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

"I'm taking you to HQ, Erik. Place that rifle on the floor, and then take three steps back. Hands behind your head. Interlock your fingers."

Twenty meters beyond him, outside the clear glass doors, disorder has claimed the street. Speeding automobiles swerve around pedestrians running and screaming. Half of them are armed: enforcers as well as citizens who don't look like they're from Dome 1. They're...filthy. The enforcers are chasing them, shockers out in the open. The grimy citizens turn mid-stride and fire their weapons over their shoulders.

Live ammunition. Actual bullets.

The front doors to the complex shatter, raining shards of glass across the tiled floor. Erik hits the ground in a prone position with his rifle aimed at the street. He looks like he's had some weapons training. Maybe in one of his acting classes.

I took the same position a split-second before he did.

"I recommend finding an alternate route, Enforcer Chen," he advises. "It's a war zone out there."

"Are those…?" I can't believe they're here, in Dome 1, causing such a grievous disturbance. "Patriots?"

"That'd be my guess." He keeps his eyes on the scene outside. "I doubt the security clones came here on foot." He glances over his shoulder at me. "Can you pilot an aerocar?"

With active augments, I'd be able to figure it out. Maybe even without them. I've seen Drasko do it often enough. How difficult can it be?

"We're going to the roof." I make it sound like it's my idea as I get to my feet and keep my weapon on him. "After you set down that rifle."

He glances toward the smashed front doors like he's considering making a run for it. Joining the mayhem with his compatriots—if he is, in fact, one of the insurgents. I wasn't able to find out earlier. The arrival of the chancellor's security personnel interrupted my telepathic investigation.

If you're really not one of them, you'll come with me, I think at him.

He looks at me and smiles warmly. It's becoming natural for you to communicate this way.

No, it's not. I just wanted to get his attention.

He laughs quietly, nodding to himself. Then he sends the assault rifle skidding across the floor in my direction and jumps to his feet. Lead on, Enforcer Chen.

I shoulder the second rifle by its strap and lower my weapon's muzzle by a few degrees. "After you. We'll take the stairs."

His eyes widen involuntarily. "Thirty flights?"

"That's right." The last thing I want is to be stuck in an elevator with you.

"You think they'll start hitting civilian targets next."

Honestly? I don't know what to think. "Best to expect the worst."

He regards me out of the corner of his eye as he heads toward the stairwell, a few meters beyond the bank of six elevators. "Is that an enforcer credo?"

Unofficially. I nod for him to pick up the pace, and then I follow a couple meters behind. As we pass the last elevator, its doors open without warning. I swing the muzzle of my second rifle to cover the interior.

An elderly citizen in a floral print dress cries out, covering her mouth, and staggers back against the support rail inside.

I drop the rifle to dangle by its strap and hold out a hand to calm her down. "Please return to your cube, citizen. It's not safe outside right now."

"Is he one of them?" She stares at Erik and the way my rifle is trained on his back. "A terrorist?"

Are you? I think at him.

He folds his arms and leans against the wall, shaking his head irritably. Everything else I told you was true, wasn't it?

"Why aren't you taking him out of the building?" the woman demands, scowling. "We don't want his kind here!"

Erik leans toward her and bugs out his eyes. "Oh, but we're already everywhere. We're your service providers. Your caretakers. Your custodians. You see us every day, but you don't give us a second thought!"

She freezes up, her mouth gaping like an extinct fish out of water. I step toward the elevator and press the up arrow. The doors close on her startled expression.

"Was that fun for you? Messing with someone's grandmother?" Probably on her way out for breakfast.

"My audience is limited. Seriously, where is everybody?" His voice echoes in the stairwell as he opens the door and starts climbing.

"In their cubes like good citizens, obeying the public service announcement." I let the door slide shut behind me and follow him, settling into a climbing rhythm that will carry me up the thirty flights without pulverizing my quadriceps. Easy does it.

"Zombies," he mutters. "Every one of them cooped up inside their little units, plugged into VR while the world falls apart outside."

"Careful there. You might start sounding like a misanthrope." I narrow my gaze at his boots as they mount one step after another. "Any reason why you're not jumping up these flights?"

He glances over his shoulder at me. "Wouldn't want to show off..."

"If it's true that you're not a dust freak, then what I saw last night was natural talent. Right?"

He shrugs. Doesn't slow his pace.

"Seems to me you're wasting time. You could be up on the roof in a minute flat. Find out if the security clones' aerocar is there, try to get it started." I pause. "Get away from the law enforcer determined to take you in."

"Are you trying to get rid of me?"

"One flight. Go on, show me what you've got."

"Now I'm feeling like a circus freak." He shakes his head. "Maybe I'm not amped enough for it to work."

"So your jumping ability requires adrenaline as fuel?" Interesting.

Another shrug. "Not sure how it works exactly. Only that it does, when I need it to."

"And you don't right now?"

"Why would I want to miss out on such stimulating conversation, Enforcer Chen?"

I duck my head to hide the involuntary twitch of a smile. This guy sure is a fan of idle banter. Not amusing at all. "What you said before, about knowing me before either one