Read Online Evolution by Kyle West - Free Book Online

rivulets fed the water’s flow, broadening it. We had to head back into the thick forest again, and we were back to the same slow crawl we were at before.
    Mercifully, around late afternoon, the trees broke, and we saw our first sign of civilization.
    A huge tract of land, growing corn, filled my entire vision. The corn rose in green stalks, and here and there I could see workers, stooped down and working the fields. No, not workers. Slaves. Walking between the hunched bodies were their drivers, men in wide-brimmed hats with whips tethered to their belts. Across the fields was a low, circular wall, and within were buildings and lines of smoke rising into the blue sky. Several blood red flags whipped in the breeze.
    We ducked back into the forest, before anyone could see us.
    “Welcome to the Empire,” Makara said.
    “What now?” I asked.
    Samuel paused a moment. “We can’t just come out of the woods like this. It’ll look suspicious.”
    “Maybe just a couple of us could go in,” Anna said. “Pose as traders from the Wasteland, or something. Could be a way to get some info.”
    “Sounds risky,” Samuel said. “We are technically at war with the Empire. It might be best to try and make it all the way to Nova Roma without being seen at all. When we get to the capital there will be so many people that we’ll escape notice.”
    “Do we have enough food for that?” I asked.
    “We can travel at night,” Samuel said. “Less people around. If we need food, we can steal it.”
    “Won’t all that look suspicious, though?” Makara asked. “We’ll be mistaken for escaped slaves.”
    “Our goal is to make it Nova Roma,” Samuel said. “We’re not trying to make friends here. If we have to steal, or even kill, to get there, we all will do so...without hesitation.”
    None of us said anything as his words sunk in. Through the trees, I could still see the wooden wall of the settlement, distant.
    “Now would be a good time to find a spot to camp,” Samuel said. “We can catch some sleep and continue on through the night.”
    We trekked further upriver, toward a clearing we had passed on the journey down. There, we set up camp, making some lean-tos out of some rope and tarps we had packed. We had a cold dinner – sandwiches again, before settling down to sleep with just an hour of sunlight left.
    When night came, I was still wide awake. I wasn’t sure how long Samuel planned on having us sleep, but I didn’t feel tired at all. It was absolutely miserable with the humidity, the heat, and the bugs. I was already not liking this Empire place, and longed for my bed back at Skyhome.
    As the sky darkened, stars began to appear. Ashton had been right; the meteor fallout from Ragnarok did not affect this area as much. It felt strange to sleep under a sky that was not much different from what my grandparents would have seen.
    The clearness of the night caused it to cool off quickly. Soon, it was not so unbearable, and even the bugs mostly went away. The stars twinkled by the thousands.
    Everyone else around me was sound asleep. Yet still, something just wouldn’t let me relax. I didn’t know what it was. As time passed, my feeling of unease grew worse, until I felt ready to wake everyone else up.
    I touched Samuel’s shoulder, next to me. His eyes opened in an instant.
    “What is it?” he asked.
    Everything was still. The insects had gone away – because the night was cooling off, or for some other reason?
    The answer came soon enough when people ran out of the forest, right for us.
    ***
    W e didn’t have time to react before I was trapped in a tangle of net. I tried clawing myself out, but to no avail. We were surrounded on all sides. Makara or Anna screamed, I wasn’t sure which in the darkness.
    I rolled on the ground, only ensnaring myself further in the net. Gunshots went off, lighting the forest like bursts like lightning.
    I reached for my Beretta, but was so ensnared that I couldn’t reach it. Then, I