Banished Worlds by Grant Workman, Mary Workman Read Free Book Online

left shoulder down for more comfort.
    Her position forced me to notice how warm and comfortable her body was when pressed up against mine. I tried not to think about her. It was a mission, and here we could end up dead, really fast.
    “When the workforce here is willing to do with less food to stay out of this demo team job, it can’t be good.” I studied the people as much as I studied the surroundings. All these people looked worn-out, and some of them did not look old enough to be worn-out.
    I knew from Lark that prisoners on the planets still had children. However, I did not see any little ones here which meant either few survived to adulthood, or they were kept somewhere else. I did not want to think about that. In the network, child labor did not exist, but that would not be the case here. Probably, everyone started working as soon as they could put one foot in front of the other. I hated that idea, so I studied the building instead.
    It was a converted warehouse that had been divided into areas. Yellow section was on one wall. Red section was in the middle, being by far, the largest section from what little I had seen. It was a warehouse, but did not have a high ceiling. The early workers, in the construction of Tirus becoming a prison planet, had modified the building to have more area in the upper levels. There was a lot more space on the second level than the occupied area Big Chin lived in. There was storage area up there which made me want to explore it.
    “I wonder if there is another team in all that space upstairs, or if it houses supplies?”
    “The best goods for the best people, little rewards for Big Chin’s special friends,” Roberts replied. “I was wondering about that too.”
    I eased my grip, from holding her close, but she did not move away. She closed her eyes and settled in against me to go to sleep. I watched our demo team members and tried not to think about the beautiful woman cuddled up next to me.

CHAPTER 4
     
    “Get down!” Roberts yelled at our line of demo team members.
    The plow bar of the hydraulic arm swung out wide and would come racing back in our direction. This arm, in one sweep, could smash through most walls of old buildings and turn them into rubble. The buildings were full of team members trying to search them in advance of the hydraulic bar leveling them.
    Our job, if you call it a job, was to run through the building being ripped down and make sure no good, serviceable equipment or supplies had been over looked, and if so, get said stuff out before it came down. They did not give a team much time to look either. And pickings were slim at best. The teams would run in, grab anything they could, and race out as the plow smashed away.
    As soon as it passed over, you got to run back into the rubble and search for more. The entire time, the plow bar and plow body frame that it was attached to was moving and advancing forward. On each side of the frame, stood a spotter that kept an eye on the team and the movement of the bar arm. Their job was to watch out for them and to yell warnings about the bar’s approach.
    I heard Roberts yell and had gotten accustomed to a three second count before it passed over my position.
    On my side of the bar were a handful of team members. I had only learned one name and that was Bikes. He was a big man, taller than I was, but unlike the rest of the team, Bikes had a grin on his face from ear to ear all of the time.
    Roberts yelled a second warning, and I dropped to the ground as the bar moved overhead. It was close to ground level, and the operator was not giving our team any room for error. I was tired and did not want to get up, but the plow body would roll forward whether I was there, or not, so I moved forward still low to the ground.
    We had one break for lunch; a sandwich of thick yellow bread with water and that had been hours earlier.
    “Bikes, move!” yelled the spotter from the far side of the frame.
    “It’s good, it’s