Fireteam Delta J. Halpin (top 10 books of all time TXT) 📖

As soon as they saw it, the other refugees started forward.

“Cortez—” Nowak started.

“Back me up here, Summers,” Cortez called back.

Summers looked to Nowak, who gestured for him to get on with it.

Fine. Guess they were really doing this.

“Take that from them, and you die,” he called to the older men who were walking forward. They stopped, staring up at Summers. He just stared back, and by the time they were out of sight, the bread was well and truly gone.

He hoped that move of theirs didn’t end up hurting the kids in the long run.

Chapter 19: No Entry

Asle sat in the back of the wagon, Logan beside her. It had been three days since the incident. The constant trickle of people on the road away from the city had slowed their progress to a crawl.

She glanced at the people passing by their wagon. No one familiar.

“Why do I have to do this?”

Asle’s voice sounded tired, even to herself.

“Tell me about it again,” Logan asked.

Asle repressed a sigh. Logan had made her repeat the moment she killed Beorn over and over that morning. He said that it would help, but she couldn’t see how.

She felt Logan’s hand on her head.

“Have you ever been afraid of anything?”

Asle nodded. She’d been afraid of a lot of things. People, bugs, guns.

“And was there anything you stopped being afraid of? Maybe after you’d spent a lot of time with it?”

She nodded again.

“I won’t lie to you. What you did is something you’re going to remember for the rest of your life. But when we repeat it like this, it’ll hurt a little less each time, just like the way you got over your fear. You confront it until the memory just sort of wears out.”

“Fine.”

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“Think that’s it up ahead.” Summers looked at the road that opened up in front of them. Synel had smartly slowed their progress so the guards would be able to handle the growing crowd.

Summers looked to see Asle poking her head out of the back of the wagon. She’d been doing that more often now.

“I’ll tell you if I see them, all right?”

Asle ignored Summers for a moment before nodding. So far, they’d seen no signs of Beorn’s family. It was possible they’d outpaced the caravan, with this many people on the road, or perhaps something had stopped them.

The city came into view.

“Christ’s sake . . .”

Large walls towered over the ocean of men and women in front of them. Summers understood then that the refugees they’d encountered on the road were only the braver, more desperate few who had abandoned hope of entering the city.

“Stay sharp. This place is a fucking powder keg.” Nowak instinctively brushed a hand against the barrel of the gun beneath his cloak.

He was right. Even from here, Summers could see people trying to push their way toward the city. The gates were closed, with guards positioned on the walls and in front of the entrance.

As they passed through the crowd, all eyes turned to them—hungry eyes.

“Cortez, do I have to remind you why pulling that stunt with the bread again would be a bad idea?” Nowak turned back to the woman.

“I get it.” Cortez looked out to the sick, tired, starving horde.

Shanty towns had started up, peppering the area, leaning against the city’s wall. Small fights broke out here and there. Some with the guards; some with the other refugees. And still more seemed to be heading toward the city, despite everything.

There was no doubt in Summers’ mind that this would end badly.

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The caravan had parked itself in a small clearing a good distance from the city, and from the people crowded outside its gates. Guards had been set up to watch the wagons, though most were relegated to making sure anyone and everyone not already with the caravan stayed far away.

Asle jumped out of the back. It was clear she wasn’t doing well.

“You good?”

She wasn’t, but Summers saw her nod anyway.

Synel stepped out of her wagon, heading toward them and the “border” her guards had set up.

Summers had only studied for the better part of a month with her, and he’d improved by leaps and bounds, but he was still only human. So, when she started shouting what he assumed were orders to the group, he wasn’t surprised to be left completely clueless.

“Asle?”

“We’re going to the gate.” Asle replied. “She wants volunteers for the guard.”

Nowak stepped down. “I’m not optimistic about our chances here. We might be better off moving on.”

Logan nodded in agreement. “Don’t think we’d get a ship here, anyway. The only things left would either be out of our price range or military. Doubly so, since we’d be going into enemy territory. From their perspective, at least.”

Logan had spent the better part of the trip studying the maps they’d gotten, among other things. To their surprise, the city was near their original target destination, Anchorage. And it was definitely a match to their own world. The fact two cities of this size were built in the same spot on two different worlds might have been interesting if that same geography wasn’t screwing them over.

Going south, towards the approaching army, wasn’t a trip any merchant would take. No matter how much money they threw at them.

“Doesn’t change the fact she’s going to try.” Summers gestured to Synel. “Or that we need food.”

Making it to the next city was out of the question. They simply just didn’t have the supplies to get there. There was, of course, the hope that they could forage on the way, but given the luck the locals looked to be having, it didn’t seem like a smart bet.

Nowak sighed.

“Take a spear,