Read Banished Worlds for Free Online

around.” He smiled wide and something told me it was not at me. Bender headed for the door he had come in through, but stopped at it long enough to turn back to the old woman. “Alice, I’ve taken care of my workers messing up your floor, but you will need a broom.”
    The three of us exited the office and Bender turned to face us. “Here’s the deal. You work for me now, I work for Big Chin and we all work for The Highman, clear?”
    “Yes, sir,” Roberts replied.
    “Yeah, I got it.”
    “Good, let’s go see Big Chin.” Bender led us down a hall and through a door.
    When the door opened, a strong burnt odor struck my nose. There was an open wall which provided a glimpse of the area near us. The landing platform was in a warehouse style building, the missing section of wall showed the battered remains of a city. It was only a quick look, but I thought I saw a fence of some kind between our warehouse and the city. We headed up a rusted metal staircase to a second level and along an open air hallway where there were two men at a door.
    Bender stopped and turned to us again. “No talking in here, I do all of the talking. Below this level, the compound is divided into three sections. You’re in demo yellow section, that’s all you need to remember for the moment.”
    We entered the door and walked into a large, well lit, room. There was an icy chill to the air. Big Chin had air conditioning in this area. I glanced around the room as we walked to a large table. At the table, with his back to us, sat a man with broad shoulders and greasy blond hair. Over his shoulder I could see a piece of red meat, rolls, and potatoes.
    “Big Chin, these are my new workers for the demo team.” Bender twisted our direction. “Hey, you two came with names didn’t you?”
    “Danbeu and her name is Roberts,” I said. I noticed Chin did not seem to care whether we were there, or not. The food on his plate was more important.
    “Yeah, yeah, Danbeu and Roberts are my new guys. I know you like to meet the new demo team workers, Big Chin, so I brought them by. We’ll go now.”
    “Wait,” Chin ordered. “What’s their job?” He still did not turn to face us, but he did lay down his knife and fork.
    “I’m down two members on one of my yellow section demolition teams. I’m putting them there, unless you got a better place for them.”
    I looked from Chin’s back to around the room. It was in sections with guards at every door that I could see. In one section, there was a set of couches and pillows and several women. Panic struck me that Roberts might be put there. She was a kid of twenty-two, but a cute kid.
    “Demolition team, fine. First light I want them out working.”
    “Yes, sir, Big Chin, first light, you bet.” Bender grabbed Roberts and me by our shoulders and all but dragged us to the door and out of Big Chin’s quarters.
    Our little group headed back into the hot warehouse area. We went down the stairs, through several halls, and came out into the main body of the warehouse. Bender stopped us there.
    “This is the main hall for yellow section.”
    “So that was the boss, huh?” I said.
    “Okay, here’s the deal. I’m your boss, that’s all you got to remember. You got lucky with your arrival because we are just starting the down shift for demo teams. All demo teams go out together and come in together. Most teams are that way in all of the sections except the area guards. Yellow section, your section, eats and sleeps in the same hall.” Bender started to walk off.
    “What is a demolition team?” Roberts asked.
    “Tomorrow. We’ll go over your jobs tomorrow. Tonight eat and sleep if you can, and tomorrow you start work.” He continued through the hall. It was crowded and smelled of crowded, unwashed bodies. As we cut through the crowd, people moved for Bender. He came to a wall and pointed. “Red section is on the other side of that wall, beyond that is blue section. You’re yellow section, so do