The Perfect Moment in Peril (The Perfect Moment Trilogy, Book 2) by Kenneth Preston

Author:Kenneth Preston [Preston, Kenneth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-08-28T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25

I won't lose you. I lost them, but I won't lose you.

Their footfalls and their frantic breathing were the only sounds in the vacuum of silence. If they were capable of speaking at that moment, neither of them would have dared. What would they have said? What would she have said that would have elicited a response capable of either shaking or strengthening her resolve. She was in the zone. Her mission in that moment, her only mission, was clear―find Deanna.

Thank goodness for the regenerative medicine coursing through their bodies. It gave them that extra kick when their muscles wanted to scream NO MORE! If it weren't for regenerative medicine, the significantly older Richard might have been left in the dust. She snuck a glance in his direction. He was chugging along next to her like a trooper. Good! She would need him.

They managed to run full-steam through the short stretch of forest and up the embankment without tripping. Reaching the city's edge, they stopped. Richard bent forward, planted his hands on his thighs and dipped his head. He needed a moment to catch his breath which was just fine with Elexa considering the scene before her.

Gloom and doom would be an understatement. The city looked as if it had been hit by a hurricane or a tornado or a tsunami or an earthquake or all of the above...simultaneously. A series of rectangular black stone structures, the tallest being no higher than three stories high, stretched off into the darkness. The city was in ruins. Some of the structures had partially collapsed; some had completely collapsed, leaving just the base of the structure and mounds of black rubble strewn about. Many of the structures that remained upright were cracked and leaning one way or the other as if just about ready to give up the fight.

In the distance, she observed, what appeared to be, partially collapsed former skyscrapers. The tops were mangled. Severed beams jutted up from the stone, leaning this way and that. Large chunks of stone dangled from the sides of some of the buildings as if just waiting for a strong wind to knock them loose and send them plummeting to their final destination on the ground below.

She looked to Richard, still struggling to catch his breath. Perhaps regenerative medicine wasn't quite as miraculous as she had been led to believe.

Tapping his shoulder, she said, “Richard, you might want to look up.”

Richard stood and took in the scene before him. He furrowed his brow. His mouth hung open.

“What the hell happened here?!” he exclaimed.

“Everything. Everything happened here.”

“It's a disaster area.”

“Understatement of the millennium, papa.”

“What a mess.”

"Right, and our crewmate, a member of our family...my partner, is lost in this mess.”

Her first open acknowledgment of her relationship with Deanna was accidental. She just blurted it out. If she had blurted it out under better circumstances, she would have felt relieved to have kicked that ridiculous closed door wide open. But these weren't better circumstances; these were frightening

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