(eng) Nate Johnson - Taurian Empire 01 by Intrepid

Author:Intrepid [Intrepid]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Erik wiped the sweat from his eyes as he watched another Kairn skip away. Damn another meatless night. His stomach rumbled and his mouth filled with spit. He couldn’t do it all.

That familiar feeling of pending doom settled over him. It seemed that the feeling was there all the time.

Glancing at the high sun, he rubbed the back of his neck. Sixty three days. Who would have thought they would make it this far? If they were lucky, the powers that be might have sent someone on a search and rescue mission by now. Maybe, but who knew?

They couldn’t count on it. They needed to do more. Their food was leaving the area. The grass was turning brown, dry and shriveled. The water level of the river was dropping, and the daylight had started to shorten, not a lot, but enough to tell that they had just passed the summer solstice.

Before they knew it, the winter would be here. What would the food situation be by then?

Shaking off the shimmer of despair that threatened, he turned for home. What a comforting word, home seemed to be wherever his people were. A stripped and scrambled shuttle and a fire pit. All of it behind a wooden wall that kept the beasties at bay.

He scanned the area around him. You had to keep your head on a swivel out here. The only place you could really relax was at home. He shook his head, who would have thought that he would feel safer around a bunch of college kids. Everything was relative.

It wasn’t going to be home much longer. They couldn’t stay, regardless of what Combs and his cohorts thought. The Kairns had moved on. Following the grass to greener pastures, literally. The hunters had to go out farther and farther to find them, and now the glorious beasts had disappeared.

Pulling the gate closed behind him, he trudged up the hill. The area had changed. Every spare piece of wood had long ago served the fire ring of rocks. They had started cutting into the forest a few weeks ago. The latrine and its screens had been moved away from the shuttle and half way towards the fence, far enough away to hide the smell but not too close to the wild outside. The shuttle looked the same, but the door was open almost all the time now.

Several spare chairs had been removed and set up around the fire. The place looked like a weekend camp for vagabonds on their way to a hobo convention. Kairn hides were drying on frames over by the woods, metal containers and glass helmets lay around the fire.

They’d started to make things comfortable, and he was going to have to pull them out of here.

Without warning, Bill and Ahmed grabbed his arms. It surprised him in more ways than one. Both boys were stronger than he would have assumed and had more balls that he ever would have given them credit for.

A fist flashed from nowhere and caught him square on the jaw.

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