The Survivors of Bastion (Fall of Earth Book 1) Read Online Free

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                  People faltered, and I always strived to remember that.
                  Carl and I set off through the fields through the dry grass, heading along the carved out path in the greenery towards the crop field. Carl stayed ahead as I kept a lookout around us, he carving through any shrubbery that happened to get in our way, though there was little of it.
                  All of us had grown used to not speaking for extended periods of time, but sometimes it was nice to just hear another person’s voice – that early morning it was Carl’s voice that I would be hearing.
                  ‘Tommy?’
                  ‘Yeah?’
                  ‘Can I ask you something? Just between you and me?’
                  ‘Sure, long as we keep on our way.’
                  ‘Okay… What do you think of Maria?’
                  Maria lived in a house with her older brother in Bastion. They were both impeccable farmers who tended to a large patch of crops in their own back yard, Marcus, her brother, in particular. Maria had a decent knowledge of mechanical constructs and had helped us put together a water irrigation system. She was smart, and about Carl’s age – as a result I knew immediately what he was getting at, but I wasn’t going to let it on.
                  ‘She’s all right,’ I said, ‘a great member of our community. Why?’
                  ‘Oh, nothing… I was just wondering about asking her if she… If she…’
                  ‘You were gonna ask her out?’ I said.
                  ‘Pretty much… Kind of… What do you think?’
                  ‘You’re a little older than me,’ I said, so you can probably better remember how these things went on TV and movies when we were younger. I did watch a shitload of TV, don’t get me wrong, but still… We don’t exactly have a diner where you can take her out to.’
                  ‘I know… I just thought we could do something some time.’
                  ‘All right,’ I said, Carl slashing through the shrubbery with a little more force as we reached the next field. ‘Well, I don’t remember a whole lot from TV, but I do remember this old show where these people went to a beach, and one says to the other, ‘would you date me if I was the last man on Earth?’ and the girl is like ‘maybe…’ So think of this situation in that context.’
                  ‘You are such a fucking asshole, Tommy,’ Carl laughed, sheathing his knife as the field levelled out.
                  ‘Look, I’m sorry…’ I said genuinely, ‘I’ll have a chat with Marcus when I next see him. But you are thinking of starting a relationship with a girl whose brother is a farmer, and seems to get bigger and bigger by the day despite the fact that we don’t all exactly eat fulfilling diets.’
                  ‘I know…’ Carl said, ‘Hey… Thanks, Tommy.’
                  ‘Don’t mention it. You see anything up ahead we should be worrying about?’
                  ‘Nope.’
                  ‘All right. Let’s keep moving.’
                  The fields were separated by aging, rotted fences that stretched out across the countryside like patchwork quilts. I had remembered the bigger kids before the outbreak coming into these fields to play games, and the people who would walk their dogs along the outskirts through the beaten paths that we had regularly tread on now that they were around to help us no longer.
                  My mind was somewhere else, something I shouldn’t ever have done – but it was then that I walked into the back of Carl. He had come to a complete stop and stared straight ahead of himself.