End Game by Susan Kiernan-Lewis

Author:Susan Kiernan-Lewis
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Susan Kiernan-Lewis
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

41

John stared at the ship and tried to process what he was seeing.

“Mate!” Tommy hissed at him. “The ship’s leaving?”

“I thought you said your people would wait until dawn!” Jenna said to John, throwing up her hands in frustration.

“They did what they felt they needed to,” John said tightly. But his heart was pounding in panic.

“You heard the explosions,” Tommy said to Jenna. “They were being shot to shite. I would’ve done the same thing.”

Shaking himself out of his shock, John made his way over to Regan.

“We need to go back to the ravine,” John said. “The ship—”

“I saw it. But that doesn’t change the fact that we still need that launch.”

“Doesn’t it make more sense to forget the launch and just go inland?” John said. “It’ll be worth our lives to try for the launch.”

“Maybe,” Regan said grimly before signaling to the others to turn around. The group made its way silently back to the ravine.

Each slid back into place at the bottom of the crevice.

The smell of blood and decomposing flesh rose up around them like a living thing. John fought down the impulse to gag as soon as they were once more standing or crouching on top of the lumpy bundles of loosely wrapped corpses beneath their feet.

“I need to think,” Regan said, her face streaked with dirt and blood.

John still had no idea what she had been through in the last twelve hours.

He turned to Jim Truman. “How did you guys get here?”

Truman ran a hand through his hair.

“Long story. I’ll let Tommy tell you his part,” Jim said, “but as for how we left Ishnert, that happened four days ago. We thought we could catch up to you guys so we gassed up the Ishnert launch and headed out.”

“You came after the Iolar na Mara?” John said with surprise and then realized they must have left just hours before everyone on Ishnert was exterminated by Commander Emmett.

John decided that was not information Jim needed to know. At least not yet.

“We hadn’t been gone twenty-four hours when we got hit by a mad bastard of a storm,” Jenna said.

“Before that we’d actually spotted the Iolar na Mara,” Tommy said. “We were sure we’d catch you by dinner time.”

“Were you going in circles or just waiting for us to catch up?” Jim asked John.

“We’re none of us sailors,” John said defensively. He turned to Tommy. “So you got caught in the storm?”

“Aye,” Tommy said. “When it hit we tried for shore.”

“We made it too. It was a miracle we weren’t sunk,” Jenna added.

“And that’s when the cannibals got you?”

“Yeah,” Jim said. “We’ve been in that shed for nearly two days.”

John leaned over and put his hand on Gavin’s knee.

“Hey, Gav, there’s a lot of people on that ship who are going to be really happy to see you.”

Gavin looked at John and smiled.

“I think he remembers you,” Jenna said. “He normally doesn’t like to be touched.”

Regan pulled out her arrows and examined them before tucking them back again in the sheath she carried on her 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.