didn’t make sense. He was an ordinary year 9 boy, who went to a boring school. A brown belt in Shotokan Karate, even with a second stripe, was hardly a threat. Every second he lay there thinking, the smoke above his head grew thicker. He had to get out. Apart from the bump on his head, he appeared to be in one piece. Matt crawled as close to the floor as possible towards the door. The room narrowed into a corridor. When he finally got to the end and reached up with his arm, the door was firmly locked and the letter box was nailed down. Who would do this to him? It was mad! He slid backwards. Maybe he’d have better luck with the window.

  He grabbed a deep lungful of clean air and stood up, using both arms to try and slide the window open. The smoke made his eyes smart. Why wouldn’t it budge? He looked again. Window lock. Damn! Think Matty. Think! Of course – the dirty plastic chair by the window. It had metal legs. He knelt down to take another breath and grabbed the chair, swinging with all his might against the glass.

  This ebook edition published in 2013

  Franklin Watts

  338 Euston Road

  London NW1 3BH

  Franklin Watts Australia

  Level 17/207 Kent Street

  Sydney, NSW 2000

  The author has asserted his right in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

  All rights reserved

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  Slava Gerj/Shutterstock: front cover c.

  Anna Kucherova/Shutterstock: front cover b.

  lolloj/Shutterstock: front cover top.

  (ebook) ISBN: 978 1 4451 2346 2

  (pb) ISBN: 978 1 4451 2345 5

  (Library ebook) ISBN: 978 1 4451 2579 4

  Franklin Watts is a division of Hachette Children’s Books, an Hachette UK company.

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