Read Online Evolution by Kate Wrath - Free Book Online

my
struggles for survival have paid off in a life that I have no desire to
live.  The choices I’ve made have cost me my home, my family.  I am a
prisoner, if not a slave.  All my plans have failed.
    But I don't regret it.  Whatever has come, whatever
cost I have paid, or will pay, cannot outweigh the evil that did not befall
us.  The Outpost has been saved.  It's not perfect.  It's still
full of misery and despair.  But it is not beyond us.  It is not an
unimaginable nightmare.
    Even the Sentries seem to have been defeated.  Maybe
more will come, but Matt’s Sentries can continue to fight them off.  We
might be safe.  We might have a chance.
    So I’m stuck here.  Well, I’m not sitting around
anymore and watching this mess fester like an infected wound.  If I’m
going to be here, it’s damned-well going to be a different Outpost than
before.  Matt might be in charge, but I saw their faces.  People are
afraid of me.  I can work with that.
    I head for the Rustler, which has always been the center of
things in this miserable place.  I’m not even sure what I’m planning on
doing.  Just that I have to do something .  The streets are
quieter this morning.  Some of the tension is gone.  Matt’s tactics
of fear and reassurance seem to be working.
    Before I even turn onto the main street, I can see the top
of Matt's big tree towering over everything.  It bends and sways in the
wind, making me wonder if I want to get any closer.  Once I come around
the corner, I see the crazy network of cables holding the thing up.  They
run away from it in all directions, attaching to the buildings all
around.  Most of them are high up, but some stretch across the
street.  Now people have to go over or under them to pass by.  There
is no avoiding Matt's Christmas.
    I move along the sidewalk by Canson's store, and cannot help
but glance up.  Sarah's body is gone now, but her ghost must still be
here.  There must be so many ghosts, really.  My eyes go to the tree
again, towering against the sky.  It casts a dark shadow over the ground
so that I cannot see the blood stains.  I wonder at the point of it. 
What it means.  Or what it meant.  All I see is something that
shouldn’t be here.  Trees belong to the world outside the Outpost. 
The world of Oscar's white doe, and so many other mysteries.  That world
does not belong to us and we do not belong to it.  What is Matt trying to
say by bringing this giant here?  Is he preparing us for his next
move?  Does he really mean to rule the world?
    I shiver, looking away.  I walk through the door of the
Rustler, making myself think about other things.  Deliberately turning my
thoughts away from comparisons between Matt and Grey.  Inside, the warmth
moves through me comfortingly at first.  I sit down at an empty table,
needing a moment to think.  A short while later, I realize I’m still cold. 
I’m also still not sure what I intend to do.
    Luckily, this is sorted out for me when a group of men at
one of the tables suddenly raise their voices far above what could be
considered civilized conversation.  I turn my face to watch them. 
They’re too embroiled in their dispute to notice me.  They’re all barking
at each other so fiercely I can’t make out a single word.  Heartbeats
later, one of them is reaching for a knife.
    “Stop!” I command, rising to my feet and slamming my empty
shot glass down on the table.  I’m surprised they even hear me over their
own chatter, but they do.  And they freeze.  As a matter of fact,
every single person in the Rustler freezes.  There is dead silence.
    I grab onto my early success before they can recover or
think about anything.  “What the hell is going on?” I ask, frowning,
tapping my fingers on the table in annoyance.
    Uneasy glances fly around the group of men until one of them
has the courage to say, very politely, “Sorry, Eden.  We didn’t mean to
interrupt your drink.  We’ll take it