(eng) Michael Buckley - Undertow 03 by Heart of the Storm

Author:Heart of the Storm [Storm, Heart of the]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

We stayed on the island for days, taking the full force of a brutal storm. It blasted us mercilessly, and without trees, the wind and rain hammered our bodies. Thunder boomed. Lightning zapped the sea. My ears were battered by the endless howl, and I was nearly blind from the downpour.

Eventually, the storm lost its fury, only to be replaced by a cruel sun. It cooked us all day long, until I wished the storm would return. Then the winds came up off the ocean. They cooled us, but acted like a sumo wrestler, trying to push us off the rock.

“I said you were the prime, which is a responsibility to lead. You cannot lead if you are not present.”

I looked out at “my empire.” They were seventy strong—no, sixty-eight after I fed two of them to the sharks. Even if I had wanted this responsibility I had to admit how pathetic it seemed. Sixty-eight individuals do not make an empire. You could get more people on the Wonder Wheel.

“I’m going home,” I said. “You can’t follow me.”

“You will need us in your war with the Tardigrade.”

“Tardigrade?”

“Those that live inside the Great Abyss. They have declared war on us all. You heard their plans. They want to destroy anyone who is disconnected from their hive mind. Only the two of us are safe from the slaughter. We will have to fight them.”

“I haven’t even graduated from high school,” I shouted into the sky. “I can’t lead a war, and with what army, Husk? We should run from this—”

“Forgive me for contradicting you, Your Majesty—”

“Oh, don’t give me that Your Majesty crap.”

“Running is not an option. We will go to your people and rally them. They must be prepared to defend the surface world. It would be wise of us to assemble the remaining Alpha who live among them as well.”

“Husk, you don’t get it. I can’t rally my people. I’m the most hated person on the planet. No one is going to listen to me. They’re going to shoot me. What am I supposed to say to them? Hey, everybody, we need to work together, oh, and here’s my little army of monsters who were killing and eating people a few months ago, but that’s just water under the bridge.”

Husk bristled. “Only those who visited the Great Abyss many times went mad enough to eat flesh.”

“You went in.”

“Twice, once to save your life,” he said. “Not exactly something a monster might do.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “That wasn’t kind of me, but you have to understand, to the rest of the world, you and I are monsters. Husk, you and your people should do exactly what I plan to do after I find my family and friends. Find some boring-ass place in the middle of nowhere and stay as far away from the beach as you possibly can.”

“With all due respect, Your Majesty, your plan is naive,” he said, his voice rising with anger. “The Tardigrade will march across your world until it is cleansed.

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