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

“Anybody there?” I can’t be sure, but there might’ve been a scuffling sound inside the cabin. “Hello?” I pound a rapid-fire beat with both fists moving in a blur of speed.

A shrill cry pierces the door, words that might be “Get me out of here!” but with more expletives involved.

Amazing, that anyone could have survived inside this wreck.

“Right.” I back away from the door and duck my head to keep from banging it against the sagging ceiling. “Step back!”

Bracing for impact, I hurl myself in a burst of speed and slam against the door with my shoulder. I feel it give—my shoulder a bit more than the door, but the frame weakens.

“Again!” the woman shouts.

I ready myself for take two as a superhuman battering ram. The first attempt didn’t hurt nearly as bad as I thought it would. This time, I give it all I have.

With a screech of splintering wood and screws torn from their mounts, the door implodes into the room with me on top of it. I cough and try to rise, but there’s a slender, muscular woman with a protruding belly holding a knife at my throat.

“Hi there.” I rotate my head just enough to wink at her. Then I leap upward in a blur of speed, wrenching the dagger from her grasp and gripping hold of her arm.

“Luther’s pet,” she sneers, clothed in a sweat-drenched nightgown. “The flying man?”

“Cain’s wife,” I counter. “Left to die?”

Deadly thunder cracks the sky outside. The vessel’s fragile remains shudder around us. Another well-placed blast, and we’ll go down with the rubble.

“What are you doing here?” she demands.

“Old guy sent me—Justus. Know him?”

She pulls against my hold on her. “Why aren’t you with your people?” Her tone is edged with concern, oddly enough.

“I was, but…” Julia brought me here, and I’m not about to try and explain that. “I’m going back to them.”

“You will take me with you.” It’s not a request.

“I think that’s the idea. Justus wants you out of harm’s way.” Tentatively, I let go of her arm. “We should get a move on.”

“Cain will be the death of us all.” Her eyes blaze with intensity. “You have to stop him.”

“First I have to get you out of here.” I take her hand and turn to lead her out into the corridor, but a fresh concussive blast shakes the ocean liner. It sways, creaking and moaning like a whale in death throes. I pull the woman close, and she curses in protest, but her strength is no match for my speed. I half-carry her up the hallway, keeping my head low and holding hers down with one hand, my other arm wrapped around her, bracing her tight against me. So tight I can feel her unborn child kick. “Hang on.”

She clutches onto me, her strong fingers digging in.

“Hope you’re not afraid of heights.”

“The sun.” She winces as we move through a shaft of brilliant light piercing a wide crack in the upper deck.

“Right.” We pass a set of curtains draped over a wide porthole. I tear them down and toss them over her. “This’ll work for now.”

“Where are you taking me?”

“To your friends—”

“Take me east. To Luther’s people. They have to know what Cain is planning.”

I frown. “That’s kind of far.”

“You’re kind of fast, from what I hear.”

“But—”

“Every life on this continent is in danger. If Cain succeeds, the UW will not stop until they have destroyed us, once and for all: my people, your people, the men of Eden. Even the babies.”

“What do you know about them?” I look her in the eye. We’re face to face now, close enough to kiss—not that I’m planning on it—as I prepare to launch us up and out of a large gap in the broken superstructure ahead.

“Cain intends to kill them.”

What? But I shouldn’t be surprised. If Cain is indeed possessed by an evil spirit of the earth, then of course it would persuade him to do the unthinkable. Just like not-Jackson all those months ago, wanting me to blow the nuclear reactor in Eden. Now he wants Cain to destroy the United World’s last chance at a future.

“We must go now,” Victoria insists. “There’s no time to waste.”

She’s right about that. As the ocean liner crumbles around us under the impact of yet another salvo, I shoot forward and upward, spiraling into the sky high above the destruction, then rocketing eastward as fast as I can fly, pushing myself to the limit. Victoria screams, clinging to me as I struggle to maintain my trajectory with the added weight, adjusting our course to keep from angling off one way or the other and plowing into the crest of a passing hill.

“I’ll take you to Luther,” I shout over the rush of the wind we’re creating. “Then I’ll go back for the others.”

I hate leaving them there like that, but the battleship they’re hiding in looked solid enough—for now. I hope Sergeant Bishop will be able to contact the Argonaus and tell them to cease fire. It wasn’t Justus, the elders, or Cain’s wives who staked that corpse on the beach. Cain acted alone, albeit under the influence of evil.

“Only you can overtake them!” Victoria shouts. “Cain’s fastest warriors—he will send them first to take control of Eden. They move as fast as you, but they cannot fly!”

Well, that’s something in my favor. “How many are there? These super-fast warriors?”

“Twenty or more.”

Dealing with them won’t be easy. I remember overpowering Willard’s men in Eden when Luther and Daiyna were held captive, but those soldiers were mere mortals, not the gifted variety. How can I possibly overpower more than twenty super-speedy warriors and get them to rethink their actions? Without a whole lot of firepower, it’ll be impossible.

Not that I’m keen on the idea of shooting anybody. I’ve vowed never to kill again, not after what went down in my bunker way back when.

I almost wish I was never