Slave Empire - Prophecy Read Online Free Page A

him to the ground. The net pinned his arms, and the
raiders pulled it tighter while he fought. He kicked a man on the
shin and made him hop and curse. These were the worst sort of
raiders, who hunted people to sell to the autocrats for food.
    A bald,
scruffy individual with an eye patch stepped forward, holding
Rawn's gun as he crouched down beside his captive to study him with
his remaining bloodshot eye.
    "You're a
pretty one. The mistress will pay well for you."
    "Fucking
bastards!" Rawn snarled, earning himself a kick in the ribs from
another man.
    The leader
gestured. "Bring him. Put him with the rest. The mistress is going
to love him."
    Two raiders
hauled Rawn to his feet, one producing a pair of handcuffs. He
twisted and cursed, trying to loosen the net and free his arms.
They were a runty bunch, none with his strength or stature, and
there were only four of them. Lunging at the man with the
handcuffs, he dragged the two that clung to the net with him and
butted the raider in the stomach. The man staggered back, tripped
and sprawled, the cuffs slid into a storm drain and vanished with a
distant splash.
    "Hold him!"
the one-eyed raider shouted. They did not want to kill him, and
that worked in Rawn's favour. He swung and butted another man in
the face, breaking his nose with a dull crunch. The raider released
him with a bleat of pain, clutching his nose. The one-eyed man
aimed the gun at Rawn, but killing or even injuring him would make
the whole exercise pointless. Rawn turned to the man who still held
the net, hooked his fingers into it and jerked it from the raider's
grip, then loosened it with a heave of his arms and flung it aside.
The slaver hesitated, casting a desperate glance at his leader, but
his courage failed as Rawn stepped towards him, and he fled. The
man who had tried to cuff Rawn sprinted after his comrade.
    The one-eyed
man, becoming aware of his danger, cocked the gun and waved it.
Rawn lunged at him, gripped his wrist and twisted it until the
bones cracked. The man screamed and dropped the weapon as Rawn
smashed a fist into his face, sending him sprawling. The raider
Rawn had butted staggered to his feet and raised his hands as Rawn
picked up the gun the one-eyed man had dropped. Rawn glared at him,
and he fled. Rawn looked down at the whimpering one-eyed slaver,
disgusted. This was what it had come to now, raiders hunting each
other to sell as slaves. Even they had lost their pride and become
as pathetic as the people who waited at the feeding stations.
    Relieving the
one-eyed slaver of his gun, he holstered his own and tucked the
other one into his belt, then glanced up and down the street. He
had wandered into the territory of this sort of raider, which was
not a healthy place to be. As he walked back the way he had come,
his thoughts returned to his lost sister.
     
    Rayne groped
along the wall, gasping in the heat and smoke, her head swimming.
The blazing door consumed the oxygen, and flames crept down the
stairs. Her fingers touched a frame, and she examined it, finding a
hatch set at an angle to the wall, which must open upwards.
Stepping into the recess under it, she set her shoulder against the
trap door and heaved with all her might. It creaked, the dry wood
digging into her.
    Again she
pushed, her legs weakening as she panted for air and inhaled smoke
instead. She was tempted to give up, lie down and surrender to the
injustice of this cruel world she had struggled so hard to survive
in all her life. With a strangled cry of defiance, she put the last
of her strength into a final push. The hatch flew open as the
rusted lock gave way, and she climbed out, inhaling great breaths
of fresh air.
    For a while,
she lay and gasped on the withered grass, then sat up and wiped her
streaming eyes. The house smouldered, most of the fire having burnt
out already, leaving embers that sent a column of black smoke
spiralling upwards. In some places, flames still licked at the
timbers. She glanced around