Free Brink (The Ruin Saga Book 2) by Harry Manners Page A

Then there were voices around her, unfamiliar and excited.
    “What’ve we got here?”
    “Poor thing! Sweet little angel’s all alone, she is.”
    “Alone, indeed, my dear friend. All alone …”
    She tried to lift her head, but all she managed was to open her eyes a fraction. Blurry faces loomed over her, studded with smiles full of yellow teeth, and a sticky stench filled her nose. Then she felt hands gripping her arms, and she was being lifted into the air.
    They were laughing.

CHAPTER 5

     
    Alexander stood before the wall-height window and glimpsed his own haggard reflection in the weathered glass. He had ascended close to the tower’s peak, hundreds of feet up, climbing dusty stairs that hadn’t seen another person for months. Rich finance types had once worked in this office, coordinating the stocks of people halfway around the world. Now it was all entombed in cobwebs, the computer terminals so much plastic.
    Through the window, he could see for miles. Beyond the tower, London winked and sparkled under the afternoon sun. Forty years had given nature plenty of time to bring most places to rubble and rusted detritus. The other great cities in the north had suffered at the hands of warring tribes, and others still had been pulled apart by fledgling communities for materials. But here things were different; the capital looked much the same as before the End. The rising waters had flooded many of the low-lying areas, but some parts looked almost Saran-wrapped, preserved for all eternity, monuments to men and women long since vanished.
    Many people had given London a wide berth. It was too large a reminder of what they had lost for most to stomach. And there was nothing for them here in any case. The city flooded more each year, its great river barrier stalled and useless, rotting the great bounty inch by inch. Already the food had been long looted, the clothes that had carpeted the streets had been hoarded by traders, and any motorcars people had managed to fix had once again become useless when the gasoline ran dry. Even the endless mountains of electronics were useless, their circuitry reduced to dust in the flash of the End.
    But for Alexander, it held a special place in his heart. It embodied all they strived to save, and what they could be. So much knowledge, art, and culture lay hidden in its depths. They had chosen to make the council’s fortress here for that very reason. Here they could be seen as the last twinkling jewel of the Old World, residing in the dormant heart of their forbears’ domain.
    Now a dark mark lay over it all. They were out there, somewhere, watching and waiting.
    He wasn’t going to let this happen. All their work couldn’t come to nothing because of a few grudges. People had starved, but their sacrifice would live on in the Old World’s legacy.
    He bunched his fists.
    How can they not see that it was necessary?
    The mindless rabble could put an end to a lifetime of work. The darkness already had a foothold in the North.
    “Twingo’s been hit.” Evelyn’s voice washed over him like a wave from behind, shattering the silence.
    He turned to her. “How bad?”
    She was breathless from climbing the stairs. She looked old. That had been surprising him a lot of late, just how old they were all getting. They weren’t the young go-getters anymore. Soon Father Time would sweep them all away, and others would have to take their place. But there was still so much to do, so far to go.
    Her wrinkled face creased further into a grimace. “It’s gone.”
    He sighed, sinking into a nearby swivel chair, ignoring the great cloud of dust that puffed up around him. It creaked under his weight, but held, just. “I don’t believe it. They were a tough bunch of bastards. Vandeborn and Bates kept the northerners away from our gates for years.”
    “It looks like they put up a hell of a fight. But it’s all ash now. A lot of them are missing … They must have been taken.”
    Twingo had been