Wine of the Gods 1: Exiles and Gods Read Free

closed.
    Chris gulped. Drive this huge thing? "You're not going through the gate?"
    "Hell, no. You kids are on your own."
    No nanny. No teachers. No foster parents. "Holy Toledo."
    The girl in the front seat on the other side nodded. "They're just throwing us through the gate, they figure we've got enough stuff to make a go of it. I'm Milly. Amelia Prentice." She looked older, like a senior, or maybe even a college student. She must be seventeen, else she wouldn't be on the bus. Thick wavy brown hair, bright blue eyes in a tanned face. She waved at the three girls in the seats behind them; they all eyed him with disfavor. "Lillian Marshall, Ariel Wyss, Jamie Uchida. The five of us are theoretically in charge of the bus and the kids. Were those little kids your sisters?"
    "Nope, never met them before." They were all pretty, like the popular girls that never wanted to have anything to do with him. Actually, the fat ugly girls hadn't either. Oh, well.
    Lillian snorted. Bright green eyes, red hair. Her slightly tan skin was about as pale as the genetically engineered came, some combination of Political Correctness and the suntan craze of twenty years ago. Both extreme whiteness and extreme blackness had been left out of the genetic engineers' palate of skin colors. "We hoped Chris was short for Christine, and we females could run things sensibly. I suppose you think boys should be in charge?"
    Only when the girls have stupid attitudes like yours. "Nope. I'm going to go off and live in the wild. You four can be as in charge as the rest of the kids let you be."
    A giggle from further back. "Yeah! We are not swapping our parents for perpetual babysitters."
    Jamie leaned out and glared. "Shut up Mallory. We're just worried about the little kids. You can get into all the trouble you want."
    A bunch of them looked as old or older than he was. "Only five of us have driver's licenses?"
    Mallory scowled. She was tiny and blonde, with no figure to speak of. Female gymnast type, made to order. "My parents didn't trust their little monster with a big dangerous car. There was a kid that was in a wreck, killed two other people . . . it sort of poisoned the whole state about us driving. They didn't take the older monsters' licenses away, but us young ones? Forget it."
    "Well, if we do very much driving, over there, you'll all get to learn." Milly turned her attention back to the front as the driver put the bus in gear and pulled out.
    In the empty stretches between towns, the driver pulled over and let them all take turns behind the wheel. They didn't get much turning practice, but they got a feel for the weight and responsiveness of the bus, as they sped up, slowed down, and changed lanes. Huge powerful engine, massive weight. Chris loved it. It felt so powerful. But not nimble.
    They picked up a few more kids in Albany. Roslyn and Lance could drive, the rest were younger , or hadn't learned.
    By the time they got to the Trans World Travel headquarters, they were all relaxed and comfortable with the handling. They slept on the bus, lined up with a wild miscellany of vehicles. Just ahead o f them, a mooing mass of cows was crammed into a trailer made of steel bars, two horses stood stolidly in a separate section at the front. The man driving it cursed not being able to drive through immediately and fetched water and hay for the animals. The bus driver and the woman who'd been minding the little kids wouldn't let the kids out either.
    Not that they needed out. They had two bathrooms, a fab machine and a kitchen in the back of the bus. The seats reclined till they were nearly flat, and swiveled to face either window or the seat across the aisle. Facing the aisle, the trays could be pushed up and shoved a bit to the side, so they all met in the middle. Chris temporarily swapped seats with Jamie so the four girls could play card games. Chris walked back and checked on Sea and Sky. They perked up to see an almost familiar face, and showed him the