Eternal Refuge by Annabelle McInnes

Author:Annabelle McInnes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Chapter 14

Nick

Nick had one chance, one priority. He’d given an oath. He would not let Euan or Kira down.

Wild, angry, afraid, Nick hurtled through the trees. His heart shuddered inside his chest, his hands slipped against the grip of his rifle, and his breath was ragged in his lungs. His throat ached from the chill. The terrible fear propelled him forward.

The trees thinned, and the increase in the light forced him to squint. Instinct drove him faster. It took an extra moment to realise why.

The rumbling sound of an engine was unforgettable, and its proximity heralded horror.

He could see the dark outline of the truck through the spindly branches. An ominous shadow against a brilliant white background. His eyes stung. Only a few more steps and he would be there. He could save her. Just a little closer.

He broke through the tree line.

In that flashing instant, his vision consumed the picture before him, and he saw everything. The decayed tarmac that stretched out before them. The brown oak, the blue mountains. Kira battling with a man in grey-green rags. A reconditioned jeep, its rusted exterior modified and wrangled for the new world. A second man, his body tight with fortitude and his eyes bright with hate, moving from Kira to the wheel of the vehicle.

The barrel of a gun pointed his way, the dark hole of the muzzle a pinpoint of blackness.

He raised his weapon. But she was too close. He couldn’t risk it.

He faulted.

And slipped.

The thundering crack of the gunshot reverberated through the forest and he fell. In an instant, his view went from his worst nightmare to the grey sky, bilious with swollen clouds.

There was the tear of the fabric at his arm, the shred of his skin underneath, the zing of his nerves as they registered the destruction, the attempt of his brain to compute the information through the chaos.

His back hit the earth. His breath shot out of his chest. He grunted through the agony, the shock, the confusion.

Kira was screaming. It pulled him from his second of reprieve. He rolled, desperate. He gagged, he wheezed, he coughed.

The truck’s engine revved. Nick pulled himself up to his knees. His hand, free of weapon and hope reached out to the vehicle, to Kira, as the back door slammed closed and the truck lurched forward.

Nick screamed her name, his voice was not his own. Hoarse, horrified, despairing. Christ, she was being taken from them. Their beautiful little living fairy, the embodiment of bravery and perfection, of courage and love. One of the last women on this earth, maybe the last woman untainted by the horrors of the new world, was about to vanish before his eyes. If they lost her, the odds of holding her again were minuscule. But the probability of her hurt beyond repair was undefinable in its significance. Nick struggled to his feet and screamed for her again.

His gun lost, his body trembled, Nick staggered forward on unresponsive feet …

Just as Euan dashed past him.

He

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