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

out of the jeep to join Harris and Granger as they shuffle stiffly toward our campsite. Only Morley remains with the vehicle, popping the hood to take a good, long look at the solar batteries underneath.

“How are they?” I drop down from the jeep’s rear, my boots landing with puffs of dust that rise like white mist in the moonlight. I can’t help but think back to the film I saw in school as a kid, that scene from the first lunar landing. One small step for man...

“Should be good to go once they’re all charged up.”

“How long should that take?” I approach his side.

“As soon as the sun rises, they’ll start charging. And they’ll continue to do so while we’re en route.” He glances up at the moon. “A pity they’re outdated.”

I frown. “When’s their expiration date?”

“Not an issue. They’ll run fine unless they’re damaged. But if the jeep was this year’s model, we would be able to continue our journey under moonlight. The newer power cells are hypersensitive, able to capture all the energy they need to run a vehicle this size.”

“Any way we could overhaul these batteries to do the same?” I gesture vaguely at the complicated apparatus under the hood.

“I’m not your engineer.” Morley shrugs. “We would probably need to replace the solar panels as well. But if Granger had the right tools, perhaps.” He bares his teeth in a tight grin, but his features fall suddenly as a frame pops up on his HUD, flaring red. “Movement, Sergeant.”

I don’t have to ask. The weapons officer is pointing the direction we came from. It can mean only one thing: we were followed.

“How many?” I peer into the moonlit dark but can’t see a thing beyond the range of my unaugmented vision.

“Two figures, four and a half kilometers away.”

“They must’ve doubled back and gotten behind us somehow.” There would be others moving into position to surround us. “Granger, do you copy?”

“Hear you loud and clear, Captain.” At the campsite, Granger, Harris, and Sinclair have formed a circle, facing outward with rifles at the ready, scanning the landscape on all sides. “Only the two of them so far, that I can see. On foot.”

“Moving at a steady clip,” Harris says. “Straight for us.”

I grip the handgun I took from Morley. “Find cover. No shooting until you hear otherwise from me.”

“All due respect, Sergeant,” Morley says, “but with your HUD offline, I don’t think you—”

“We have our orders,” Sinclair’s voice interjects.

“Everybody spread out.” I nudge Morley. “You’re with me. I want to hear everything you’re seeing as you see it.” I crouch beside the jeep’s grill, grimacing as I force the hazard suit to comply with my movements. “Start talking.”

Morley drops heavily onto one knee. “How about some firepower, sir?”

“Leave that to me.”

“What sort of weapons officer am I unarmed?”

I glance at him. “Prove you can keep a level head, then you can take your pick from our limited arsenal.”

Morley’s nostrils flare as he exhales. “Yes, sir.” He blinks, focusing on the HUD frame tracking the two incoming figures. “They’re armed, both of them. Same UW-issued assault rifles we found on those hostiles—dead soldiers.”

Why on foot? There were two other jeeps when that freak sandstorm ripped across the hillside. Are they still out there, keeping their distance? If so, Morley’s HUD should be picking them up. What kind of range does it have? It can’t be more than five kilometers, or he would have registered these intruders sooner.

“Based on their current velocity, they should reach us in less than thirty minutes.” Morley faces me. “But why should we wait? I say we bring the battle to them!”

“That sort of talk will keep your holster empty, soldier.”

“We outnumber them two to one—”

“Try again.” I give him a sidelong glance. “I doubt our doctor or science officer practice much on the firing range.”

“If we surround them—”

“We have no idea who they are or what they want. As far as we know, they could be advance scouts sent from Eden to tail us.” Unlikely, but the point is that we’re situationally in the dark here. “We stay put for now.”

Granger clears his throat. “Understood, Captain. We’re digging in.”

I turn to check their position and at first can’t locate the half-sized engineer or the other two members of my team. Then I catch a glint of moonlight against one of their helmets, bobbing slightly. They’re hiding behind the rocks, jagged like dinosaur teeth in stark relief against the black sky.

“Keep your heads down over there,” I warn. One well-aimed round, and triple-polymer or not, those helmets will crack, exposing them to the contaminated air. Or they’ll end up in the same situation as me, without a HUD.

“They’re not in hazard suits,” Harris notes, staring west. “They’re moving much too fast for that.”

“Rules out Eden. They would know better than to come out here unprotected,” Morley says.

“Look at what they’re wearing instead,” the doctor continues. “They appear much better-dressed than those sun-charred souls we found earlier. Such cloaks would shield them well.”

“A separate tribe, perhaps?” Sinclair suggests.

“Cut the chatter,” I order. They can discuss the continent’s de-evolved sociology at a later date. Right now, I need the channel clear to hear everything Morley is seeing. “Have they altered course?”

“Still heading straight for us, following the trail we left,” Morley says. “No night vision equipment, no breathing apparatuses.”

Fully exposed to the elements, the contaminants—these infected strangers are fearless.

“Three kilometers and closing,” Morley adds, facing me. “Orders?”

“Unchanged.”

I ignore the impatient look on my weapons officer’s face. While I’d never admit it to anyone, part of me wonders if that strange, other-worldly presence will make another appearance—the spirit of the earth that manifested itself as my daughter, then as my wife. I’m sure it was responsible for killing off those three hostiles. The way their corpses were scattered across the ground and broken to pieces—no human force could manage something like that.

Will that spirit intervene again? And if it doesn’t, could that mean the two unidentified figures