Transcendent (9781311909442) Read Online Free PDF

how pretty it was, especially when it
rained and it caused rainbows all over the place. Krys had never
paid much attention to that; his head was on more practical things
like what game they would play next or any troubles he was having
at school. Lily was enough of a dreamer for both of them.
    Except Lily was gone. Losing her left him
without any dreams, either of her or for himself.
    Krys’s stomach cramped, pinching as he
watched men and women picking through the remains of Grunnar
Stevens house. Mr. Stevens had been on the village council as the
paymaster. He kept track of the crop yield and who got paid what.
Krys had hardly ever spoken to him, but his dad said he was a
little shy in the social department, but fair and understanding
when it came down to it. Whatever that meant. Now he was just
another missing person with a house that had a corner smashed in,
exposing it to the outside.
    Krys turned away and looked to the east. The
haze of smoke that hung over the village was missing, or not as
thick. His stomach twisted as he considered starting there.
Kilometer after kilometer of fruit trees and hardy vineyards that
could stand up to the abundant sunlight and equally long winters.
Krys nodded. He needed to eat something first, and then he could
worry about looking for his family and friends.
    He climbed back down into the creek bed and
followed it to the east, pausing every so often to check and make
sure there was no one nearby. After he’d walked well beyond the
easternmost edge of the colony, he climbed out and made his way
into the stands of mango trees. He wandered through them, staring
up and wondering how he could get one down. The leaves were a good
twenty-five to thirty meters off the ground.
    Krys turned his attention to the ground and
started searching for fallen fruit. It was rare that one fell and
rarer still that it wasn’t collected to be composted. Still, he had
to look. That or try to steal one of the highpicker machines that
went from tree to tree and harvest the fruit. The odds were good
there were some out and about if he could find a field with ripe
fruit in it.
    Krys wandered through the fields until he
heard a noise. He froze and turned until he saw two people wearing
white and blue uniforms walking through the fields. He dropped to
his belly and crawled over behind the trunk of a mango tree so he
could watch them.
    “There’s something over there!” one of them,
a woman, cried out.
    Krys’s heart leapt into his throat. He
risked a quick look and saw the speaker was pointing away from him.
He followed her hand and saw what she’d seen: a crop transporter
sitting on a roadway between fields. Resting on top of it was one
of the highpickers. It was exactly what he needed, but they’d seen
it first.
    They started walking towards it, leaving
Krys lying on the ground and wondering what to do. He could keep
looking: there were bound to be other transporters and picking
machines that had been sent out before the soldiers came. But what
if other people were looking for them, just like these two
were?
    Krys watched them as they reached the
transporter. The smaller of the two, the woman who had spoken loud
enough for him to hear, said something to her partner before she
turned and kept walking farther into the fields. Krys watched her
go and frowned, and then he nodded to himself. He would follow her.
Maybe she’d find another one, or if not that, maybe he could at
least learn something about her.
    He climbed to his feet and moved from tree
to tree, moving as quiet as he could until the worker climbed into
the cab of the transport and started it up. Krys paused to watch it
head back to town and then turned towards the woman. He’d lost
sight of her, but he knew the direction she’d gone in. He just had
to catch up.
    Krys jogged through the rows of mango trees
and noticed how she was cutting across the field. It made sense;
that way she could intercept another road and look for more of the
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