Blight_A Human Zoo Novel by Kolin Wood

Author:Kolin Wood [Wood, Kolin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-04-26T22:00:00+00:00

13

After a few miles, they turned off the motorway and filtered down the slip onto a long stretch of A-road, which cut an almost perfectly straight line through the countryside outside of the city. Thick swathes of trees crowded the way, making the space feel claustrophobic but at the same time blocking out the worst of the heat from the sun. With next to no water left and their food supply down to a single can of who-the-hell-knows, the three of them moved with purpose, their pace brisk and intentional.

Becca had still not spoken to John. Several times she stopped to check the crumpled piece of paper in her pocket, not once conferring with him or letting him know how far there was left to travel. Since the bust up that morning, the atmosphere between the two of them had remained tense, with neither contributing much to a conversation and most of the flippant comments aimed in Murphy’s direction.

John’s feet burned. His ill-fitting boots now rubbed in all the wrong places and were beginning to fray at the stitching around the soles. Inspection the previous evening had uncovered huge blisters on his heels and on the outside edge of his little toes. They left his feet feeling slippery, almost as though his socks were filling up with blood or pus; even if common sense told him that it was only sweat.

But the road stretched on. Soon, the pain in the back of his mouth had increased to such a degree that he could no longer summon the saliva to swallow. The blood in his hair had long since dried into thick clumps.

Something caught his eye in the tree line to his right and he stopped fast, gripping hold of Becca’s arm to slow her movements. Ahead of them stood a lone willow tree, its bows draped with hanging blue ribbons. Becca looked down at the piece of paper again and smiled for the first time that day. She nodded and, without saying anything, turned and walked directly into the brush opposite. Confused, John called for Murphy and followed behind, at the same time pulling an arrow from the sheath at his leg and setting it in the bow.

Beyond the initial wall of foliage, the space opened up to reveal a pathway congested with knee-high grass and patches of bramble bushes. The path looked as though it had been cut away or bashed clear at some point in the not too distant past, a definite sign of human interference.

Becca threw John a look and raised her crossbow to her shoulder. Begrudgingly, John followed suit, the knot still causing pain between his shoulder blades. Aside from the attacker on the road, it was the first sign of life since leaving the previous town and Becca’s nervousness showed clear.

They walked slowly, crouched low and choosing their steps, each of them taking a separate side of the path.

John saw the gates before Becca did. He thrust an arm over the front of her chest to halt her in her tracks, drawing an aggrieved look in the process.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.