The Land of the Shadow Read Online Free PDF

few things here and there, a dented can rolled under the edge of a shelf, a box peeking from beneath a display case. He made a note of them but continued on his silent path.
    He went to turn a corner, and that was when he saw it: a fresh footprint in some spilled flour from a broken bag on the shelf, brilliant white against the dirty tile. He signaled to Kaden to back up and pulled one of his sidearms at the same time the woman darted around the corner, a pistol in each hand, aimed right at his and Kaden’s heads.
    Kaden had the shotgun pointed at her chest, and Justin didn’t drop his weapon. A standoff.
    She glanced back and forth between them. “Leave now, and nobody has to get hurt.”
    “No one has to get hurt anyway,” Justin answered. “We’re not looking for trouble.”
    “Get out of here and you won’t have any.”
    “Who are you?”
    She didn’t reply.
    Justin slowly lowered his gun to his side. He turned to Kaden and nudged the barrel of the shotgun toward the ceiling. Kaden clearly thought he was nuts but Justin’s instinct proved correct when the woman lowered her own guns. She took a couple of steps back, out of arm’s reach, as she did so. She kept her hands at hip level, though, ready to raise in an instant if the need arose.
    “I’m Justin. This is Kaden. We’re just scouting for supplies.”
    The woman thought about it for a moment before she responded. “Pearl.”
    “What are you doing here, Pearl?”
    “This is my town. I live here.”
    Justin snorted. “Bullshit.”
    “I don’t have to explain myself to you.” The woman’s dark eyes narrowed. “I was here first. Get out.”
    “How did you know?” Kaden asked Justin, as though he couldn’t hold it in a moment longer.
    “Her shoes.” Justin holstered his gun. “See how worn they are? Those shoes have seen a lot of miles. They wouldn’t be so worn down if she lived here.” He nodded to the woman. “We’ll go. You can have what’s here. Take care.”
    He led Kaden from the store and took hold of Shadowfax’s bridle, clucking to her as they started off down the street.
    Kaden glanced back over his shoulder. “She’s watching us.”
    “I know.”
    They spent the afternoon gathering what supplies they found from the various stores, packs of batteries, tools, a few medical supplies, and bits of food. There wasn’t much of the latter two to be found, even in places most scavengers didn’t think to look, like offices.
    As Justin had expected, the woman shadowed them all day, watching as they loaded the wagon with their finds. Kaden whispered he was surprised she hadn’t tried to snatch anything from the wagon while they were inside the buildings, but Justin wasn’t. She didn’t seem like the type.
    The gardening store turned out to be a gold mine. Not only was he able to get a large supply of vegetable seeds, but they also had a big stock of sulfur and nitrate fertilizer. Finding materials for explosives always made him cheerful.
    He sent Kaden to check out the farm supply store next door, and Kaden came back disappointed to report that all of the oats and corn had been taken. Justin sighed inwardly but just nodded. He’d been hoping for some seed corn. He cursed the seed manufacturers for making corn crops sterile, requiring seed for each year’s planting. They would have to save most of the oats they harvested this year for the next planting and he’d have to recalculate their food supplies based on it. Fortunately, Kaden reported spotting some bags of horse feed that would enable them to last a little while longer without having to dip into their corn to feed Shadowfax and Storm.
    They emerged from the farm supply store to find the woman petting Shadowfax. Kaden froze in his tracks, but Justin kept going, around the back of the wagon to drop in the bags he was carrying.
    “Her name is Shadowfax,” Kaden said.
    “She’s beautiful,” the woman murmured. “I haven’t seen a horse in so long. I didn’t think any