Monsters of Men Read Online Free PDF

again and turn to Bradley. “We have to do something!”
    He looks hard over to Simone and I know they’re wondering what disaster they’ve landed themselves in. Then Bradley snaps his fingers like he’s remembered something.
    “Hold on!” he says and rushes back into the scout ship.

[T ODD ]
    I pull the trigger again–
    All I get is another snick–
    I look up–
    The Spackle’s raising his white stick–
    (what are those things?)
    (what are they that causes so much damage?)
    And I’m dead–
    I’m dead–
    I’m–
    BANG!
    A gun goes off right by my head–
    And the Spackle with the white stick jerks to one side, a trail of blood flying from his neck above the line of his armour–
    The Mayor–
    The Mayor shot him from the back of Morpeth–
    And I’m staring over at him, ignoring the fighting that’s going on all around us–
    “You sent yer son to war with an EMPTY GUN ?” I scream, shaking from anger and from having just about died–
    “Now is not the time, Todd,” the Mayor says–
    And I flinch again as the whisk of an arrow flies right past me and I grab the reins and try to turn Angharrad to get the hell outta here and I see a soldier stumble back into Morpeth, blood rushing out from a nightmarish-looking hole in the stomach of his uniform and he raises his bloody hands to the Mayor for help–
    And the Mayor snatches the soldier’s rifle from him and tosses it over to me–
    I catch it out of reflex, my hands instantly wet from the blood all over it–
    N OW IS ALSO NOT THE TIME FOR NICETIES , the Mayor puts in my head. T URN ! F IRE !
    And I turn–
    And I fire–

{VIOLA}
    “Survey probe!” Bradley says, coming back down the ramp, carrying what looks like an oversize insect, maybe half a metre long, shiny metal wings spread open over a thin metal body. He holds it up to Simone as if asking her. She nods and I see that she’s Mission Commander for this trip.
    “
What
kind of probe?” Mistress Coyle asks.
    “They scope out the landscape,” Simone says. “Didn’t you have them when you landed?”
    Mistress Coyle snorts. “Our ships left Old World twenty-three years before yours, my girl. We practically flew here steam-powered compared to what you’ve got.”
    “What happened to yours?” Bradley says to me, setting up the probe.
    “Destroyed in the crash,” I say. “Along with nearly everything else. I barely even had any food left.”
    “Hey,” Simone says, trying to say it soft and comforting. “But you made it. You’re alive.” She moves to put an arm around me.
    “Careful,” I say. “Both my ankles are broken.”
    Simone looks horrified. “
Viola–”
    “Look, I’ll live,” I say, “but I’m only alive because of Todd, okay? If he’s in trouble down there, Simone, we
have
to help him–”
    “Always thinking of her boy,” Mistress Coyle mutters. “Making it personal at the expense of the entire world.”
    “It’s because no one and nothing matters to you that you’re willing to blow the world to pieces!”
    Pieces ,
Acorn thinks, shifting nervously beneath me.
    Simone looks at him, furrowing her forehead. “Wait a minute–”
    “Ready!” Bradley says, standing back from the probe, a small control device in his hand.
    “How does it know where to go?” Mistress Coyle asks.
    “I’ve set it to fly towards the brightest source of light,” Bradley says. “These are just area probes with limited altitude, but it should be enough to clear a few hills.”
    “Can you set it to look for a specific person?” I say.
    But I stop because the night sky lights up again with the same glow I saw on my ride here. Everyone looks towards the city.
    “Get the probe up!” I say. “Get it up now!”

[T ODD ]
    I fire the gun before I can even think if I want to–
    BANG!
    I ain’t ready for the kick-back and it knocks me in my collarbone and I grab Angharrad’s reins and we spin round in a full circle before I finally see–
    A Spackle–
    Lying on the ground in