FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37  
38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   >>   >|  
ed it and half obscured it. He went back down the hill as Lake's men appeared. They started work on what would be a continuation of his own camp and he told Lake what he had seen from the hill. "We're between the lowlands and the highlands," he said. "This will be as near to a temperate altitude as Ragnarok has. We survive here--or else. There's no other place for us to go." An overcast darkened the sky at noon and the wind died down to almost nothing. There was a feeling of waiting tension in the air and he went back to the Rejects, to speed their move into the woods. They were already going in scattered groups, accompanied by prowler guards, but there was no organization and it would be too long before the last of them were safely in the new camp. He could not be two places at once--he needed a subleader to oversee the move of the Rejects and their possessions into the woods and their placement after they got there. He found the man he wanted already helping the Rejects get started: a thin, quiet man named Henry Anders who had fought well against the prowlers the night before, even though his determination had been greater than his marksmanship. He was the type people instinctively liked and trusted; a good choice for the subleader whose job it would be to handle the multitude of details in camp while he, Prentiss, and a second subleader he would select, handled the defense of the camp and the hunting. "I don't like this overcast," he told Anders. "Something's brewing. Get everyone moved and at work helping build shelters as soon as you can." "I can have most of them there within an hour or two," Anders said. "Some of the older people, though, will have to take it slow. This gravity--it's already getting the hearts of some of them." "How are the children taking the gravity?" he asked. "The babies and the very young--it's hard to tell about them yet. But the children from about four on up get tired quickly, go to sleep, and when they wake up they've sort of bounced back out of it." "Maybe they can adapt to some extent to this gravity." He thought of what Lake had said that morning: _So many of them are so young ... and when you're young it's too soon to have to die._ "Maybe the Gerns made a mistake--maybe Terran children aren't as easy to kill as they thought. It's your job and mine and others to give the children the chance to prove the Gerns wrong." He went his way again to pass by the place
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37  
38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
children
 

subleader

 
Anders
 

Rejects

 
gravity
 
thought
 
helping
 

people

 

started

 

overcast


hearts

 

appeared

 

babies

 

taking

 

brewing

 

Something

 

shelters

 

continuation

 

Terran

 

mistake


chance

 

quickly

 

hunting

 

bounced

 
morning
 
obscured
 

extent

 

Prentiss

 

safely

 

survive


organization

 
oversee
 
possessions
 

placement

 

altitude

 

needed

 

Ragnarok

 

places

 

guards

 
prowler

feeling
 
waiting
 

tension

 

darkened

 
groups
 

accompanied

 

scattered

 

temperate

 

trusted

 
choice