Extinction Read Online Free PDF Page B

and they could move as fast as lightning.
They also had telepathic powers, able to lift objects into the air with their
minds. I inhaled deeply, I wasn’t even aware that I stopped breathing. Their
presence always made me jittery.
    I clutched the loaf of bread, covered in
a checkered tea cloth closer to my body and continued down the street. Near the
kitchen area I heard a commotion around the corner. A woman’s high pitched shrieks sliced the air. I dropped the bread on the
sidewalk - Maria was going to kill me. I rushed around the corner and saw a
soldier towering over a woman lying on the pavement. She was frail and dirty
blonde hair framed a tear streaked face. She was curled into herself, screaming
and sobbing hysterically. The soldier’s hand was lifted in the air holding a
baton and I went ice-cold with fury.
    “Stop it!” I positioned myself between him and the
sobbing woman.
    “Stay out of this Miss Miller,” he snapped at me. With
my streak of bad luck it was of course, Sargent Benson, father’s most trusted
soldier. 
    “Don’t you dare hit her again!” I clenched my fists
at my side. I might be a lot smaller than him, but this was one fight I was not
backing out of. 
    “She stole food from the stores. She must be
punished as our law states.”
     I shuddered as he glared at me with cold grey eyes.
He proved to be merciless on more than one occasion and I was aware of the immense
cruelty he treated the slaves with. He was only seventeen, the same age as me,
but somewhere along the way he lost his humanity - if he ever had any. In a
totally normal situation he would be unimpressive. All of his features were
plain and ordinary. In a crowd you wouldn’t even notice him with his mud
colored hair, pale skin and round baby face. 
    “Your father won’t approve of you interfering in
official business,” he added icily and his look held a challenge. He knew it
was the one thing he could dangle above my head that terrified me.
    “I don’t care what he thinks. You can’t go around
beating a defenseless woman. Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?”
    “Like you?” He clenched his jaw and for a moment I
was sure he was going to strike me. A gathering crowd of slaves surrounded us
and I was aware of the rising antagonism emanating from them. Benson shifted uneasily.
The crowd was getting angrier by the minute and very soon he would have a mutiny
on his hands. The soldiers would come to disperse them if a riot broke out, but
until then he would be solely at their mercy. He grudgingly dropped his arm
holding the baton and with his other hand he seized my upper arm in an iron
grip and dragged me down the street after him.
     “You can explain this mess to your father.” He spat
on the bricks on the ground. His fingers bit into the soft flesh of my arm. 
    “You’re hurting me.” He ignored me and kept dragging
me down the streets. I stumbled several times and he roughly jerked me upright,
not caring if I got hurt in the process. 
    We reached Robert’s office in the two-story grey
building a couple of blocks from our house. Benson pushed me through the glass
doors and dragged me across the lavish marble entranceway. He shoved me onto one
of the wingback chairs lined up next to the solid teak wood door of my father’s
office.
    He gave a quick rap on the door and entered, closing
it behind him, leaving me to simmer in my chair. I sighed and pulled my knees
to my chin. I didn’t look forward to a confrontation with Robert. They never
ended well. The minutes ticked by and I scrutinized the shiny marble floor and
the intricate grey patterns embedded in every tile. The door finally swung open
and Benson appeared.
    “You can go in,” he said and gave me a sadistic smile
that sent shivers down my spine.
    I stood, straightened my tunic and checked that all
my hair was in place in the ponytail on my head. Robert sat behind a broad desk.
He drilled his podgy fingers impatiently on the lacquered