Earthbound (The Reach, Book 1) Read Free Page A

amid the chaos spent most of their time trying to destroy each other as they attempted to climb an imaginary hierarchy.  Their tussles with each other were frequent, thei r battles for supremacy a never-ending cycle.
    The truth of it was, they were all equal out here.  They were all nothing.
    Forty-six hours, twenty minutes.
    That wasn’t much time.  Not to make it to the top of the Reach.
    How much had changed, Knile wondered, since the last time he’d been there?  How much of his knowledge of the slums, of Link and its inner workings was still relevant?
    It doesn’t matter.  First things first.  Get through the wall and into Link.  Get out of the slums.
    Despite the excitement that this chance to escape had stirred in him, there was a horrible sense of disappointment gnawing at Knile’s insides.  He was still thinking about Mianda.  The chances of her still being alive had been so remote that it bordered on the impossible, and yet he couldn’t let himself believe that she was really gone.  There was a tiny voice in the back of his mind that told him she was still out there, that they could one day be together again.
    The same voice told him that m aybe he would find her somewhere up there.  Somewhere in the Reach.  That there still might be a chance for them.
    Let it go.  She’s dead.
    Footsteps approached from a side street, and Knile felt sudden panic surge within him.  He pressed against a hollow in the wall beside him.  It was not a great hiding place, but the best he could manage at short notice.  His nerves jangled in preparation for flight , aware that he would be left with no other option should his disguise prove too flimsy.
    The footsteps grew louder, and then a group of about a dozen appeared and came walking toward him.  In the darkened confines of the hollow he seemed to have escaped their notice for now.  They refrained from making loud noises, showing some measure of discretion, but there was a confident air about them as they moved along.  They chatted and giggled amongst themselves, their voices muted further by their respirators.  Their posture held none of the stiffness Knile had seen from others earlier.
    Strength in numbers , he thought.
    If they saw him, he suspected they would probably bash him and search him for valuables.  That was the best scenario.
    In reality they might do something much worse. 
    Knile edged further back into the hollow, tried to make himself invisible .  In the dim light he could see the vague outline of tattoos on the right arms of the passers-by, which he suspected might be the brandings of their gang.  As they neared, a woman with dreadlocks and a teardrop tattoo under one eye glanced in his direction, and for a moment his heart stopped.  Knile involuntarily held his breath and pressed his back harder against the wall, wishing he could melt into it.  The gaze of the woman was hard and cold above the piece of cloth wrapped about her face as a makeshift respirator.
    Then she looked away and continued on with the others, never faltering or breaking stride.  He could only assume she hadn’t seen him.  People who wandered the slums at night weren’t in the habit of doling out lenience to lone travellers.
    It  was good to know he could still find the shadows when he needed them.
    The gang disappeared around a bend and Knile remembered to breathe again.  He let the air in his lungs trickle out silently between his lips before slowly drawing in another gasp.  He dug into his nostrils and pulled out the tiny cones that filtered the gunk out of the air.  Right at that moment they felt more like a hindrance to his breathing than a help.
    Knile slowly eased forward, stepping cautiously out into the street.  He placed the respira tors back inside his nostrils.   As he moved along, he used his knowledge of the backstreets to keep out of the better- travelled roads, and as a result his encounters with other people were few.  In a little over two