Read Battlefield Earth for Free Online

worried?” asked Chrissie. Jonnie looked down at her, his reverie broken. The dying fire wove a reddish sheen into her hair and sparked in her dark eyes.
        
    “It’s my fault,” said Jonnie.
        
    Chrissie smiled and shook her head. Nothing could be Jonnie’s fault.
        
    “Yes, it is,” said Jonnie. “There’s something wrong with this place. My father’s bones…in the last year they just crumbled like that skeleton’s in the tomb of the gods.”
        
    “The tomb of the what?” said Chrissie idly. If Jonnie wanted to talk nonsense it was all right with her. At least he was talking to her.
        
    “I should have buried him there. He was a great man. He taught me a lot of things- how to braid grass-rope, how to wait for a puma to crouch before you stepped aside and hit him as he sprang: they can’t turn in mid-air, you know. How to cut hide into strips…”
         “Jonnie, you aren’t guilty of anything.”
         “It was a bad funeral.”
         “Jonnie, it’s the only funeral I remember.”
         “No, it was not a good funeral. Staffor didn’t preach a funeral sermon.”
         “He talked. I didn’t listen because I was helping gather strawberries, but I know he talked. Did he say something bad?”
         “No, only it didn’t apply.”
         “Well, what did he say, Jonnie?”
         “Oh, you know, all that stuff about god being angry with the people. Everybody knows that legend. I can quote it myself.”
         “Quote it.”
         Jonnie sniffed a little impatiently. But she was interested and it made him feel a little better.
        
    “And then there came a day when god was wroth. And wearied he was of the fornicating and pleasure dallying of the people. And he did cause a wondrous cloud to come and everywhere it struck; the anger of god snuffed out the breath and breathing of ninety-nine out of a hundred men. And disaster lay upon the land and plagues and epidemics rolled and smote the unholy, and when it was done the wicked were gone and only the holy and righteous, the true children of the lord, remained upon the stark and bloodied field. But god even then was not sure and so he tested them. He sent monsters upon them to drive them to the hills and secret places, and lo the monsters hunted them and made them less and less until at last all men remaining were the only holy, the only blessed, the only sure righteous upon Earth. Hey man!’
        
        
    “Oh, that one. You say it very nicely, Jonnie.”
        
    “It’s my fault,” said Jonnie morosely. “I should have made my father listen. There is something wrong with this place. I am certain that if he had listened and we moved elsewhere, he would be alive today. I feel it!” “Where else is there?”
        
    “There’s that whole great plain out there. Weeks of riding on it, I am sure. And they say man once lived in a big village out there.”
        
    “Oh, no, Jonnie. The monsters.” “I’ve never seen a monster.”
        
    “You’ve seen the shiny flashing things that sail overhead every few days.”
        
    “Oh, those. The sun and moon sail overhead too. So do the stars. And even shooting stars.”
        
    Chrissie was frightened suddenly. “Jonnie, you’re not going to do something?”
        
    “I am. With first light I am going to ride out and see if there really was a big village in the plains.”
        
    Chrissie felt her heart contract. She looked up at his determined profile. It was as though she was sinking down, down into the earth, as though she lay in today’s grave.
        
    “Please, Jonnie.” “No, I’m going.” “Jonnie, I’ll go with you.”
        
    “No, you stay here.” He thought fast, something to deter her. “I may be gone for a whole year.”
        
    Water got into her sight. “What will I do if you don’t come back?”
        
    “I’ll come