Tomorrow's Paradise World: Colonize by Charles W. Armstrong Read Free Book Online Page A

was no pollution that he could see whatsoever. Each house was self-sufficient. They all had a garden with a variety of vegetables and their favorite fruit trees. Every day it was the children’s duty to fetch water from their section well, located near the center of each village. If they were old enough to carry a small bucket from the well, then they were allowed to participate. When they arrived home, it was used to water the garden, for drinking and baths. It took about two hours for this to be accomplished. The children from different families helped each other out in this task. After that they could play with the other children in the village. The ones who were old enough could receive training on different aspects of village life, sometimes by their parents and occasionally by others. They were taught how to read and write at home each night before they went to bed and at the weekly village meetings.
    A week later they were called to meet with the elders of the grand council once again. However, prior to this, something unusual occurred in the city. There was a lightning storm. Though lightning storms are very uncommon on their paradise world, nevertheless now and then they take place. Victor noticed that the people were very afraid, especially the children. He understood why, when he witnessed the lightning strikes. They were very devastating when they struck. Whether it was a tree or a building it suffered terrible damage. He was watching out the window with Taerg’s children when he saw a powerful lightning strike. This time it struck a large house not too far away. It sounded like an explosion. The roof of the house immediately ignited. Victor was acquainted with the occupants of that house. A large family lived there. They had eight children, four of them were under ten years old. As Victor opened the door, he yelled for Taerg to join him, but did not wait to hear a reply. He ran outside into the storm towards the neighbor’s house. When he arrived he tried to get in through the front door, but the fire was spreading so fast that it was already consuming the front door near where the lightning struck. In exasperation, he hit his shoulder against it and a small piece of the thatched roof fell on the back part of his shoulder catching his shirt on fire. The searing pain almost made him cry out in his anguish. He quickly took the shirt off, but his shoulder near his shoulder guard was burned. His personal video mission recorder was on his other shoulder. He did not know how bad the burn was, he did not have time to check. He rapidly disconnected his shoulder guard, hung it from a tree branch and threw the shirt on the walkway where it would not catch anything else on fire. He sprinted to the rear entrance of the house. The door opened easily. He went inside and yelled out some of the names he could recall. The father and mother showed up, each with a young child in their arms. Victor asked them where the other children were. They said that they were trapped upstairs. They ran outside with their children to get the gathering neighbors to look after them while they went back for more of their children. Meanwhile, Victor noticed that it was impossible to go upstairs, as the fire was devouring the stairwell. He ran outside met Taerg, he asked Taerg to give him a boost up to the second floor window. Taerg quickly put his hands together and Victor put his foot into them. Taerg lifted him up and easily lifted his hands over his head supporting him just underneath the window. Victor never realized that Taerg was so strong. However, the lower part of the window was still not in reach, it was about six inches away. Shifting his weight so it was mostly on his good leg he jumped as hard as he could. Both of his hands grabbed the window ledge. He pulled himself up and entered the bedroom beyond.
    All of the children were in this room, they were scared and crying. He was happy that they were still alive. The smoke was steadily