Ruin (The Ruin Saga Book 1) by Harry Manners Read Free Book Online Page B

horses into the gloom of the stables, and a concentrated odour of hay and manure filled his nose. “We work day in, day out to convince everybody that we’re the endgame, that we’re the ones fighting the good fight, and then…then we go and steal food from people’s mouths as soon as the going gets rough.”
    There were around thirty horses nearby, snuffling somewhere in the dark. Each had been kept fed and watered at great expense, with food taken from far-flung lands. How many human lives had they cut short to keep their stables full?
    Dozens. Maybe more.
    Alex shook his head as he shut the stall’s gate on Allie’s horse. “I don’t know what to think,” he murmured. “I can’t afford to.”
    Norman stroked his own steed’s mane as he attached a bag of grain to its muzzle. He followed Alex back into the streets, looking over the dormant city and the ruins beyond. “This has never happened before,” he said. “We’ve never been so close to the brink, even before we settled here.”
    Alex locked him with a steely gaze. “No.”
    “We will kill more people if we keep going out.”
    “We’ll die if we don't.”
    Norman paused. The echoes of his footsteps took a long time to dissipate, returning time and time again from the winding maze of crumbling bricks and mortar.
    Alex shook his head, having grown stern in an instant. “It’s not a question of right and wrong. We go out and we take what we can, or we starve instead of them. It’s that simple.”
    Norman said nothing. His mind’s eye was busy once again, wriggling the skeletal fingers of the fallen before his eyes.
    Alex watched him carefully until the silence between them had grown taut. “There’s nothing that you can do until morning.” He made to turn away, hesitated, and instead laid a hand on Norman’s shoulder. He smiled, and although the expression was rendered monochromatic and twisted by the deepening darkness, Norman felt better. “Welcome home,” he said.
    Norman nodded, then frowned. “People are starting to look to me,” he said. “All of them. It’s like they expect me to grow a white beard and lead them into the desert.”
    Alex laughed for far longer than Norman thought appropriate; it was as though he had been privy to a hidden joke. After some time, wiping his eyes, he said, “Norman, they look to you because they can. You have something that they don’t. You have a des—”
    “Destiny,” Norman muttered. “I know.”
    Alex’s hand loosened somewhat on his shoulder, but his gaze was steady. “That’s right,” he said. “Destiny.”
    “You’ve told me that every day since I can remember.” He looked over his shoulder to make sure that they were alone. “But I don’t know if I’m the right person. I can’t do this, Alex. I’m not ready, I’m not… I can’t save anyone.”
    Alex’s expression didn’t change. Instead, he merely clapped a hand against Norman’s cheek. “Nobody ever wants to lead,” he said. “And anybody who does is the last person for the job. But that’s what people need: somebody to look to. In fact, it’s all they ever need. And”—he looked down at himself and laughed once more—“I’m not always going to be here. They need a fresh face, to know that somebody’s ready to step in and take the reins when… when the time comes. They need you to be that person, Norman. I need you to be that person.”
    Norman’s words caught in his throat, the same ones that had lodged there every time he’d tried to argue his case. Day after day, year after year, they had festered in his bowels.
    I’m not you.
    Instead, he forced the falsest of smiles onto his face—one he hoped was hidden by shadow—and nodded.
    Alex patted his shoulder once more and turned away towards the hall, becoming a mere silhouette against the flare of the streetlights. “Get some sleep,” he said. “We’ll talk in the morning.”
    Norman stood alone for some time outside the stables. He peered in