The Earth's End by Tara Brown

Author:Tara Brown [Brown, Tara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781688601680
Publisher: Tara Brown
Published: 2019-08-29T16:00:00+00:00

19

Watching Kyle sleep makes me tired. I want to close my eyes and fall into the dreamworld where he is. Truthfully, what I really want is for this to all be a dream. I want to wake up to Furgus hogging my bed and Joey coming in early to tell me Dad’s home and he’s made waffles. I want my mom to be working at the counter, eating her waffles silently.

Alive.

I want them both to be alive.

But that is just a dream.

And this, watching Kyle drift off into a beautiful slumber, is the reality. It took him forever to fall asleep. He grilled me relentlessly about the Liam tranquilizer thing. I had to talk him out of going and killing Liam right then and there. Because it wouldn't have been Liam dying. If Liam were easy to kill, Dr. Jacquard would have done that already.

I slip from the bed, tiptoeing to the window to see the moon rising over the weirdly barren hills. There are trees, but it just isn’t how I imagined Canada. It isn’t lush or damp or snowy. It’s dry and arid and there are fields and rolling hills as far as the eye can see. Small clusters of trees dot the hills, but they’re nothing compared to what I imagined was here.

My heart wants to race as I slide the window up, making small noises, but my bots lower my heart rate and keep me calm. Giving Kyle and his slowly rising and falling chest one more look, I climb out the window onto the weirdly peaked rooftop of the tower where we’re sleeping. It’s a completed part of the castle.

Liam went on and on about it at dinner. We ate roasted venison and boiled potatoes and homemade soda bread. The meal was outstanding, as they always are with him, but the company was tense and fake and even Leah’s sweet and smiling face couldn't lighten my mood.

Or Liam’s. He was excited to see her, calmed even. But it changed nothing for him. He showed them his entire evil plan, told them of his ideas. He was the pied piper of zombies and bots, filling their heads with ideas.

By the end of the meal, he had Miles “convinced of the truth” in his words. Everyone else seemed a bit shell-shocked.

They were even more shocked to watch Miles and Lee nod along like puppets, the same as I did when I first heard it. He is amazing at sales, I have to give Liam that.

My bare feet grip the wooden shakes on the roof as I crawl down to the next roofline. Trying not to make any noise isn’t easy when jumping from one part of the ridge to the next, but I do my best until my feet finally land with a thud on the cold grass.

A sound makes me turn, seeing Leah land behind me.

“What are you doing?”

“I don't know,” she says, glimpsing behind her. “I just had a feeling I should follow you.”

“How did you even know I was leaving?”

“I don't know!” she whispers harshly.

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.