The Sky Done Ripped by Joe R. Lansdale

Author:Joe R. Lansdale [Lansdale, Joe R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ned the seal, humor, joe r. lansdale, time travel, pulp, adventure
ISBN: 9781596069114
Published: 2019-12-31T05:00:00+00:00

Three

When Leo came awake his wrists were tied with ropes and he was being dragged on his belly toward the mass of men and women, and even children. His forehead hurt where the rock had struck him. He was kicked, and finally pulled to his feet.

He knew what was in store for him immediately.

He was put in a spot near the front, probably because he was strong, fresh meat not yet worn down completely. It was painful work, and even his fresher muscles ached immediately and a feeling of despair washed over him and into him. As time wore on, it only became darker and more hopeless in feeling, and he thought that, as he had seen some do, he would throw himself under the grinding wheels and make his way to death’s door.

But he couldn’t do it.

It wasn’t in him.

He breathed. He lived. And though this was not a life worth breathing, where there was a will there might be a way, and an escape.

Leo struggled in the harness that was attached to him, that bit into his skin, and it was as if he felt the struggles of all his distant ancestors, laboring against their will, told by others they were inferior to justify their inhumanity to man. It was a feeling of weight and despair.

The slaves were moved to the back of the machines when the jungle showed up, and there, with long thick poles, they pushed, made the machines roll, crunch against the tree trunks, taking them down, grinding them under. Strange beasts and creatures were used as well for pushing and pulling. They bled and moaned like the humans moaned.

Whips cracked. Backs bled and burned as if set on fire.

Leo dreamed of taking a whip away from the main man, the one he had heard called Joog. An ugly, tall, sun-red man with mean black eyes and a shaved head.

I want to kill him, Leo thought. I want to take him in my hands and snap his neck like a chicken bone.

When the trail ahead opened up naturally, the slaves were whipped harder. The lash burned into his back and the sweat and blood ran down his body.

Leo lifted his head and looked out toward the cool blue mountains beyond.

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