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

The thoughts continue uninterrupted, surging in a torrent: You will die, unless you do as I say. As powerful and omnipotent as Gaia pretends to be, she cannot be in all places at once. So she does not know that I speak to you now, even as she and my husband plot to overthrow the United World. He forgets, you see, that I know his thoughts. We are much alike, you and I. Whoever you are...

And whoever you are, I return.

Cain uses me to see into the distance. Without me, he is blind. His men have returned, telling him of a vengeful demon, an evil spirit incarnate who thwarted his plans to retrieve the United World scouts. He now tries to convince them that Gaia is stronger than their fears, and he will send them emboldened, and in greater numbers, after you. But he will not go with them. Instead, he will return to me in this bed we share, and we will link our bodies and our minds. We will watch your slaughter as if we are standing in the distance.

“Why tell me this?” I murmur aloud before realizing I’ve done so.

“How’s that?” Harris looks perturbed by my interruption as he continues to spout off.

But you can help me, the pregnant woman’s thoughts continue. Or rather, you can help someone I love. You have seen him already, stumbling through the darkness. His name is Lemuel, and he is my lover, my own, whom I share with no one. Cain banished him into the dead of night. He has nowhere to go. When the sun rises, the goblyns will tear him asunder and devour his flesh.

Goblyns. Daemons. Mutos. Every enclave on this continent seems to have a pet name for the monstrosities.

Please, go to him. You know where he is; you saw it. Tell him Victoria sent you, and he will trust you.

I frown. This is not part of the plan. There is so much more at stake than—

Do this for me, and I will lead Cain’s men off course. They will not find you. I am their eyes, and I will choose to look elsewhere. When Cain discovers that I have deceived him and sent his men in the wrong direction, there will be hell to pay. But my Lemuel will be safe. There is one last pause in the transmission. I am watching you. Save his life, or lose your own. I leave the choice to you.

I sway, suddenly unsteady on my feet as the mental link breaks and the presence in my mind departs. Harris braces my shoulder with his gloved hand.

“Forgive me. You’ve suffered a great ordeal coming out here. We all have,” he says. “I’m sure I can wait until we arrive in Eden to have all of my questions—”

“We’re not going to Eden.” The thought escapes my lips, and on its tail comes the sudden awareness of a mass of predators headed our way. I jerk my head westward, peering into the dark with the light of my extrasensory perception. The superhuman hostiles have doubled in number. “They will be here in a matter of minutes.”

Did Victoria lie to me? Has she already sent the warriors straight to their prey? Or are they merely retracing their own route of retreat from earlier?

“Good to go!” Milton calls from the vehicle’s rear. The sergeant nods in agreement.

The battle-scarred Hummer now sits on four tires strong enough to hold its weight. I beckon to the UW personnel to follow as I dash to the driver’s side.

“Luther wants to see them.” Milton holds my door open. “Before they go to Eden.”

“I know. But I have to make a stop first.” I help Elaine into the backseat, followed by Granger. The sergeant and Dr. Harris load the weapons they collected into the rear hatch.

“Want me to run some interference?” Milton glances west.

“You’ve endangered yourself enough for one night. Go back to your people and tell them we will be there shortly.” I give his shoulder a gentle push. “Go on now.”

Elaine speaks up, “Where are you planning to take us, exactly?”

“Do what you gotta do.” Milton shuts the door after me. “I will too.”

I grip the wheel and rev the engine, looking into the rearview at the pair seated behind me, shivering in their thermal bodysuits. “I’m sure you’re both cold—”

“Freezing,” Granger says, “but you haven’t answered the lady’s question.”

“I don’t—”

“You can’t expect us to play dumb here. We’re toast, and we know it. We’ve tasted of your forbidden fruit, and the UW won’t want us back inside Eurasia now. Neither will your friends in Eden. We’re mutants in the making, right?” He clears his throat. “So where can people like us get a bite to eat around here?”

I almost smile at his devil-may-care attitude—until I see movement on the horizon less than a kilometer away, figures running with plumes of dust sky-rocketing into the moonlight behind them.

14 Bishop18 Months After All-Clear

Harris and I throw ourselves into the rear compartment of the Hummer, rifles and bladed weapons clattering against the armored plating on our hazard suits. The rear hatch closes automatically, and Margo guns it, sending sand and gravel pinging upward in our wake. The flying man, Milton, takes to the sky—but not to escape the situation. Instead, he tears straight toward the hostiles at an angle that sends a wall of ash and dust upward behind him, concealing our vehicle’s escape route.

Except Margo hasn’t altered course. The vehicle is heading west, following Milton.

“Turn us around, ma’am,” I holler, struggling against my suit, fighting the knees to bend so my boots can brace against the rear hatch. The doctor and I jostle around like unsorted luggage. “We’re going the wrong way!”

She can’t hear me. Damn helmet!

“She’s not taking us to Eden,” Harris says, his tone wary.

I swivel to stare him down. “Where then?”

The doctor shakes his head.

“I believe she knows what she’s doing, Sergeant.” Sinclair turns in her