Spirits of the Earth: The Complete Series: (A Post-Apocalyptic Series Box Set: Books 1-3) by Milo Fowler (paper ebook reader .TXT) 📕

"Why doesn't he speak for himself?" I shout.

"Hey, Willard." The deep voice nearly stops my heart. Familiar. Too familiar. But up to now, I thought I was the only one who could hear it.

"Tucker..." His ghost has haunted me ever since I took the elevator down and disabled it, leaving him to his fate.

But it had to be done. I had no idea he'd make it, and there were ninety-odd other lives to consider. The good of the many!

"Sorry I haven't been around lately. Been busy up there with the mutos and all." Tucker sniffs—his annoying little tick.

I force a smile, feel it stretch my face. "I was starting to think you were just a figment of my imagination." I lower the gun. No use shooting a ghost. "What's it been? A week or so?"

If Mathis can see him, then maybe he's not an apparition at all. Could he be an invisible ash freak instead, and it's taken the eyes of a fellow freak to see him? That would mean these past months of hauntings have been actual visits.

It means he's really here.

"You've already talked to Willard?" Mathis's big reveal has fallen flat, and he looks deflated.

Tucker's chuckle emanates from the far corner of the room now. "Scared the living crap out of 'im is more like it. Been a real hoot!" He laughs out loud. "He's thought for sure I'm some kind of spook!"

Not anymore.

I bring up the Colt and pull the trigger. For a split second after the gunshot—loud as a bomb going off in here—Tucker becomes visible as the round meets its mark. Just like I remember him. Same bright eyes, sandy hair and beard, muscular build. He wears an old standard-issue jumpsuit. Couldn't he have found something else? His eyes are wide, his mouth thrown open in total surprise. But then he's invisible again, groaning, stumbling against one of the medical machines and causing it to flicker, vanishing and reappearing. It wobbles as he collapses to the floor.

That'll teach him to screw with me.

"Captain—everything all right up there?" Jamison's on the radio again. "Shots fired?"

"Just one." I keep the gun barrel aimed at Tucker's corner of the room and listen. If he tries to leave, I'll shoot him again. I should've known better. There's no such thing as spirits of the dead. "Make that two collars," I order. "We have another volunteer."

Mathis stares at me, eyes unblinking. "What are you going to do?"

I chuckle as I pick up the muscle stimulator from the foot of his bed. "I told you already. Something real special."

Perch and Jamison show up with the collars and a medkit. Tucker being invisible and alive throws them for a loop at first, but I explain he's just another one of our infected ash freaks. Why didn't I tell them sooner? Because I was protecting them, of course. He was one of us, close to the inner circle. It would've been more than they could bear to know he'd been turned muto by the demon-dust.

"I can't even see him," Jamison murmurs, kneeling down in the corner where Tucker fell, probably passed out by now. Jamison swings his hand side to side in the air. Then he blinks out of sight, vanishing completely.

"What the—!" Perch jumps back.

Jamison must've bumped into Tucker. His invisibility is transferable by touch. Fascinating.

"Part of the mutation," I explain. "Anything that comes in contact with him disappears." Except for the floor, apparently. What rules govern this bizarre abnormality?

"You mean—I'm..." Jamison gasps.

"You're an invisible man." But we don't have time for show and tell. "Patch him up quick and collar 'im. I want that shortwave down here within the hour."

They work quickly. As soon as Perch has the collar on Mathis and the remote online, I apply the stimulant to each of his major muscle groups. He gets all jittery and starts crying out as his body reacts in violent spasms. I don't know what to do about it; I don't have Margo's bedside manner, and that's a fact. We'll have to wait it out.

Once he's lying still again, heaving one strained gasp after the next, I nod to Perch.

"Up and at 'em." Perch activates the remote.

The light on the collar flares red, and Mathis screams, clutching at his throat as he's thrown from the bed to the floor like a crash test dummy. Perch curses, shaking the remote at him uselessly, trying to make him stand up.

"What's wrong?" I snap.

"His muscles—they're not cooperating." Perch activates the remote again and Mathis flips over onto his arched back, limbs flailing.

"Damn you!" he screams hoarsely. "What have you done to me?"

I blow out a sigh and shake my head. His body must've been sedated for too long. This isn't going to work. "What about the other one?"

Jamison nods, now visible as he backs away from Tucker. "I patched up his wound, and the collar's on, good to go." But he hesitates. "We won't be able to see him—but we'll see everything he sees." He stands at attention. "Permission to return to—"

"Go."

He'll need to be in the monitoring station before Perch activates Tucker's collar. Jamison salutes crisply and leaves, shutting the door.

"What about this one?" Perch curses, gesturing at the writhing Mathis.

"Get him back into bed." Tucker showing up now is a real godsend. This way, I won't have to use any of Margo's pets for my project. "Sedate him completely. And get that collar off 'im." I don't want her knowing what we were up to in here.

Perch nods, but he makes no move to follow orders. Instead, he fixes me with his steely gaze and sucks on his teeth. "Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"Always."

"I don't like her. Don't trust her one bit. And I don't like the way you take orders from her."

"I don't take orders from anyone but God Almighty."

He nods slowly. "So why does she call the shots where these freaks are concerned?"

"It's her area of expertise.