The Hell With Earthside: A Novella (STRYDER'S HORIZON Book 1) by Daniel J. Kirk Read Free Book Online

laugh. That was it, and then the feed resumed the ballgame.
    “What the hell was that?” was thrown about the pub in various forms. But I knew exactly what it was.
    A news bulletin didn’t need to confirm, but the game was cut away from again as a plastic looking newscaster looked sternly at us all, “ Earthside is under imminent threat. Please refrain from leaving your homes or jobs. All doors will be secured until the matter is dealt with. Please stay tuned for live updates and look-ins to this frightening turn of events.”
    The feed cut to the streets of Earthside.
    It should be illegal to televise such things. Earthside hadn’t received the bulletin in time. There were hundreds being dragged through the streets, ripped to shreds by the Dessup Gang. There was silence in the pub as the carnage gripped us. I begged to look away, but I couldn’t. I didn’t want to believe what was happening.
    Stop airing it!
    I knew this was retaliation. Damn Davis for not thinking this through. I wanted to blame him, but shouldn’t I have known better?
    Some one gasped, “Why are they showing this?”
    The violence has escalated. Flesh was being peeled before the camera. Teeth were pulled. Bones were dug out and cleaned. I thought I recognized some of the Colonial officers being dragged through the streets.
    Then there were the sounds. Everyone in Burnside knew the Dessup’s howl. It didn’t need to be broadcast. We all felt it in our temples and rib cages, down to our fingernails feeling like they were about to snap off. It sounded worse than ever before.
    The Newscaster began to wrap up the segment like it was a weather report, “As the onslaught continues let us take a break while we await for the Colonial Officers to round up these ruffians.”
    Scoffs were just one sound of displeasure that filled the pub. I was already on my way out. There was no sense sticking around as advertisements flickered on the viewer.
    I hoped Davis would retaliate, I hoped he would hunt down every last Dessup.
     
    My home, shoddy as it was, had a nice view of the Jefferson Plateaus. I always knew I was coming home as I rounded a wall of trees and saw the flat horizon give way to the protrusions in the distance. There were some nights I raced ghosts all the way out to them. Even got Old Shepard and myself stranded out there a few times. I liked to think Old Shepard just wanted to stay out there. Tonight was one of those nights I would do it. I would floor the accelerator and drive Old Shepard straight through the plateau wall. Only, I stopped right outside my door and just sat in the seat, gripping the steering wheel without a single good thought.
    I hated the Dessup Gang.
    Old Shepard growled in idle. H e hated them, too.
    I thought I could talk myself out of what I wanted to do. I thought that maybe just maybe I could bat an eye and find a comfy nook in my bed and call it a night. Only that wouldn’t happen, and I knew that. There was no thinking required.
    A voice snuck up on me. “What are you doing?”
    It was Alice. She was perched on my porch. I hadn’t noticed her before as my eyes stared out at the Jefferson Plateaus.
    She couldn’t break my train of thought, couldn’t stop the hate pumping through my veins.
    “Hey? You okay?”
    I glared, but the young woman only smirked.
    “Who pooped in your carburetor?” She laid her hands on Old Shepard and leaned through the passenger side window. “Been waiting for you to get back, had plenty of time to practice the turns. You still scared to face me again?”
    “I’m not racing.”
    “Come on, I’ve been waiting for over a week.”
    “I’m not in the mood, Alice.”
    “Yeah, you don’t look it. What gives?”
    That’s when it dawned on me. It would be a week before Colonial Officer Davis and a new merry group of drill-runners could retaliate. Things were not going to get any better for Earthside in the meantime. And if the Dessup Gang won Earthside it wouldn’t be long before