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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] A little before the clock chimed 12/24, Lyric and Echo left the dormitory together and joined the colony members gathered in the hallway outside the exchange room. As the clock began to chime, Woody pulled the door open and they filed in. The Marauders entered the room through another door at the same moment. As the two groups came together to form a circle and join hands, Echo reminded herself to remain serene so the Marauders knew she had nothing to hide. Woody stepped into the center of the circle for the beginning of the exchange. He was joined by one of the Marauders a large bald man who was missing his two front teeth. His clothes were ill-fitting and matted with dust and filth. 36 Downloaded from Richard's Animorphs Forum http://animorphsforum.com "Thank j ou for being our hosts," the Marauder said in a booming voice, leering strangely. He had wild, dangerous eyes and a huge dimpled nose sharp enough to be a weapon. "Th thank j ou for being our guests," Woody said, doing a very poor job of hiding his surprise. Crutch a wizened old man with a dense gray beard who had been the Marauders' leader ever since Echo was a little girl was missing. That could only mean he was dead. The man who had joined Woody in the circle was called Hawk. Clearly, he was the Marauders' new leader Echo could see her own shock mirrored in the faces of the Alphas around the circle. Her heart bumped uncomfortably as her eyes traveled over the band, counting them. Twenty. Only twenty. At the last exchange, there'd been twenty-four Four deaths in one 182/365. How had they lost so many people? The Marauder women looked exhausted, Echo thought. Several of them had half-healed wounds or bruises visible on their faces and arms. She was relieved to see they still carried the traditional pouches of water Whatever had befallen them couldn't be too bad if they had managed to make the collection. Echo's shock slowly began to give way to a sort of cautious excitement. The Marauders would certainly have an interesting story to tell! She longed for the exchange to end so that she could hear it. "We we have grown this food with water j ou provided and divided it equally into two bins," Woody said, struggling on with the ceremony despite his obvious confusion. "Please choose the bin that pleases j ou and we will gladly take the other." Hawk approached the table, and stuck his nose disgustingly close to first the red bin and then the white. He took his time, seeming to consider. "We will accept the red bin," he said with that same disturbing smile. "And we will gladly " Woody started. "And half of the white one," Hawk interrupted, his smile suddenly vanishing. Woody stared at him stupidly. Halfway around the circle, Westie gasped loudly. Echo suddenly found it difficult to breathe. Lyric squeezed her hand painfully hard. The Marauders' expressions were hard; their hands were on their weapons. "Our agreement is centuries old," Woody said with difficulty. His face had flushed an unhealthy purple. "All of the red bin and half of the white one," Hawk said mulishly. Echo could see a vein beating in Woody's forehead. "I need can we have some time to discuss j our request?" he asked haltingly. "I must consult with the other elders of our colony." "J our elders can consult," Hawk said derisively. "And since my band has no need for consulting but is content to follow my orders, we will hear a story while j ou are away." Hawk gestured impatiently to one of the younger Marauder men. "Tell," he ordered. The man called Sanchez stepped into the circle. Woody stood there looking confused for another moment. Hawk hadn't even mentioned the water that was the Alphas' payment, Echo thought in dull amazement. Woody moved toward the door Hesitantly, Westie, Rainier, Borlaug, and Ali Kosh followed him. 37 Downloaded from Richard's Animorphs Forum http://animorphsforum.com CHAPTER 11 "ANY OTHER QUESTIONS?" "How much time?" Mo Steel called, his voice muffled by the ill-fitting Meanie suit. He was ahead of Jobs, leading the way. "An hour and a half," Jobs called hoarsely. His throat was dry enough that shouting was difficult, painful. His tongue felt like a piece of meat huge and swollen and alien. As soon as his hands were free, he planned to drink the last gulp of water in his bottle. "We have to turn back in an hour and a half or " "Right," Mo Steel called, sounding distracted. As they flew on and Jobs concentrated on making his numb fingers work, he heard Mo Steel mumbling to himself. He thought he made out the words "five thousand four hundred." Was Mo Steel calculating how many seconds they had before they had to turn around? Jobs felt a cold lump of fear swelling in his stomach and made a firm decision to ignore it. So Mo Steel was acting a little strange. Under the circumstances, acting strange was normal. They'd been searching for more than eight hours, heading straight toward the Dark Zone, the temperature dropping with each mile they traveled and all they'd seen was rubble. The hugeness of the destruction made Jobs numb. He'd spent the long hours scanning the horizon for any man-made object that may have survived the Rock or been built in the five hundred years since it hit. He'd seen none. No intact buildings or water towers or electrical poles. Nothing but a flat plain of ash with the occasional ruined wall or stair still standing. There was no sign of lakes or rivers or oceans. Jobs had allowed himself to hope that as they got closer to the Dark Zone.... But no They were going to have to go back empty-handed. Go back and tell the others all they had discovered was frozen ash. They'd have to tell the others they were going to die of thirst. Go back and crush their last hope for survival. Jobs wasn't sure he had the guts to stand in front of them and speak the truth. To face Olga's disappointment. Violet's. Edward's. Edward was only six. Too young. They were all too young to perish. And 2Face. Somehow the idea of selfish, power-hungry 2Face dying after she'd fought so bitterly to survive made Jobs incredibly sad. "Duck, look," Mo Steel suddenly shouted. He gestured with the tentacles on his suit toward the horizon. "You see that?" Jobs saw what he first took to be a solid wall about a mile or two distant. Then he noticed the swirling eddies light gray, pewter gray, yellow-gray churning, combining, separating and combining again. The sight was somehow familiar, but it took his brain a minute to provide the proper memory: a storm. A storm the way it looks when you're coming toward it down the highway. "Looks almost like a tornado," Jobs called ahead, still fighting his oversized, dry tongue and the chilled muscles in his face. "Ash tornado," Mo Steel said. "Maybe we should " [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |