Everwinter: The Forerunner Archives Read Online Free PDF

them up later. Technically, I'm not supposed to start harvesting at the center of a patch, but I'm so desperate to avoid any and all human contact today that I'm willing to get reamed out by Cantrell again if he should find out.
    He probably won’t though.
    A low rumbling comes to my legs through the soil and I look back to see REX ambling toward me, his rusty gears whining in protest with every turn of his rotting axels. On the surface, REX appears to be a large flatbed on wheels, a stupid machine remnant of the Forerunners. But inside his deteriorating carapac e, REX does have a brain of a sort, and I have often been amazed to witness it solve simple problems on its own.
    "Morning, REX," I say as the machine pulls up to the first few stalks I have lain out. A mechanical appendage, not unlike a hand, grasps the crops and flips them onto the flatbed. REX does not reply. I stop what I'm doing and wait for him to catch up to me. He does so and I wait, not moving. There is a tiny lens at the head of the machine, what you might call an eye, and I watch as it moves about now, looking back and forth between myself and the corn. REX realizes I have stopped working and is trying to figure out why. It's at this point that a small, metallic probe issues forth from beneath the machine, flying toward me at great speed. I dodge it easily, but then REX moves his entire body and I'm caught, the probe giving me a shock on the shin.
    "Ow!" I protest with a smirk. It's what I get for teasing the machine. "Did Cantrell have you programmed to do that, or did you figure it out on your own?" I ask. Everyone knows that REX was designed to record data on individual worker production, but this shock treatment is something new. Is REX turning himself into the boss? I laugh and hit the transmitter on my belt again. Immediately, REX stops inching toward me and, with a squeal of metal, darts back the way he'd originally come.
    Too bad Cantrell doesn't have an on/off switch like that.
    "There you are!" a nasally, high pitched voice calls to me. I look over into the next row of corn to see the plump form of Rayanne Nedaris coming toward me. I roll my eyes; I should have known REX would give away my position. "I've been looking for you all morning!" Ray exclaims, finally coming up next to me.
    "I was late," I reply with a tone of finality.
    "I heard," Rayanne smirks wildly. "Cantrell must have lost a gasket!" I shrug noncommittally. "I also heard," Ray continues, "that you and Jude found something on the beach yesterday. A weapon of the Forerunners or something?"
    My breath catches in my throat. A weapon? "Who told you that?" I ask.
    Rayanne gives me a sheepish look. "Well... everyone . The whole town's talking about it. It's not true, is it? Did you really find–"
    "Nothing," I interrupt her. "W e found nothing. Just some old, washed up garbage. Metal mostly. We were going to bring it to my Father, but a mutant tried to break into the city last night and he was preoccupied."
    "Yeah, I heard that too," Ray replies.
    I sigh. "One of the Deacons must have been spying on us and told somebody else who blabbed about it." Thomas Whiskeyjack's face flashes through my mind. "Somehow the two stories got intertwined. The stuff we found yesterday has nothing to do with the mutant in the city. That's all there is to it, Ray." The lie sounds convincing, even to my own ears. Hopefully, Ray will spread it around and take some of the heat off of me and Jude.
    Ray squints her eyes at me. It's clear she isn' t buying all that I'm selling, but she seems satisfied enough. "Well, thank the gods that's all it was then," she says, reaching behind herself to pull a wooden travel mug from her tool belt. She cracks the seal and instantly the sweet aroma of Krakelyn coffee assaults my nostrils. She takes a sip then offers the mug to me. My eyes blast wide open and a slick smile bursts onto my lips.
    "You're a life saver, Ray!" I say, reaching quickly to take the drink.  
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