Struggle For Existence (The Preservation of Species Book 2) by Geoff Jones

Author:Geoff Jones [Jones, Geoff]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Breakaway Delusions
Published: 2025-06-24T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-Five

Every muscle in Sierra’s body tensed as she looked down into the alien bunker. “We have to stop him,” she whispered.

Randall was back in the village.

He was at one of the work tables, doing something with a strange orange object that appeared to be made from two halves of a sphere.

The view pulled away and rose twenty feet in the air, which meant the camera must be on a caretaker sled, probably cloaked, because Randall didn’t seem to realize he was being filmed. As the camera panned, several pods came into view, sitting in the fields. Sierra closed her eyes, exhaling. The villagers were all safe in those pods. They had to be.

She opened her eyes and realized she was wrong.

Randall walked past the fire pit, where Morrie lay on his back, a gaping hole in his chest. Sierra pressed a hand to her mouth, grief tightening her throat. Beside her, Priya’s breathing hitched.

She wished Cameron had killed that piece of shit. She wished she could kill him herself. Poor sweet Morrie. He’d been trying so hard.

Priya clasped her arm, eyes wide. “Let’s sneak away.” Her voice was nearly inaudible. “We need a plan.”

Sierra shook her head, rage burning hot in her blood. There wasn’t time to come up with a plan. Not while Randall was in the village. He’d killed Morrie. Nothing would stop him from killing the others, if he hadn’t already.

Rising to one knee, she grabbed her stone and jumped into the pit, floating across half the space. She landed behind the alien.

Several lights above the creature flickered onto Sierra’s face and the village reappeared in front of her, becoming almost three dimensional, right there in the pit. Randall looked close enough to touch.

The alien rumbled, loud and angry.

Sierra shielded her eyes from the light beams with one hand, which broke Randall’s image into slivers.

“That man is dangerous. He will harm you. Tell them to knock him out right now.”

The alien unfolded two of its spider-like limbs and reached for the opposite sides of its carriage, toward the stun controls. Sierra’s heart skipped. It was going to knock her out instead.

A clawed brown finger unfurled at the end of each limb. Sierra lunged forward and brought her stone down on the little cat’s paw control, breaking off the mechanism with a snap. A wisp of smoke floated up, carrying the chemical smell of burning plastic.

The alien produced a deep rumbling sound like a semi passing on the freeway.

“You have to hear me out,” Sierra said. “We aren’t the same as your other specimens.”

“Human specimens interfere.”

“That’s right. That’s because we’re intelligent, like you. We developed culture and technology. We need to be in control of our own destiny. We don’t belong in your wildlife preserve.”

“Agreed.”

Sierra took a deep breath. Finally, she was getting somewhere.

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