Among the Free is a 2006 young adult science fiction novel by American writer Margaret Peterson Haddix, about a time in which drastic measures have been taken to quell overpopulation.

When people are heard coming to the village, Eli helps Luke escape with a quilt made by his daughter Aileen.

With many villagers, they travel to the government headquarters as large groups of people reveal and relate their own stories on television.

Desperate, Luke rides one of the horses (Jenny, he called it in memory of Jen) onto the stage to avoid the security guards and voices his opinion and reveals to the world what he is saying is the absolute truth as he is a third child.

Protected by Philip Twinings, a prominent news anchor from before the era of the Population Police who had hoped that opinions could have been openly shared, Luke tells his life story (chronicling the events from the beginning of the series to the present) and the stories of his friends Trey, Nina, and Matthias, and of Smits and how Oscar was his bodyguard, and people come to realize that the government is undeniably at fault.