Read Online The Survivors of Bastion (Fall of Earth Book 1) by Will Hawthorne - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Will Hawthorne
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needed the first of those.
After retrieving it I returned to the house and took up a few slices of bread and a jug of water and retreated to the living room. I lit a candle and sat and waited, eating as I did.
One of the things that had been so difficult to get used to after the utilities shut down and we had to come up with our own means of power was the silence. We had no shortage of solar panels, of course. These we had salvaged from various houses that had them installed in the area, but the power they supplied was still nothing in comparison to how much the world had consumed before. We still used them when we needed to, feeding out generators, but the candle was simply something of personal preference. I enjoyed the warm, orange light that it gave off. It reminded me of a nightlight that had kept me safe in my childhood for so many years.
Darkness finally fell upon Bastion as I finished my meal up and took my plates back to the kitchen. I licked my fingers and burnt the candle out, suddenly finding myself engrossed in darkness. I fumbled about quietly, retrieving my gun from the lockbox and, making sure that I had a tight hold of it and the shovel, both slung over my shoulder on straps, finally stepped outside the front door.
Without street lights you wouldn’t believe how dark the world becomes at night. During the summer months, like the one’s we were experiencing at that time, the nights weren’t as dark as those in the Winter, but without intervention from human forces you could usually only see a few feet in front of you with some clarity.
Everything else descended into blurs – and that was going to work both in and against my favour.
Quietly, I made my way through the streets. There was nobody about – we had no curfew, as it was something I was strongly opposed to – but at night you could usually expect people to be inside.
Except for those at the lookout posts.
Then again, though, being the head of the community meant that I knew a few ways in and out of town that others didn’t know about.
Along the wall Carl and I had passed through earlier that day, I found the centre point, furthest away from both posts. Seeing as the wall was composed of the wrecks of old cars, that meant that they weren’t completely absent of holes. There were certain points where there were gaps just big enough for a human to fit through, and I knew the best.
It was just through the door-void front end of an old Camaro, a space blocked up on the outer side by a loose section of sheet metal that I very carefully and very quietly shifted aside in order to make my way to the other side of the wall before replacing it.
Now I was out there, something separate from Bastion, from my community. Those on the outposts, the closest to me being Rudy whom I had passed a few hours earlier, relied largely on their hearing to detect possible intruders. They were equipped with torches, of course, but these were only used in the event that they thought they had heard something.
With Rudy being something of a weapons aficionado – I’d stretch to even call him an expert – he had a lifetime’s experience under his belt of firing guns and setting off explosions. This had left his hearing in less than great shape, much like Larry’s, although his was more a product of old age.
Despite his hard of hearing nature, I still across the field through the corn as silently as I could, hurrying through the walkways so as not to flatten any before rushing into the forest.
I had made it… All I had to do was complete my job and make my way back
After retrieving it I returned to the house and took up a few slices of bread and a jug of water and retreated to the living room. I lit a candle and sat and waited, eating as I did.
One of the things that had been so difficult to get used to after the utilities shut down and we had to come up with our own means of power was the silence. We had no shortage of solar panels, of course. These we had salvaged from various houses that had them installed in the area, but the power they supplied was still nothing in comparison to how much the world had consumed before. We still used them when we needed to, feeding out generators, but the candle was simply something of personal preference. I enjoyed the warm, orange light that it gave off. It reminded me of a nightlight that had kept me safe in my childhood for so many years.
Darkness finally fell upon Bastion as I finished my meal up and took my plates back to the kitchen. I licked my fingers and burnt the candle out, suddenly finding myself engrossed in darkness. I fumbled about quietly, retrieving my gun from the lockbox and, making sure that I had a tight hold of it and the shovel, both slung over my shoulder on straps, finally stepped outside the front door.
Without street lights you wouldn’t believe how dark the world becomes at night. During the summer months, like the one’s we were experiencing at that time, the nights weren’t as dark as those in the Winter, but without intervention from human forces you could usually only see a few feet in front of you with some clarity.
Everything else descended into blurs – and that was going to work both in and against my favour.
Quietly, I made my way through the streets. There was nobody about – we had no curfew, as it was something I was strongly opposed to – but at night you could usually expect people to be inside.
Except for those at the lookout posts.
Then again, though, being the head of the community meant that I knew a few ways in and out of town that others didn’t know about.
Along the wall Carl and I had passed through earlier that day, I found the centre point, furthest away from both posts. Seeing as the wall was composed of the wrecks of old cars, that meant that they weren’t completely absent of holes. There were certain points where there were gaps just big enough for a human to fit through, and I knew the best.
It was just through the door-void front end of an old Camaro, a space blocked up on the outer side by a loose section of sheet metal that I very carefully and very quietly shifted aside in order to make my way to the other side of the wall before replacing it.
Now I was out there, something separate from Bastion, from my community. Those on the outposts, the closest to me being Rudy whom I had passed a few hours earlier, relied largely on their hearing to detect possible intruders. They were equipped with torches, of course, but these were only used in the event that they thought they had heard something.
With Rudy being something of a weapons aficionado – I’d stretch to even call him an expert – he had a lifetime’s experience under his belt of firing guns and setting off explosions. This had left his hearing in less than great shape, much like Larry’s, although his was more a product of old age.
Despite his hard of hearing nature, I still across the field through the corn as silently as I could, hurrying through the walkways so as not to flatten any before rushing into the forest.
I had made it… All I had to do was complete my job and make my way back
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