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He slowed his pace. Soon you will see. What kind of answer was that? He glanced back over his shoulder at the tree house, then to the crew.
Derek was back, giving him death stares as he walked only feet behind Eva. Did she welcome Derek’s advances? Krieger made a mental note to find out.
Krieger took a deep breath and tilted his head to the sun still high in the sky. Sweat trickled down the sides of his face and beaded on his forehead. No doubt this would be a long day.
By the time the sun was close to setting, his clothes were soaked in moisture. His wound throbbed with heat, begging for him to stop. But he kept moving, flanking Eva on her right, determined to keep Derek at a distance.
They continued their descent, alternating between rocky slopes and heavy brush. Her feet moved over the ground with a stamina not even he possessed. Maybe it was because he’d just been injured, or it was possible she made this trek often.
They moved across a ridge where only a few yellow flowers still bloomed. Their perfumed scent settled on the air, lightening the mood.
The crew continued in silence, reserving their energies for other ambitions. Some scanned the area countless times. What was out there that they deemed so dangerous?
Soon the boulder-covered terrain softened into a flat plain of grass. The clouds thinned and darkened; the wind kicked up. A storm looming.
Eva looked to the sky and sniffed the air. “Rain is coming. We need to move faster. We’ll camp just ahead.”
When she glanced at him, her eyes scanning his movements as he walked, he nodded. She approached him with a catlike grace and said, “Are you all right, you seem—”
“I’m fine.” He was in pain and in need of a rest, but he didn’t want her pointing it out.
He removed his canteen from his bag and took a hard pull on the water, then poured some of the liquid over his face.
Eva still studied his features. She didn’t believe him. How did she see right through him?
“Come, there’s something I want to show you,” Eva said as she turned away from him.
Krieger was just about to stow his canteen when his shoulder jerked hard. Derek pushed past him, giving him a hard look. Krieger matched his stare, hoping to send a silent warning not to do that again.
Sarah followed Derek, glancing at Krieger as she walked past him, gracing him with a sympathetic smile. No doubt she witnessed Derek slamming his shoulder into him.
Krieger finished packing the canteen, then approached the edge of a grassy knoll, where the crew began to slow. He stepped to Eva’s side, studying her features, before following her gaze.
His reflex was immediate. He staggered backward, taking hold of Eva’s shoulder to bring her with him.
Chapter 4
A cliff with at least a four-story drop lay only a few short feet from the tip of his boot. Beyond that was a black hole of destruction as far as the eye could see—torn-down buildings, twisted metal, charred wood, overturned cars, and broken-up pavement.
The smell of burning wood and rot assaulted his nose even from this distance.
No life grew here, not even weeds. Mud covered the ground. Trees were broken off at the trunks, revealing only sharpened wood points.
As they all stood on the edge of the cliff taking everything in, a rogue tarp flapped in the wind, and a scream rang out in the distance, followed by a gunshot. In the distance, a car alarm sounded, glass shattered, and a dog barked.
Are the Others out there? Krieger wondered.
He still held her shoulder but with less tension in his grip. “What caused this?”
“Mother Nature and humans.” She paused, then said, “It happened slowly. The deterioration of the world we knew. When the scientists warned of global warming’s negative effects on climate, no one listened. Nothing was done to change our ways, even when the storms began to worsen all over this planet. Not when our winters lasted eight months out of the year, or even when the tsunamis took out the coastal cities and the fires wiped out the west. My village, we banded together. We were lucky for the most part, for a long time.”
She sighed. “We hoped the world would return to normal. Until it all finally caught up to us here.” She tilted her head to the ground. “It was as if Mother Nature was on a crusade to beat humanity to a pulp.” She laughed. “Payback, maybe, for centuries of polluting and mistreating the earth. I was nine years old the night the ground began to shake. The earth opened up and tried to tear down the walls around me. My parents half carried me, half dragged me kicking and screaming to the closet. We only emerged when the rumbling stopped. Then we walked out into the street.”
She stared at the devastation with cold features. Krieger saw the quiver at the corner of her lip, the glassiness in her eyes, and heard the hoarseness in her voice. Eva swallowed hard. “We saw them then.”
“Them?”
She nodded. “The tornadoes. The sky fell upon us with a vengeance, ripping up the land and everything on it. My father hurried us back into the house. It sounded like an airplane had landed just outside our door. Everything fell around us. Hours later, we dug out with our bare hands.”
