The Apocalypse Five (Archive of the Five Book 1) by Stacey Rourke

Author:Stacey Rourke [Rourke, Stacey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Anchor Group Publishing
Published: 2019-11-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Houston took the stairs two at a time, bounding from level to level of the ship as fast as his feet could carry him. Each breath forced from his lungs burned with a stinging regret he couldn’t escape. Shoving open a screeching metal door, he was thrust out into the icy night air. Hands on his knee, Houston screamed his throat raw. Still, he couldn’t capture a flicker of relief from the guilt tormenting him.

Balling his hands into fists, he punched the iron wall of the ship. The strike resonated with a metallic clang from the shuddering sheet metal. Again and again, he slammed his fists into it until his knuckles were bloody and the wall was dented.

Having followed him out, Detroit hung back. She knew all too well that driving need for physical exertion to distract from the pain of the moment. Crossing her arms over her chest to fend off the cold, she waited.

Houston saw her out of the corner of his eye but didn’t stop until the blood flowed from his fists and rained down on the desk. Letting his hands fall to his sides, his shoulders sagged with crushing defeat. “Do you know what this means?”

Detroit wet her lips and nodded, hoping to spare him the agony of uttering the words out loud.

If he saw her gesture, he was too far into his emotional flogging to acknowledge it. “It means what I thought I saw on that very first mission was true. I didn’t trust it. Thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, or it was part of the simulation I didn’t understand being a newbie. But no. Every single humanoid I have seen killed since then, that I thought was just another blip in a training mockup, was a real person! A landbound human who looked up to me and was counting on me to keep them safe. How did they do it, Dee? How did they make us and the earthbounds appear as humanoids to each other? How is that even possible?”

Closing the gap between them, Detroit reached for his hands to inspect his wounds. “Unlike this blood, the rest is not on your hands alone. Every single one of us have been a fatal disease on these people, without even knowing it.”

“But I had to know! Didn’t I? In some small way, I had to.” As Houston’s voice raised to a panicked octave, Detroit pressed a finger to his lips to quiet him.

“How could you?” Her brows lifted, challenging his downward spiral with reason. “You said it yourself, it was your first mission. You didn’t know what was happening, or what to expect. The powers that be aboard the starship lied to us. All of us. We found out, and that’s why we were banished.”

Chest swelling with purpose, Houston’s nostrils flared. “I have to tell the Floaters. They have to know the truth of who we are and what we’ve done.”

He was skirting around her when Detroit caught his arm and held him back.

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.