The Mutants Read Online Free PDF Page B

Utopian cried out in pain.
     
    Now was her chance. Using the brief distraction, she snuck up around one of the raiders and swung her knife out at his neck. The blade pierced through the fabric of his suit and tasted blood.
     
    He collapsed to the ground, dead.
     
    The others were getting anxious now. Only two remained standing, though one was carrying the box and could do nothing to help. He swore nervously and dropped the crate, causing the woman raider to cry after him in a panicked voice.
     
    Another crack from Lyle’s victim sent her running, too.
     
    ‘Get away from him, Lyle!’ begged Shyla, staying back from the violent mess the others had created.
     
    He eventually listened to her and let the Utopian go, although the man’s suit had already been torn in some places and he was now condemned to live on Earth. This realization sent him into a fit of sobbing and he gradually crawled away. Cora never saw him again.
     
    ‘Are you both insane!’ shouted Shyla, tears clinging to her eyelashes. ‘You just murdered two Utopians!’
     
    ‘It isn’t like they don’t murder us!’ Lyle rejoined. He spat at the ground.
     
    ‘What were you thinking?’ Shyla’s hands were shaking, and the quilt Cora had dropped earlier was huddled against her chest.
     
    ‘I was thinking, “Raiders just murdered our only chance of surviving this cold season”,’ snapped Lyle. His back was as straight as it had ever been, a sign that he was clearly very angry. ‘What was I supposed to do? Ignore them?’
     
    ‘Yes,’ said Shyla softly. ‘Yes, that is exactly what you should have done.’
     
    Lyle turned to Cora, his face full of rage. ‘Are you listening to this? What would you have done?’
     
    Cora didn’t answer. What Lyle had done was risky and they would probably suffer for it later, but it also did not feel wrong. Cora had been completely calm while taking down the raider, which slightly unnerved her, but there was something else about the encounter that made her think. Today they had gotten a taste of what victory felt like … and it tasted very sweet.
     
    ‘She isn’t going to say because she thinks I’m right!’ yelled Shyla. She tossed the quilt at Lyle’s face and he awkwardly caught it. ‘You attacked that man for your own selfish desires and nothing else!’
     
    ‘He wasn’t a man – he was a monster!’
     
    ‘No more monster than we are to them!’
     
    Cora pushed her hands against her ears and waited for them to yell it out. There was no point in interfering. One of them would storm away after a while, and the other would rant to her for a few hours before eventually apologizing. She had seen it before. Their pointless arguments never lasted long.
     
    ‘That’s it! ’ Shyla had tears in her eyes again. She drew in a deep breath. ‘I’m going to the colonies.’
     
    ‘What?’ Lyle had stopped yelling and Cora moved her hands away from her ears.
     
    ‘I have had enough of sitting around, fearing the Utopians and their flying ships for too long.’ Shyla wiped her wet eyes in her sleeve. ‘I’m going to the underground colonies.’
     
    ‘You don’t even know if it’s real!’ protested Lyle. He sighed. ‘I’m sorry, all right. I shouldn’t have jumped on that raider. Now can you –’
     
    ‘No!’ Shyla was defiant. She walked around Cora and Lyle, keeping her distance. ‘I’m going home … and I’m packing … and then I’m heading out there –’ she pointed towards the barren desert ‘– to find somewhere safe to live.’
     
    ‘You’re just going to find sharp-tooths out there. Please, listen to reason, Shyla,’ said Cora, trying to ease her friend’s mind.
     
    ‘Better the sharp-tooths than the Utopians and their experiments!’
     
    Lyle flinched from that comment and turned away from the girl. Cora became angry.
     
    ‘Was there really any need of that?’ she snapped. ‘Shyla, you’re going too far with this. Just calm down and think about what