"Baxter, Stephen - Manifold 03 - Origin" - читать интересную книгу автора (Baxter Stephen)

What 'they'? 'That wheel in the sky was pretty big news. Whatever happened to us
probably made every news site on the planet.'

Here came Maxie, kicking at leaves moodily, absorbed in his own agenda, like
every kid who wasn't scared out of his wits. 'I'm hungry.'

Emma squeezed his shoulder. 'Me too.' She started to rummage through the roomy
pockets of her flight suit, seeing what else the South African air force had
thought to provide.

She found a packet of dried foods, sealed in a foil tray. She laid out the
colourful little envelopes on the ground. There was coffee and dried milk, dried
meal, flour, suet, sugar, and high-calorie stuff like chocolate powder, even
dehydrated ice cream.

Sally and Emma munched on trail mix, muesli and dried fruits. Sally insisted
Maxie eat a couple of digestive biscuits before he gobbled up the handful of
boiled sweets he had spotted immediately.

Emma kept back one of the sweets for herself, however. She sucked the cherry
flavour sweet until the last sliver of it dissolved on her tongue. Anything to
get rid of the lingering taste of that damn caterpillar

Caterpillar, for God's sake. Her resentful anger flared. She felt like throwing
away the petty scraps of supplies, rampaging out to the hommids, demanding
attention. Wherever the hell she was, she wasn't supposed to be here. She didn't
want anything to do with this. She didn't want any responsibility for this
damaged woman and her wretched kid - and she didn't want her head cluttered up
with the memories of what had become of the woman's husband.

But nobody was asking what she wanted. And now the food was finished, and the
others were staring at her, as if they expected her to supply them.

If not you, Emma, who else?

Emma took the foil box and went looking for water.

She found a stream a few minutes deeper into the forest. She clambered down into
a shallow gully and scooped up muddy water. She sniffed at it doubtfully. It was
from a stream of running water, so not stagnant. But it was covered with scummy
algae, and plenty of green things grew in it. Was that good or bad?

She carried back as much water as she could to their improvised campsite, where
Sally and Maxie were waiting. She set the water down and started going through
her pockets again.

Soon she found what she wanted. It was a small tin, about the size of the
tobacco tins her grandfather used to give her to save her coins and stamps.
Inside a lot of gear was crammed tight; Maxie watched wondenngly as she pulled
it all out. There were safety pins, wire, fish hooks and line, matches, a sewing