Foamers by Justin Kassab

Author:Justin Kassab
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic, Action & Adventure, Dystopian, Fiction
ISBN: 9781617752605
Publisher: Akashic Books
Published: 2014-01-14T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER X

CLEANING HOUSE

___________

Grace sat against the roof with her eyes closed. Her breathing was slow and even. Kade stood, surveying the pink hues of the morning. He didn’t want to wake her; a long day awaited her. Besides, he had enough on his mind.

Victoria had chosen to leave with strangers instead of staying with the cohort. Kade retraced everything that had happened between him and Victoria from the beginning, when Damian had first brought her to meet the family. Right from the start, Kade and Victoria had been as compatible as a rhinoceros and a redwood. It wasn’t that they didn’t get along; they just got along better when left to their own habitats. She continually looked down on him for his anger and lack of motivation, which in turn made him lash out at her vanity and dependency on others. Their relationship was a tense truce, where Damian was always asking each of them—without telling the other one—to watch what they said. That tension carried into the Primal Age, and Kade had treated Victoria like a worthless egghead when he should have been treating her like their greatest long-term asset. No one else in the group could do anything about the foamers on a medical level.

Now he was stuck hoping that Damian would ride in like a white knight and save the day. He couldn’t help but wonder, had he been willing to have her conversation, would she have stayed. He wished he knew what she wanted to tell him. Letting her go had been a mistake.

He wondered if he’d made the wrong choice by refusing to join the Tribe. They’d promised protection and food, and that was already more than he could offer. He felt arrogant for having made an executive decision, as if his opinion mattered more than anyone else’s. Tiny insisted that he was the leader, but he didn’t feel like it was his right to make that choice for all of them. Victoria had probably made the right choice. So far, he had gotten Lucas killed; lost X and Ashton; and now Victoria had deserted them. From his original group, he had three people left. Half of the people he was charged with protecting were gone.

He wished he knew if Ashton and X were alive or dead. At least then he could put his desire to search for them to rest. He lifted the rifle scope to his eye and made one last scan of Houghton’s campus. He stopped when he came to the bridge where Tiny had encountered the foamers. Taking his eye away from the scope, he rubbed his eyelid. He tried to tell his body he wasn’t tired, but every muscle was sluggish.

Another sunrise without Ashton.

Kade put his eye back to the scope. The female foamer was right where they’d left her, but the big hoss was missing. He leaned the rifle against the corner of the roof and pulled the walkie from his belt.

“Tiny. Roof, please,” he said.

By the time he

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