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

I follow the sound of Margo’s footsteps into the dark until the confined space opens into an alcove the size of my laundry room back home. There we find a man seated at a makeshift desk—a pair of crates, one larger and one smaller. A glowstick lies atop the bigger crate, along with torn and wrinkled computer printouts from an outdated data system.

“Welcome.” He stands, enfolding Margo in a warm embrace. She stiffly allows it. “You must be Sergeant Bishop.” He reaches out his hand with a smile despite the sorrow that festers in his eyes. His fingers are badly scarred. “I’ve been told that your external comms are on the fritz.”

I nod, meeting the man’s solid grip with my gloved hand.

“Sergeant Bishop says he’s heard of you,” Margo relays.

“Likewise.” The bearded, grey-haired Luther is almost the desert leader I envisioned, only more fatigued and gaunt in appearance. For the first time since I’ve arrived on this hellish continent, I find myself wondering what these people eat. Probably because my own stomach is growling. “I apologize, Sergeant. I have nowhere for you to sit.”

“He doesn’t mind standing. In his suit, it’s easier that way,” Margo says.

I knock on my chest plate and glance at her. She’s doing a good job of sorting through my thoughts.

Luther stares absently at the hazard suit as if he hasn’t seen anything like it in a very long time. His smile dims as he meets my gaze through the face shield. “We have much to discuss.”

19 Margo18 Months After All-Clear

He has aged. That’s my first thought, seeing Luther for the first time after so many months. But as he embraces me, I feel his strength, despite how thin he has become—all muscle with no fat to spare. I slip into his mind before I can stop myself, and I find something I have never sensed in him before: a dark fear gnawing away like a rat burrowing in his brain.

It is something he shares with the UW sergeant. Bishop wants to see his wife and children again, but his reunion with them is contingent upon the successful completion of this mission. For Luther, the future has even more at stake. His children are in Eden, and as much as he’s worked to unite the various factions of his Homeplace, they are rife with division. Add to this the arrival of Cain’s people, along with Cain himself in a matter of hours, as well as the UW team’s sudden appearance on the scene, and it is no wonder Luther has been unable to eat or sleep for days.

Yet he smiles as warmly as ever as he says to Sergeant Bishop, “I hope you don’t mind that I get straight to the point.”

“He would prefer it,” I translate Bishop’s thoughts, careful not to reveal anything unseemly.

“The warriors who attacked you—their leader is on his way here,” Luther says.

“Cain.” I nod, remembering what Lemuel said about the man. “He doesn’t seem to believe the UW representatives have come in peace.”

I sense that Bishop doesn’t believe it either. He knows his superiors have held back certain details when a full disclosure would have been more beneficial.

“Yes. Even if you were to tell Cain yourself, I doubt he would believe you. He sees your presence on this continent as an act of war.”

Bishop nods. This isn’t news to him. He’s already lost one of his men to Cain’s warriors.

“This Gaia he worships—according to him, she used those flesh-eaters to shoot us down,” Bishop says within the soundproof confines of his helmet, and I repeat his words.

Luther looks mildly surprised. “I see you’ve been studying up on the local culture.”

“He’s a quick study. And we came across one of Cain’s young people on the way here,” I add.

“It was a little out of our way,” Bishop says. “As is this detour. But I hear you’ve got something to say to me. So let’s have it.”

Luther hesitates, glancing from me to Bishop. “I would prefer that you first tell me about your mission.”

“Can’t do that.” Bishop moves his arms as if he wants to cross them, then realizes he won’t be able to do so in the hazard suit. “Classified.”

“Then allow me to fill in a few details I’m sure your superiors left out. You were sent to meet with a man named Arthur Willard who lives underground, sealed off from the surface. Willard told your government that he has fetuses in incubation pods, nearly to term.”

Bishop says nothing.

“Sergeant, have you stopped to consider where those children came from? Or have you been so focused on your mission…that nothing else has mattered?”

Bishop frowns slightly. “I’ve lost one of my men. Two of my team are infected. And the things I’ve seen here…” He shakes his head. “My superiors don’t have a clue what’s going on.”

“There would be no way for them to know that these children you’ve been sent to recover …were stolen from their parents.”

Bishop fights to keep the surprise from showing on his face, but I see past his stoic façade. The man has a father’s heart.

“There were four of us—two men, two women—captured by Willard’s engineers when we stumbled upon Eden early last year. They harvested our sperm and eggs against our will.”

“Willard forced me to combine the gametes, creating the test tube babies he has offered your government in return for safe passage off the continent,” I explain. “Before I left Eden, Willard made it clear that he will use the children as leverage to get what he wants. If that doesn’t work, he will not think twice about killing the UW team.”

“We have a vested interest in what becomes of those children in Eden.” Luther pauses. “For they are our children.”

Bishop sizes up Luther for a moment. “What’s to keep me from radioing my ship and telling them the fetuses are no good? That they carry contaminated genes.”

“We do not know