New World Rising Read Online Free PDF

impenetrable force field whose heights knew no bounds. On the rare occasion I was close enough to it, the temptation to fling things at The Wall was irrepressible.
    There was little else beyond what was our city. Outside the masses of buildings was just dead, open land. There were broken stretches of streets filled with the skeletons of motor vehicles, but even those didn’t lead anywhere anymore. There was nothing left to lead to. What wasn’t wasteland was toxic water and what wasn’t toxic water was wasteland. Even Tartarus was a mere fleck of its former self. What was once a prosperous city was now just blackened streets and broken buildings. The choices weren’t great. You could escape the Tribes and die of exposure or deal with the Tribes in the urban jungle that was once a city and stand a chance— however small— at surviving.
    I pinched another piece of rubble in my fingers, ready to fling it when a commotion erupted in the streets beneath me.
    Shouting echoed off the abandoned buildings, bouncing back at me from all angles. There was a sound of distant gunfire as I rose to my feet, followed by the Ravager hunting cry. They were tracking someone. That eerie cry meant one thing and one thing only— someone was going to die tonight.
    I hopped back over the ledge to the rooftop, it certainly would not be my blood spilled tonight. Another cry pierced the night and I reflexively turned in its direction. I could see the Ravagers’ torch lights glowing in the distance. From the sound of it, they were closing in on their prey. I squinted as something moved thirty feet in front of them in the shadows. How strange that they should be hunting at night.
    As the thought crossed my mind, the tiny shadow moved into the light from the street lamps. My heart dropped.
    She was only a child.
    Even from this distance I could see her body shaking with fear. Her long mousy hair clung to the small cherubic face as she searched for an escape. Panic filled me as I watched her frozen frame.
    “Run!” I muttered to her under my breath.
    Another gunshot fired, the bullet sparking as it struck the lamppost next to her. Falling backwards she scrambled away darting down the nearest alley. My gut clenched. I knew that alley, I knew every alley, and she had just trapped herself in a dead-end.
    The Ravagers knew it too. Slowing their pace, they sauntered to the mouth of the alley, cat-calling at the little girl.
    “ Run away. ” My mind told me. “ Leave her, this doesn’t affect you.”
    While I agreed with this callous voice of reason, my body was already in motion. My feet carrying me to the edge of the roof, I blindly dove for the next building, bounding forward when my feet connected. Just one more rooftop and I would be upon her. I sprinted for the back corner of the building where I knew there was a half-constructed drainpipe. It was missing the last fifteen feet to prevent someone from climbing up it. But the drop could be managed with a calculated fall.
    Moving like a shadow, I flipped my body over the side of the building and flung myself downward. My feet slid on the metal, finding purchase just before the pipe abruptly cut off. Scanning the dark alley I caught a glimpse of movement behind an overturned dumpster. She was only about ten feet in front of me. I began calculating my jump as the first leather clad hunter appeared at the mouth of the alley. He was idly twirling a bat as his side. Various spikes protruded from the head like lethal thorns.
    “Maaaarrrrrco…” He called mockingly from the end of the alley. Rolling laughter erupted behind him as pierced bodies filled the narrow opening. There were about fifteen of them, the glinting metal and shaved heads making it nearly impossible to delineate the men from the women. But from my vantage point, it looked like the hunting pack was mostly male. My stomach churned.
    Escape or die. Getting caught was not an option.
    The leader took a few calculated steps down the alley,