Redoubtable Read Online Free PDF

you,” as Kris took in the oncoming humanity. Clothes ranged from the wreckage of finery to rags that barely maintained civilization’s minimum for public decency. Not that anyone noticed. People moved with a minimum of effort, shuffling forward as if each step might be the last they could manage.
    But it was the children that grabbed at Kris’s heart. They stumbled forward on bony legs, their bellies distended. Children weren’t the only bellies stretched in that grotesque lie. Many of the women who held a child’s gaunt hand were hardly in better shape than the children beside them.
    “We try to distribute what food we have evenly,” Annam said, as if somehow he might expiate the sin that had allowed this to happen. “We try, but the gunmen come and demand food. We’ve hidden what we can, and if we have warning, we try to hide in the woods,” he said, even as he shook his head. “But there is so little.”
    Kris had expected that the locals would haul the food away from the wharf. After all, each bag was only ten kilos.
    Some of those approaching would probably be able to help. Some, but not many.
    “Jack, we better carry a load of these out to the landing. If people have to walk out on the pier, there’s going to be pushing and shoving. Someone’s going to drown.”
    Jack was already issuing orders as he trotted for the longboat that had brought them. Up the way, Marines who had last come ashore turned about and double-timed back the way they’d come. At the door of the longboat, Marines paused in the stacking of sacks and looked ashore. Mouths got thin as sergeants ordered men to grab some food and double-time for the beach.
    Kris took the load of the first Marine that reached her, sent him back for more, and jogged as fast as she could for the end of the pier, praying that dizziness would stay away for a few minutes. She still carried her cane, but there was no time to use it.
    Kris got to solid ground about the same time the first refugees reached the pier. She pulled the string like the instructions said, and the bag easily came open. “Grab a handful to eat now, then go help the Marines carry the food ashore.”
    Eager hands emptied her first sack. There was pushing and shoving, but Kris just leaned into it. It wasn’t anything that a well-fed person couldn’t handle. Penny came up on her right. Annam on her left.
    “Don’t push. Don’t shove,” he shouted. “There’s plenty for all. Those of you who can, take some back for the others. Those of you who are strong, help unload the bags on the T-head.”
    The raw need of the hungry was strong. Their panic was so close to the surface, pleading from empty eyes. Desperate hands reached out from mothers or fathers, grasping for something for themselves, or their children.
    The Marines arrived and gently, carefully, edged the crowd back. Back from the water. Back from the few giving out handfuls of biscuits and full bags. The Marines could have driven the crowd back with rifle butts. Instead, they moved them with a shove here, a gentle word there. When a woman turned away with a couple of biscuits for her family, a Marine stepped forward into the hole.
    Other Marines worked their way into the crowd, urging people to form lines. To leave room for people who had something to move to the back. When some young thugs knocked over an old woman and grabbed her handful of food, two Marines materialized as if by magic. The thugs went down hard.
    From the crowd, another youth helped the old woman up while others saw that the woman’s food was handed back.
    “There’s plenty for everyone,” Gunny Brown shouted. “Just wait your turn.”
    “We’ve got a whole shipload of food in orbit,” another Marine added.
    “Commander, we got the first two longboats empty,” came from the lead longboat pilot on net.
    “Take them back up to orbit. Reload.”
    “Half and half, Marines and biscuits?”
    “No,” Kris said, empty of food and turning for more. A