The Human Forged by Anthony J Melchiorri

Author:Anthony J Melchiorri [Melchiorri, Anthony J]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Thunderbird Media
Published: 2014-09-04T04:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Three

Nick cupped his hands and yelled out at the passing truck as James tackled him.

“How do you know it’s American?”

“I recognize the truck.” He stood from the patch of fallen limbs and entangling plants. Brushing himself off, he said, “Come on, before it’s out of earshot.”

“No. It might be an American truck, but how do you know that Americans are in that truck? The trucks at the camp were German and English, right? So why couldn’t these people also have American vehicles?”

His heart plummeted through the ground. He stood on the side of the road. The truck’s lights faded behind a shroud of trees. They might not have been Americans. But even if James was right, Nick could not bear the idea that he might have let their potential saviors drive on. “We’ve got to follow it.”

“Do you think that’s wise?”

Snapping around, he took a step forward and signaled at the clone to follow. He readjusted his pack over a shoulder as he trudged after the truck. “If it is American, they’ll get us the hell out of here. And if it isn’t, it’s leading us somewhere where other people might be. That could be our ticket out of here.”

James caught up and walked beside Nick. “And if they lead us right back to our captors? What then?”

“We’ll be careful.” He patted his rifle.

James spat on the ground. “I’m more and more sure that they did have to engineer logic into us. It didn’t come from your genes.”

They followed the tire tracks. Nick thought he could smell rain in the air from distant clouds lumbering over their heads. He hoped the downpour would hold out long enough for them to find the American vehicle.

The more they walked without conversation, the more the sounds around him seemed familiar. He recognized the buzz of insects and the distant calls of nocturnal animals hidden in the forest’s canopy. The trees with their winding trunks and hanging vines sparked a distant memory. Remembering his first night awake from the sleeping chambers in the cloning facility, he thought back to the Congo Resistance Movement officer. With the sighting of the American truck, maybe he did know where they were.

“I think we might be somewhere in the Congo rainforest.”

“Really? You think you know where we should go, then?”

“Not exactly. When I was fighting in the Congo, the borders of the country and the safe zones constantly shifted. I have no idea what the situation is like now.” Nick picked up his hobbling pace and ignored the shudders of pain in his thigh. “But that might also explain the American truck.”

“And we don’t know if that was stolen or if it’s actually American, so don’t get your hopes up.” James’s expression appeared dour, his posture limp. He lagged behind.

“We won’t know until we see for ourselves.”

Lightning flashed, illuminating the forest’s canopy and reflecting off leaves wet with dew deposited by the humid air. Thunder rolled by moments later. In response to the din, a creature howled. Several more cries joined it.

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.