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

"Sharon said it was fine," Catherine counters. "She's gone out there multiple times looking for—"

"She was reckless. She lost one of the jeeps, and she lost more than that." I nod my head slowly. They're hanging on my every word now. Even Catherine is listening, her big fish mouth hanging wide open. "Sharon lost her mind." I hold up my arms again as proof. "I did what I could to defend myself. She'd been changed—all four of them. They weren't...human anymore. They were savages."

Gasps echo.

Jamison stammers, "But how? What changed them? How'd it happen?"

I have my theories, and I'll tell him later, in private. I'll tell him how we need to isolate everyone who's been topside and monitor them for any behavior out of the ordinary. But for now, I play dumb.

"I don't know what caused it, but this much is clear: they've been out on the surface, scouting things for us since All-Clear. More than once, I've seen them return without their O2 masks on. So it's got to be something out there, in the air. It turned them into dangerous psychotics. And I sure as hell don't want that to happen to anybody else."

Margo clears her throat quietly. "And they're..." She looks upward.

"Who is it?" Catherine demands. "They have names, Willard. Don't talk about them like they're—"

"They're not who they were!" My outburst echoes loudly, and silence follows. "Get that through your head! It wasn't Sharon or Anna or Kelly or anyone you know. They stopped being human and turned into something else. Something unnatural." I swallow as an image of her gleaming, snapping fangs passes through my mind. "An abomination."

Catherine stares back at me, biting her lip. Is she afraid? No longer worried about her friends above us, now she's only concerned about herself, what she might become. I see it in her eyes. And I'm glad.

"So what do we do?" Margo asks. "After I clean up those wounds of yours." She steps closer, and my abdomen tightens. Because of her proximity?

The DOWN arrow on the elevator lights up with a sudden ding, followed by gasps all around me. It can mean only one thing.

"Who is it?" someone whispers.

"Somebody up top...wants down," another one states the obvious.

It could be her, the last one. She's finished off Tucker, and she wants more blood. Or it's Tucker. He took her out, and he's wondering where I am, why I left him. That wouldn't be good. He's supposed to be dead.

He didn't make it. That's what I told everybody. It would definitely make things awkward to have him join the land of the living again. I would lose my credibility.

Better for him, better for all of us, if he stays dead.

"Not to worry." I gesture at the disabled control panel. "There's no chance anyone can get down here."

"Or any of us can get topside," counters a fellow in the back named Mathis. "How long did you say we'd keep the elevator out of commission, Willard?"

I didn't say. And I don't like his tone. Has he been out on the surface too?

"Long as we need to. Long as we can." What we need are those guns. I could jury-rig the elevator one last time, take Perch and Jamison up with me. The bunker door was shut, but given time, she'll probably open it. She won't want to stay in that hallway forever. She'll leave the weapons, won't have any use for them. Not with her fangs and claws. "Eventually, she'll get tired of pushing that button." Another ding holds the moment. I clear my throat to quiet the furtive whispers. "She'll get bored and move on. She'll get hungry." No, probably not. With those bodies up there, she'll have plenty to feed on. Assuming that's her diet now. "She'll get cold, and she'll have to move on. We just have to wait her out."

But if it's Tucker...

The same would apply to him.

"I don't think we've got that long, Willard." Mathis points at the vents in the walls. "Without fresh O2 from above, we've got nothing to filter through the system." He shakes his head. "It could go kaput in the middle of the night. What then?"

I step into the middle of them. This is the moment I've been waiting for.

"There's another way out," I say with absolute certainty.

Eyes widen. Murmurs flow. Catherine and Mathis are suddenly without words. But of course they are. They had no idea about this. Neither did I.

I hope to God I'm right.

Time for the big reveal. I let the silence run on long enough for their anticipation to build sufficiently. Then I let them have it—as much as I can engineer on short notice.

"There's a system of tunnels behind one of the walls in our bunker. Used to be for groundwater routing, back in the old days. Now it's empty."

I point vaguely in the direction of our southwestern corner. If these fortuitous tunnels exist, they should take us right up under that town the panther-women found.

"They're just waiting to lead us to our new home. Might require a bit of elbow grease to get the job done, but I think we're up to the task." I grin at the looks on their faces. Wonderment now. Glances are exchanged, shoulders drop with relief. I clap my hands once, loudly. "So what do you say we break those sledgehammers out of storage and get to work?"

Voices rise with enthusiasm. Most turn away with newfound optimism, but every party has its pooper.

"How come you haven't told us about these tunnels before now, Willard?" Mathis steps forward, his voice raised. The disbanding of the masses slows to a halt as they turn to watch me. "You've never mentioned them. Not even once."

My jaw muscle twitches as I meet his insubordinate stare with as much confidence as I can muster. I know I'm right. I have to be. There's another way out of here, and it's behind the southwest wall. We just have to punch through the concrete, then they'll