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

“He is…invisible?” Victoria blinks.

“Along with anything he touches.” I face Tucker’s voice. “There are others on the coast. Older folks and a few women in the…same condition.”

“How many are pregnant among you?” Margo says quickly.

“It doesn’t matter,” Victoria replies. “The UW will destroy us all if Cain gets to Eden before we do.”

I frown at that. “You’re not going anywhere. I’ll go.”

“Me too.” The sound of Tucker’s feet shuffle over to my side. “Might come in handy to fly out of sight, don’t you think?”

I can’t argue with that, but I don’t like the idea of carrying the man. Victoria’s added weight was difficult enough to manage mid-flight. “Those people on the coast are sitting ducks. The UW’s shelling the beach.”

“We’ve heard it,” Tucker says. “I know you won’t go back to Eden, Margo, and I know you want to watch over the young ones. But you’re the only person here keyed to drive that thing.” He probably means the Hummer outside.

“I can stay and watch over the infants.” Victoria offers. “Where are they?”

I don’t trust her, Margo’s thought enters my mind.

“If what she says is true, then there are a whole lot of other lives at stake,” I reply, preferring that Margo use her words.

“The future of the world,” Victoria says, and somehow it doesn’t sound melodramatic. “You have to leave. Now.”

“Most of them are on foot,” Tucker tells me. “They took the other Hummer—the one I drove you out of Eden in, way back when. But they couldn’t have gotten too far.”

“A couple dozen of them are as fast as I am.”

Tucker sniffs “Sure, there’s that.”

“I will drive to the coast.” Margo moves out into the sunlight, drawing her hood over her head to shield her features. “Enough lives have been lost today. But if anything happens to the young ones, I will hold you personally responsible.”

Victoria smiles coolly. “As would any mother.”

I rest my hand on Margo’s shoulder. “If it’s too dangerous, you turn right back around. That thing’s bulletproof, but I doubt it’ll stop what the Argonaus is spitting out.”

“I won’t be able to take all of them with me.” There aren’t enough seats in the vehicle.

“The pregnant women, then.” I bite my lip. I hate the idea of leaving anybody behind. “They’re the ones…carrying the future.”

Margo meets my gaze and nods. “Tomorrow’s children.”

I feel a hand grip my arm, and I turn to find Tucker grinning at me.

“Howdy,” he says, completely visible—a sandy-haired, rugged-looking man with the build of a laborer.

“Where did he go?” Victoria sounds mystified by my disappearance.

“That’s how it works,” Tucker explains. “If you can see me, nobody else can see you.” He rubs at his nose. “So how’re we gonna do this, Milton? Want me to ride piggyback?”

“Please don’t.”

Without any gesture of farewell, Margo descends the ridge outside. Tucker slips his arms around my abdomen, prepared to hold on for his life.

“Take the passage on the left there, third alcove you come to,” Tucker calls back to Victoria. “The little ones were sleeping last time I checked. If the lights are blinking, they’re all good.”

She nods warily, looking at the direction of his voice without anything to fix her gaze upon. “Go quickly, flying man. Do whatever you can to stop him.” She pauses. “Kill him, if you must. Cain is no son of Gaia if he plans to murder the innocent.”

I’m about to echo what Margo said, that there’s already been enough killing today. But I have a bad feeling there will be plenty more before the day is through.

22 Tucker18 Months After All-Clear

I never would’ve thought I’d be scared of heights. Like every other engineer from Sector 30, I had my share of high-profile assignments early in my career, back before D-Day. One in particular, I’ll never forget: an exhaust manifold on the exterior of a fifty-story skyscraper. The fool designers had planted it right on the edge of the roof. There were some strong winds that day, and the whole inspection procedure had been dicey from the start.

But nothing in my experience compares to this—hurtling through the air at breakneck speeds, tightening my white-knuckled hold on Milton with every jerky twist and turn. The last time I looked, we were well over a hundred meters above the ground. I clamped my eyes shut and have yet to open them since.

“You see ’em?” I holler, my feet dangling uselessly behind me.

“Only their dust,” Milton shouts back. “One group’s up ahead. They’ve got the Hummer, but most are on foot. Cain and Luther’s people, all together. Another group is farther east.”

“You want to stop?”

“The slower bunch isn’t our concern. We have to stop the ones that’ll reach Eden first.”

“Think you can overtake ’em?”

“We’ll see.” The wind rips past us, as if Milton has kicked his speed into high gear.

I squeeze my eyes tight and nod. But then another thought springs into my head: what if Milton flies straight to Eden, and he and I somehow manage to commandeer the nursery, barricade ourselves inside there or something? Or better yet, lock Willard and his men in their quarters, then head down to the radio room and send that whole lot of remote-controlled mutos straight at Cain’s advancing troops?

“This Cain guy, he must really have a death wish,” I offer.

Milton doesn’t respond. Probably takes a lot of focus to fly like a superhero.

I sniff, wishing I could scratch my nose. But that would mean letting go of Milton with one hand, and I’m not about to do that until both my feet are planted on solid ground.

“I mean, he’s got to know that by killing all those babies, the UW’s just going to retaliate in a big way, right? From what I’ve heard, the United World government is putting all its eggs in one basket with those kids.”

“How do you mean?” Milton rolls a few degrees to the right, adjusting his trajectory.

“They gave up on the cloning project—at least, that’s what Margo heard.”

“Clones?”

“Yeah.” I can’t help chuckling awkwardly.