False Invasion by George Willson

Author:George Willson [Willson, George]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-12-02T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

The walk across town to reach the home of Janecia’s mother was, as she said, much longer than the road to the crash site. They maintained a slow jog the entire distance in a single line to maximize their time, but it also meant no one spoke. The darkened houses passed mostly on their left, and every one of them was very similar: a short, brick building with a modest planting field. The use of bricks made sense as they were primarily made from mud or clay and then hardened.

However, Janecia mentioned a second level to her mother’s barn. Also, there appeared to be some wood used in the construction of the town hall. Dirt they could see, and a terraformer would seed trees as part of its process, but would they really risk their fragile ecosystem by cutting some down so soon? It was a question Blake wanted to ask once they reached their destination.

Little by little, tiny houses with gardens gave way to larger houses with fields of animals. Barn exteriors were mostly made of metal clearly salvaged from the Mirificus, which fit Blake’s idea of minimizing the impact of wood usage. The larger houses, however, were a combination of brick and wood, and if a barn were to have a second floor, it was very likely that wood would have been used in its construction.

Finally, Janecia turned into the yard of one of the houses. There was no fence around it, but a marker at what looked like the property’s corner had indicated where it began. She stayed well away from the windows of the house at present and made her way directly to the barn. Like the others, this barn had a metal exterior made using large panels from the hull of their ship, but the people clearly had metalworking skill as two of the panels served as oversized doors attached to the body of the barn with welded hinges. Janecia opened a massive door easily for them, and they entered the barn.

Inside, it was dark with the only light coming through windows cut into the barn’s side along with a few skylights overhead.

“I know it’s hard to see,” Janecia said. “Give your eyes a moment to adjust. The ladder to the second floor is on the wall opposite the door so straight across. I’m walking to it now.”

They all stood for a moment in the dark, and little by little, they could make out the shape of Janecia across the floor approaching the far wall. They slowly walked after her.

“I’m at the ladder,” Janecia said. “Just follow the sound of my voice, and you’ll be here. The ladder is similar to the one at the town hall. It’s straight up, but just not as far. Reach out to your right, and you’ll find the floor to get off on. Hopefully, your eyes will have adjusted enough to see it by then. I don’t want to risk lighting a candle or anything else because that might draw attention, and that’s the last thing we need.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.