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    Among the Betrayed
    Among the Betrayed
    Among the Betrayed
    Ebook155 pages2 hours

    Among the Betrayed

    By Margaret Peterson Haddix

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    About this ebook

    In the third installment of Haddix's series about a futuristic society in which families are forbidden to have more than two children, Nina, a secondary character in Among the Impostors, is falsely accused of treason and imprisoned by the Population Police. Her interrogator gives her an ultimatum: either she can get three other child prisoners, illegal third-borns like Nina, to reveal who harbored them and where they got their fake identification cards, or she will be executed. Nina sees a chance to escape the prison and, taking the prisoners with her, quickly discovers their street smarts. But when their food supply runs out, Nina seeks the boy she knew as Lee.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
    Release dateJul 26, 2011
    ISBN9781442443068
    Author

    Margaret Peterson Haddix

    Margaret Peterson Haddix grew up on a farm in Ohio. As a kid, she knew two girls who had the exact same first, middle, and last names and shared the same birthday—only one year apart—and she always thought that was bizarre. As an adult, Haddix worked as a newspaper reporter and copy editor in Indiana before her first book, Running Out of Time, was published. She has since written more than forty books for kids and teens, including the Greystone Secrets series, the Shadow Children series, the Missing series, the Children of Exile series, and lots of stand-alones. Haddix and her husband, Doug, now live in Columbus, Ohio, where they raised their two kids. You can learn more about her at haddixbooks.com.

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    Reviews for Among the Betrayed

    4/5

    402 ratings17 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I love how they changed it up in this book. I was kind of aware of how it was going to end, but it was a pretty interesting read and very detailed!
    • 4/5
      Couldn't put it down! Haddix moves her lens to Nina from the last book and into the Population Police's prison. Effectively explores issues of trust and betrayal in a way any reader can understand, and even makes the reader question the validity of circumstantial evidence. Highly recommended to middle school students who have read the first two.
    • 5/5
      This is the third book of the series. The story is different though. The first two books were about Luke/Lee. This book carries on the story of one of the minor characters from book 2. I still enjoyed it.
    • 3/5
      After reading "Among the Hidden," I was looking forward to reading this one, the second book in the series. However, it wasn't nearly as good. I was disappointed to find that it is about a different character altogether, with barely even a single mention of the hero from it's prequel.Nothing really happens, besides the heroine finding out the truth at the end of the book. All in between is pretty boring.
    • 5/5
      This book is a story told well. It is very interesting because there is always action and suspense. It is very detailed and you can picture the images in your head. I also "felt" the characters feelings because there are parts that are well described.
    • 5/5
      This is book 3 of the shadow kid series. It was very interesting. Nina, a shadow child, gets arrested and then finds out to live she has to betray 3 little kids. Instead she takes the kids and escapes. With the constant fear of being captured, they hide. I think everyone will like this book.
    • 5/5
      "Everything that had happened to Nina was real. She had real handcuffs on her wrists, real scars on her back, real fear flooding her mind. "'They're going to kill me,' Nina whispered, and it was almost a relief to finally, finally give up hope."In a society that allows no more than two children per family under penalty of death, third children are forced into hiding, or to live with false identity papers. In Among the Impostors, Nina Idi was arrested for treason for supposedly trying to trick the Population Police into arresting other students she said were illegal third children. Now she faces torture or death — unless she agrees to betray three other imprisoned third children. Her dilemma intensifies when she meets the prisoners — who are only ten, nine, and six.
    • 4/5
      This book was great. It was a quick and thrilling read that held my interest from cover to cover. This series is great, and would entice any reluctant reader.
    • 4/5
      Great book in the series. Well written
    • 4/5
      Thirteen-year-old Nina is imprisoned by the Population Police, who give her the option of helping them identify illegal "third-born" children, or facing death.
    • 5/5
      This book is about Nina being arrested from the populaction police and being said as a trater. Later on they make a deal with her, she has to be able to reveal Matthias', Percy's and Alia's real name. She would have to betray them in oder to live, but doesn't. An officer gets poisoned and his keys fell on the ground and Nina got them. She gets Matthias, Percy and Alia to escape. Then they find Lee and Trey still at Handrix in the woods, and they allow them to be in their club for safety.
    • 4/5
      Among the Betrayed is part of the Shadow Children series by Margaret Peterson. The main character in this science-fiction drama is a young girl named Nina. She is captured by the Population Police and forced to make a decision between saving her life and destroying three others. A strength of the book is Nina's character development through the difficult decisions she must make. Students might find themselves connecting with her character and the other three characters she tries to save. Some of the events, like Nina's escape from prison, seem implausible at first thus requiring a little extra effort on the part of the educated reader. However, the book series has been a popular with students in my 10th grade English class. The diction and style are less complex so that struggling readers have been able to digest the material. This novel would work great along novels like Brave New World and 1984.
    • 5/5
      it was great i felt soo bad for the chick... but it all turned out for the better.
    • 5/5
      This was an interesting book. It keeps the reader guessing. Very suspenseful.
    • 4/5
      Thirteen year old Nina is a Shadow Child. After hiding for years in a house with her three aunts and her grandmother, she is presented with a fake I.D. This golden ticket allows her to assume a new identity, stop hiding and no longer be seen as illegal. She ends up safe but alone at Harlow boarding school for girls where she believes that all the other students are also Shadow Children. After picking up an intriguing note to discuss “shadows”, she meets with students from Hendricks School for Boys. She is immediately drawn to Jason, the charismatic leader of the boys who says that they should work towards a revolution to change the unfair laws. One frightful day she is arrested by the Population Police and taken to a dungeon. She is shocked to find that the police do not know she is a shadow child, but rather believe she was working with Jason to betray legal children by making it appear that they are third children in order to obtain rewards from the police. They tell her they will kill her unless she acts as a spy on shadow children prisoners to find out their real identities and the names of those who helped hide them. She is to gain their trust and then betray them. With these instructions, the guards toss her back into a cell with ten year old Matthias, nine year old Percy and six year old Alia. Having been betrayed all her life, will Nina now betray others?
    • 5/5
      Nina has been captured by the population police and accused of trying to scam them. She is given a mission to betray them as she was betrayed, but what she doesn’t know is that if she succeeds in betraying them, she will be killed. She is put through an arduous test to find out where her loyalties really lie and she passes.
    • 5/5
      Nina from …Imposters is impriosoned. She is told she can gain freedom by betraying three other children.

    Book preview

    Among the Betrayed - Margaret Peterson Haddix

    CHAPTER ONE

    You were supposed to wake up from nightmares.

    That’s what Nina kept telling herself as she cowered on the floor of her concrete cell. All her life she’d had horrible dreams about being captured by the Population Police. Sometimes they carried shovels and scooped her up like trash on the street. Sometimes they carried guns and prodded her in the back or pointed at her head.

    But she always woke up before anyone pulled a trigger.

    Once she’d even dreamed that the Population Policeman who came for her was wearing Aunty Zenka’s ruffled lace nightie, complete with a nightcap. For months after that dream Nina refused to give Aunty Zenka a goodnight kiss, and nobody understood why. Nina wouldn’t say, because then everyone would laugh, and it wasn’t funny.

    Nina knew she was right to be terrified of the Population Police. They were the bogeyman and the Big Bad Wolf and the Wicked Witch and the creep-show monster and every other villain she’d ever heard of, all rolled into one.

    But like the bogeyman and the Big Bad Wolf and the Wicked Witch and the creep-show monster, the Population Police belonged in stories and nightmares, not real life.

    Now Nina banged her head against the cement wall beside her.

    Wake up! she ordered herself desperately. Wake up!

    The banging made her head ache, and that didn’t happen in dreams, did it? In dreams nothing hurt. They could flog you until your back bled, and you didn’t feel a thing. They could tie your feet together so you couldn’t run, and the ropes didn’t burn at all.

    Nina’s wrists and ankles were rubbed raw from the handcuffs and ankle cuffs that chained her to the wall. The skin had been whipped from her back; even the slightest touch of her shirt against her spine sent pain shrieking through her body. One of her eyes seemed to be swollen shut from the beating.

    Everything hurt.

    But it had felt like a nightmare, being arrested, Nina told herself stubbornly.

    She savored the dreamy quality of her memories, as if her arrest had been something good—not the worst moment of her life. She couldn’t even remember the Population Policemen coming into the dining hall or calling her name. See? See? Didn’t that prove it hadn’t really happened? She had just been sitting there eating breakfast, rejoicing over the fact that she’d gotten three whole raisins in her oatmeal. And then suddenly the entire room was deathly quiet, and everyone was looking at Nina. She could feel all those eyes on her; she dropped her spoon. Oatmeal splashed on the girl beside Nina, but Lisle didn’t complain, just kept staring like everyone else. And it was those stares, not the sound of her name, that had made Nina rise, and go forward, holding out her wrists to be handcuffed.

    Which name did they call? Nina wondered. Nina or . . . or—

    No, she wouldn’t even think it. Sometimes in dreams the Population Police could read your mind.

    Nina went back to remembering, remembering how the other girls sat like dolls on a shelf while Nina walked down the endless aisle between the tables. The familiar dining hall had somehow turned into a canyon of eyes. Nina did not turn to the right or to the left, but she could feel all those eyes following her, in silence. Those eyes were like dolls’ eyes, as blank as marbles.

    Why didn’t anyone defend me? Nina wondered. Why didn’t anyone speak out, plead, beg, refuse to let me go?

    She knew. Even if it was just a nightmare—it was, wasn’t it?—she knew that everyone would have been too terrified to make a peep. Nina knew she would have been too terrified to speak, too, if it had been someone else dazedly gliding toward the man with the medals on his chest. Someone else being arrested. (Why was it her? How had they found out? Why was she the only one they knew about? Stop, she chided herself. Nightmares never make sense.)

    She remembered how hard it had been to keep her feet moving—up, down, right, left, closer, closer. . . . She couldn’t protest or defend herself, either. Opening her mouth, even just enough to let out a whimper, would have released hysterics.

    Please don’t kill me! I’m only a kid. I didn’t want to break any laws. It’s not my fault. Oh, and please don’t take Jason. . . .

    Now, in her jail cell, Nina clenched her teeth, afraid that she might still let those words spill out. And she couldn’t. Someone might be listening. Someone might hear his name. Whatever she did, she had to protect Jason. Jason and Gran and the aunties. And her parents, of course. But she could hold her tongue about all the others. It was Jason’s name she wanted to wail, Jason she wanted to call out to.

    Jason, do you know where I am? Did you worry when I didn’t show up at our meeting place in the woods? You’re so brave. Can you . . . can you rescue me?

    She was being so silly. This was just a dream. In a few minutes the morning bells would chime, and she’d open her eyes in her swaying top bunk at Harlow School for Girls. Then she’d brush her teeth and wash her face and change her clothes and maybe, just maybe, get four raisins in her oatmeal at breakfast. . . .

    She remembered her arrest again. She remembered reaching the front of the dining hall, facing the policeman. At the last moment, right before the policeman snapped the metal cuffs on Nina’s wrists, she had noticed another man standing behind him, watching Nina just as intently as all her classmates were. But all her classmates had gone glassy-eyed with fear, their gazes as vacant as dolls’. This man’s dark eyes said everything.

    He was furious. He hated her. He wanted her to die.

    Nina gasped. She couldn’t pretend anymore. She remembered too much. She couldn’t have dreamed or imagined or made up that look. It was real. Everything that had happened to Nina was real. She had real handcuffs on her wrists, real scars on her back, real fear flooding her mind.

    They’re going to kill me, Nina whispered, and it was almost a relief to finally, finally give up hope.

    CHAPTER TWO

    "Why?"

    The word exploded in Nina’s ears, and she jerked awake. Then she jerked back because a man’s face was just inches from hers, yelling at her.

    Why did you betray your country? the man demanded.

    Nina blinked. She was doomed anyway—why not argue? Betray my country? she could sneer. What kind of a country thinks it’s a betrayal just to be born? Was I supposed to kill myself out of loyalty? Out of patriotism? How is it my fault that my parents had two babies before me?

    But anything she said would betray her mother and Gran and the aunties—everyone who’d kept her hidden, everyone who’d kept her alive.

    She didn’t speak.

    The man sat back on his heels. It was dark in Nina’s prison cell; she thought it was probably the middle of the night. The man’s silhouette was just a dim shadow in front of her. He’s a shadow and so am I, Nina thought. She was still groggy enough that that seemed funny.

    Then the man turned his head and murmured, Now. Instantly the entire cell was flooded with harsh, too bright light from the one bare electric bulb overhead. Nina squeezed her eyes shut.

    I know you’re awake, the man said softly. You can’t hide.

    Nina stiffened at that word, hide. He knew. Of course he knew. Why else had she been arrested? She thought she’d resigned herself to dying, but suddenly she was drowning in panic. Was this it? Was the man about to shoot her? Or was he going to take her somewhere else to die? How did the Population Police kill illegal children?

    Nina opened her eyes a crack because it was better to see her killer than to cower sightlessly, expecting a gunshot at any moment. But seeing gave her another jolt: She recognized the man. He was the one who’d been there when she was arrested, staring at her with those hate-filled eyes.

    Weakly Nina closed her eyes again. It didn’t matter. She still had the man’s image imprinted in her mind. He was tall and muscular and richly dressed, like someone on TV. His dark hair waved back from a high forehead. He looked powerful, just as Jason always looked powerful. But Jason had never once looked at her with such hatred.

    Nina remembered something Gran always said: If looks could kill . . . Looks can kill, Gran, Nina wanted to say. That look’s going to kill me.

    The man chuckled.

    I don’t care if you talk or not, he said. "Your cohort already told us everything. He cracked like an egg. I just thought you’d like the chance to tell us your version. Maybe your friend lied a little to save his own skin. To make himself look a little better and you, well, a lot worse. Guiltier. You know?"

    The man was practically crooning in Nina’s ear; his face was so close to hers that she could feel his breath on her cheek. Nina could barely think. What was the man talking about?

    For a minute Nina didn’t even understand the words he’d used—cohort? What was that? Then she remembered all the mystery novels Aunty Lystra had read aloud back home, on nights when the TV wasn’t working. The detectives in those books were always accusing people of being cohorts in crime. Cohorts were partners, helpers. Did he mean Gran and the aunties, who were cohorts in hiding her?

    Nina barely managed to keep herself from gasping. No! she wanted to scream. You didn’t catch them. You couldn’t have! Tears began streaming down her face, silently.

    But the man hadn’t said cohorts and they and them. He’d said cohort. He. Him.

    Nina knew only one him.

    No, she corrected herself desperately. I met other boys from Hendricks School. Just because I didn’t really know them, that doesn’t mean they didn’t betray me. In fact, it makes it more likely that they turned me in.

    Nina thought about the guys she and her friends had sneaked out to meet in the woods at night. As a group, they were as skittish and timid as rabbits. She couldn’t imagine any of them having the nerve to speak to the Population Police.

    Except one.

    No! The denial slammed through her brain. Maybe she even screamed it aloud. Even if you forgot that Jason loved her, even if you forgot that he’d kissed her, secretly, by moonlight—he was an illegal third child,

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