Fractured Earth (Ascension Wars Book 3) by Jasper T. Scott

Author:Jasper T. Scott [Scott, Jasper T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Anthem Press
Published: 2020-07-09T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25

“Mom, I’m thirsty...” Dora whined.

“Me, too,” Nova said. The cicadas buzzed ceaselessly around them, grating on Samara’s nerves. More distantly, frogs croaked in the pebbly, grass-lined trough that used to be a river delta. Maybe it still was, but only when it rained.

“They’ll be back soon,” Samara reassured the girls. She noticed that the bloodstains on Dora’s bandage were darker and redder than before. She was tempted to unwrap the bandage and see what was going on, but without Doc here and medical supplies to redress the wound, that could be a bad idea. It was probably just from all of the recent activity and excitement pushing up Dora’s blood pressure and making her wound bleed.

Regardless, Samara was no longer worried about a possible infection. Dora was still symptom free and it had been more than half a day since she’d been bitten. Everyone in the Med Center last night had been showing symptoms after just a few hours, so Dora had to be immune.

“Maybe I should go after them,” Nova said. “It’s been a while...” She twisted around to look at their hoverbike. They’d parked it between a pair of ash trees and covered it with leaves and grass—just in case they ran into trouble with other exiles. Samara wasn’t sure if the Enclave was the only group out here, but she didn’t want to make any assumptions that could get them into trouble.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Samara said.

“You can’t make me stay.”

“Maybe not. But you’re better with a gun than I am, and if you leave, something could happen to us while you’re gone.”

Nova gave up with a sigh and began restlessly plucking up the blades of grass around her legs.

They sat in the shade of a thicket of scraggly trees beside an old road that ran parallel to the highway. The highway bridge that was supposed to be their rendezvous was just in front of them, on the other side of the road. Samara peered through the concrete pillars of the bridge to a sparkling slice of the lake that Sergeant Sutton had mentioned. Her mouth ached with the thought of all that fresh water lying right in front of them. They hadn’t brought much in the way of provisions, and most of what they had brought was in the back of the hauler. Sutton had claimed that they’d be able to drink and eat to their hearts’ content in the Enclave. They’d taken him at his word, but now Samara realized that the wait for that proverbial land of plenty could be much longer than she’d first assumed.

As soon as they’d arrived at the rendezvous, Sutton had sent Pyro and Harold back to check on the others who were bringing up the rear in the hauler. Meanwhile, he and Lori had left for the Enclave to formally accept the invitation to join the community. Samara wasn’t sure she understood the politics involved, but for some reason Sutton was hesitant about showing up on their doorstep unannounced, and to Samara, that spoke volumes about the situation.

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