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

"What do you see?" I ask Shechara.

"She's helping him take off his collar. Willard's men use them to control the daemons."

"They control the daemons?" I exclaim too loud as fury burns through me.

Another reason to wipe out these naturals!

"I was getting to that," Margo murmurs. "Hold still, Tucker! This laser will cut straight through you if we're not careful." He mumbles something in apology. She continues, "Willard figured out a way to remote-control some of the mutos so they could gather what we needed from the surface. He and Perch had maybe a dozen of them fitted, with more collars in production. Originally, that's all they were meant for. But when it became clear the UW didn't plan on rescuing us any time soon, that they were planning something else entirely—our extermination—he started raising up his own little army of collared mutos to protect Eden."

My simple question now seems insignificant, dwarfed by the crazy things she's saying. More conspiracy theories? Is she insane like Tucker? She sounds completely rational, matter-of-fact, even as she relates a story that's far too bizarre to believe.

"But what does any of this have to do with..." I trail off.

"Everything." She pauses. "You see, Willard and I were once in love. He allowed me to keep the infected alive, to study them, try to cure them. But he found out I was one of them around the same time as his first contact with the UW. He thought I had lied to him, betrayed him. He nearly fell apart, regressing beyond the point of simply wanting to kill off the infected. With the eager assistance of Perch, he started to reverse engineer them—taking them apart piece by piece without the proper use of sedatives—to find out how the physiological transmutations worked on a subatomic level. Of course they were unsuccessful and ended up killing all their subjects. Willard thought he could ingratiate himself with the UW leaders by studying a contagious phenomenon they didn't fully understand, one they couldn't allow themselves to come near enough to study. He hoped he could delay their plans to exterminate us." She pauses. "Then we found you."

She reappears suddenly with a thin strip of steel in her hand and sets it on the cart.

"Thanks, Margo," Tucker says.

"How about you go help Luther and Samson. They're getting a Hummer ready."

He sniffs and shuffles away, past me. Then he stops. His breath is warm and sour as he leans close. I have to restrain myself from slapping him as hard as I can.

"I'm sorry," he says quietly.

I don't know where to look in the empty space before me, just like when we first met. And I don't know what to say. I can't forgive him. He sniffs again and his footsteps exit the room, passing Milton as they step across the catwalk outside.

Margo faces Shechara. "Needless to say, you're able to see more than a mere mortal with these new eyes. It will take some time to adjust to the way they perceive the spectrum. They give you infrared thermoptic and night vision perception." She almost smiles, an awkward twitch of her lips. "But no X-ray, I'm afraid."

Shechara nods. "Thank you."

Margo turns away quickly. "Back to what we were saying."

What she was saying. I've never heard anyone so long-winded—besides Mother Lairen, maybe. Margo busies herself cleaning up, moving instruments, replacing used cartridges.

"When he found you, Willard thought he'd been given another chance to forestall the inevitable. He believed if he could prove to the UW that a new generation was going to be born in Eden, that they would postpone the end of days they had in store for us." She turns to fix me with her unblinking stare. "So yes, we took your eggs and sperm. And yes, we have all of the equipment and resources necessary to create new life from what we've taken. The first generation since All-Clear."

Is she proud of herself? "What's to keep us from smashing everything you have and leaving you with nothing?"

Milton leans in again. "Uh…because that's not the deal Luther made."

What? He made a deal with these people? Why? We have the upper hand here. We can destroy what they took from us and blow them all to hell!

"But you won't," Margo says, her deep-set eyes boring into me.

Did she just read my mind?

"Why won't we? You mean nothing to us, and after all you've done—!"

"Daiyna." Shechara squeezes my hand tightly, her gleaming eyes rotating toward me. "Daiyna, listen to her."

"I have. She's said more than enough."

"Then you won't mind if I add something else." Margo pauses. "The UW knows about you. Us. Our abilities. When Willard told them, their first inclination was to shower us with another Destruction-Day of nukes, wipe us out along with the hundreds of deformed soldiers they abandoned here years ago. But Willard assured them he had things under control. And while they may still risk sending over a team to assess the situation themselves, they will not destroy us while we have a new generation down here in the making. You see, from the sound of things, repopulation has been a global priority for years. But it hasn't been met with success. The UW is concerned the bioweapons and airborne toxins released by the rebels two decades ago may have rendered the rest of the world...infertile. An unexpected result of the plagues." She lets those words sink in. "The deal I made with Luther is simple. You are free to go, and we will give you a vehicle, weapons, fuel and supplies. Whatever you need. But you will not retaliate against us in any way. Go, and leave us far behind. Forget about us. But know that because of you, because of what we took from you... The world will live."

I stare at her. I don't know what to say. I sway on my feet, unable to sort out my