End of the World, Start of My Empire novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: Haskell Falls

For a long moment nobody on the shelf moved.

Eighty armbands lay in the dust, red as spilled paint, and eighty people stood in front of them with their rifles pointing at the ground.

Haskell looked down at them from the truck bed.

His face did not change.

It was the face of a man reading a column of numbers and finding it did not add.

"Pick them up," he said.

Nobody did.

"I fed you. Every one of you ate because of this book."

"You fed us half of what we hauled," said the thin boy, quietly.

"And wrote the other half down."

Haskell closed the ledger.

For one second he looked old.

Then his hand dropped to his belt and came up with a pistol.

He jumped down from the truck and ran for the depot shed.

"Nolan!" Tova yelled.

I was already moving.

He reached the door and hauled it open.

Inside the shed it was dark, and I heard a short, sharp cry.

He came back out dragging Bria by her arm.

Her wrists were bound with wire.

Her jumpsuit was torn at the shoulder, and a purple bruise ran along her jaw.

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