Sage squeezed her coffee cup and relaxed her grip. “I know. And I should have seen through it. I should have known things were worse than what they let on.” She shook her head and scoffed softly. “But I was too busy living my life to care about much else. I was too busy, and now I carry the burden of my mother’s premature death upon my shoulders.”
Moe sat still as the wind kicked up in a sigh.
Sage looked askance at him. “Aren’t you going to tell me how it wasn’t my fault and how I shouldn’t blame myself.”
“We create our own burdens,” he shrugged. “And sometimes they come to define who we are.”
“Perhaps we shouldn’t let our burdens define us anymore.”
Moe nodded. The simplicity of Sage’s words made such obvious sense that his own guilt faded. He rested his hand over hers and squeezed. He leaned closer to attempt a kiss when an engine roared in the distance.
He leapt up and leaned out over the deck rail, peering around the back of his house as a familiar pickup truck roared down his dirt road.
“It’s Rex.” Moe’s voice lifted with relief. He resented the interrupted kiss, but he’d saved him from a potentially embarrassing moment.
Sage sprung from her seat and followed him through the house. Standing on the front porch, Moe put his hand up to shield his eyes from the sun as Rex pulled his pickup in front of the house. He climbed out of his truck, and Casey Harvey got out of the passenger side while the basketball team captain, Josiah Cooper, jumped down from the truck bed.
Moe met the trio down in his yard, holding out his hand for Rex. “Hello, my friends. It’s good to see you are safe.”
“Hey!” Rex grinned and clasped Moe’s arm.
Casey flew in and leapt into his arms. “You made it out of that hell!”
“Good to see you, Casey. Where is your little one?”
“Lina is with my parents in the caves,” Casey responded as she backed away.
Moe looked back and forth between Rex and Casey. “So, everyone made it to the caves?”
Rex nodded enthusiastically. “Everyone in town got away into the canyons and caves, and thanks to the elders’ quick thinking, they have ample supplies for some time.”
“Excellent,” Moe said. “We’ll join them soon.
“What about Dr. Reemer and her people?” Sage asked. “We can’t just leave them behind.”
“Let them perish with the rest of their kind,” Josiah said, and he spat on the ground.
“That is no way to act,” Moe pointed to the basketball captain. “While I understand your anger, there may be good people alive in the camp who need to be saved.”
Josiah’s angry gaze moved between all of them. “They can kill themselves off for all I care.” The boy stomped back to the truck wearing a frown.
Rex leaned closer. “As we drove by town, we saw the Wildcat Den burning down. It would have been his senior year. He had a scholarship to play for Arizona State next season.”
“I understand his anger,” Moe said with a solemn nod. “But if we don’t hear from Dr. Reemer by evening, we’ll go look for her.”
Chapter 24
Jessie Talby, Yellow Springs, Ohio
Jessie stood at the entrance to Paul’s lab with the controller in hand, watching the radio drone screen as four soldiers strode from Burke’s bus and moved toward their location. The lead soldier was a short woman with a tinted visor like a black shield against the midday sun.
“They’re not even trying to hide,” she said.
“Why would they?” Bryant asked from where he stood next to her. “They know we’re basically undefended.”
The figures disappeared beneath a copse of trees and didn’t come out the other side. Jessie flicked the controls and sent the drone into a slow turn.
“I lost them,” she said, focusing on the screen. “They disappeared into some trees.”
Jessie elevated the flier and rotated the camera downward. She found the soldiers again thirty yards down the road, staring up at her. The short woman stood with her feet shoulder width apart and the barrel of her rifle pointed up at the drone.
Before Jessie could fly away, the rifle jumped, and the drone kicked. She squeaked in surprise as the drone jerked into a wild tailspin and crashed to the ground. Ten seconds later, someone picked up the broken machine and turned it around. Jessie and Bryant found themselves staring into the black visor, and a smile flashed behind it before the camera blew to pieces and turned her screen to white noise.
Jessie gaped. “She shot our drone.”
“That’s our signal to get back inside,” Bryant said. He slung his rifle over his shoulder and hobbled over to pick up his crutch where it leaned against Paul’s front door. Then he placed his hand over the security scanner to open the door. “They’ll be here soon.”
She followed Bryant inside, and together they moved through the decontamination area to the lounge where she left the drone controller on the tea counter. From there, they took the spiraling stairs down into the commons area where Paul shoved his prized records into the closet with all the games and knick knacks from the walls. The mycologist’s top half leaned inside.
Bryant reached out with the end of his crutch and nudged Paul on the rump. “They’re almost here, Paul. We need to go.”
The older man grumbled as he backed out of the closet, shutting and locking the deadbolt with a key. “They better not touch my stuff,” Paul said, shoving the key deep into his pocket.
“They won’t touch it,” Bryant assured him. “But they might blow it up.”
They pressed forward through the garden hall. Bryant stayed behind to connect trip wires to several pairs of grenades interspersed at key points while Jessie and Paul went to the lab and retrieved the antigen freezers.
Paul paused and fixed her with a firm look of warning. “We cannot drop these freezers. If my lab is compromised, I’ll have no way to recreate the antigens. Your hands might cramp, or you might bump a corner of a rack. Eat the pain and keep going, okay?”
“Got it.” Jessie said.
They moved the heavy freezers onto manual push carts and rolled them to the server room. Then they stood on both sides of the first freezer and lifted it off the cart after a three count. They carried it into the server room, and Jessie backed into one of the thin rows. Because of the floor plating and closeness of the racks, they hadn’t been able to fit any of the pushcarts through, forcing them to carry large items through by hand.
“You could have built the rows wider,” Jessie squeezed the words through clenched teeth.
“Flaw in my planning,” Paul grunted. “Fungi was supposed to be a hobby, not the cornerstone of my business. And I certainly couldn’t imagine I’d use it to cure the world.”
“Life happens, right?”
They reached the opposite door. Paul had propped it open, so Jessie backed into the long service tunnel where they placed the freezer on the motorized cart.
“One down,” Paul said with a satisfied nod.
“Are we leaving soon?” Fiona asked. The girl sat with her back against the wall, still watching old cartoons on the DVD when she wasn’t asking questions.
“Almost,” Jessie replied. “We’ve got one more freezer to move, then we’re going to Paul’s house.”
“I thought this was his house.”
“Nope.” She shook her head and shot Paul a wink. “Paul doesn’t live down here like some weird basement dweller.”
“I’m more like a hobbit,” Paul said as he led Jessie back to the lab. “Basement dweller sounds too Gollum-ish.”
She chuckled, happy to burn off some of her nervousness by chiding Paul. They retrieved the last freezer and moved it to the service tunnel, placing it on the motorized cart next to the other.
She stood straight and stretched her arms before turning to Paul. “I’ll go check on Bryant.”
“Take this flashlight. Tell him I’m killing the generators.”
“Right.”
&
nbsp; Jessie took the flashlight from Paul and made her way back to the garden hall. She found Bryant standing in the middle with his head tilted to the side.
“What are you listening for?”
A faint explosion shook the floor, and dust drifted down from the ceiling.
“That.” The soldier grabbed his crutch where it rested on one of the low garden walls and leaned his weight on it. “Can you grab the weapons bag?”
“Yeah.” Jessie replied. She picked up the heavy duffel, grunting as she slung it over her shoulder.
As they retreated, the garden lights died, leaving the hall illuminated with fluorescent fungi moss with purple and green glows.
“It’s beautiful,” Jessie whispered as she flipped on her flashlight.
She shuffled behind Bryant as he hobbled along, stopping behind a curved part of the garden wall that protruded several feet into the hall.
“I’ll position here and hold them off.” The lieutenant colonel gestured for Jessie to drop the pack. He handed her a handgun and several clips. “You get moving. I’ll be right behind you.”
“Can’t you hold them off in the service tunnel?”
He shook his head. “If they get past the grenade traps, I’ve got an even better one waiting for them.” The soldier grinned. “I rigged two C4 explosive charges. If I can lure them in, I’ll get them all.”
Flashlight beams cut through the darkness from the commons area, cutting through the stunning fungal glow like white knives.
“Boom boom,” Jessie nodded. “Good luck.”
The soldier nodded and crouched behind the wall with his rifle by his side. His hip injury slowed him down, though he was no less deadly. Jessie killed her flashlight and moved toward the server room, hugging the wall to avoid enemy eyes.
She reached the server room and passed through to the other side where Fiona and Paul waited for them. Paul stood at the cart’s control rail with his hand resting on a joystick, and Fiona sat atop one of the equipment cases with the DVD player folded in her lap.
“Ready to go?” Fiona said, still wearing Paul’s glasses.
Jessie gave a quiet nod to Paul, and the man manipulated the joystick so the cart pulled forward with a low engine whine. The emergency lights cut down on their visibility, bathing the long, straight tunnel in shadows.
They ascended a slight incline with the first muffled explosion sounding behind them.
She closed her eyes. “How long until we get to your place?”
“It’s about a quarter of a mile.” Paul’s voice edged up as he glanced over his shoulder. “For my conservation efforts, the park authorities gave me a permit to build the tunnel so I wouldn’t have to walk outside to reach the lab. Truth be told, I only used it during the winter. It made moving equipment easier in the old days, and all my friends thought the tunnel was fantastic.
Gunfire rattled the air behind them with a single burst in reply. Another explosion rocked the air before things fell silent once more. Jessie stopped in the tunnel and swallowed, gripping her gun tight.
“I’m going back,” she said.
“You can’t.” Paul said. “We need you here. Fiona needs you here.”
“I’m sorry,” Jessie turned back toward the server room. “But if we don’t stop them in the garden, we’re as good as dead anyway.”
She broke into a jog and reached the server room in less than twenty seconds. Pausing at the door, she listened for sounds. Rifle fire split the silence, causing her to jerk back. Taking a chance, she charged inside and hid behind a rack.
“It’s four against one!” a woman shouted from the other end of the hall. Jessie assumed it was the one who’d shot down her drone. “Give up now, soldier, and we’ll let you live!” The woman’s tone held a note of condescension.
“There’s only three of you now!” Bryant shot back, followed by a quick burst of rifle fire. “Sounds like good odds to me!”
“It was a tricky trip wire,” the woman replied with flat anger. “It won’t happen again. Last chance!”
Jessie sneaked to the edge of the server rack and slid up to the door. She peered down the garden hall to see Bryant huddled behind the curve of wall where she’d left him.
Three shadows stalked down the hall, illuminated by the mossy garden glow. The first approached on Bryant’s side while the other two skirted the garden wall on the right. They’d be in the soldier’s line of fire in a moment, though the lieutenant colonel had his head down, messing with something in his lap.
Jessie closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her next move might get her killed, but she couldn’t allow them to shoot Bryant, not after all they’d been through.
With a calm exhale, Jessie stepped into the doorway and raised her pistol, aiming at the two on the right. She squeezed off two rounds and then another, hitting the wall at least once to send the two fighters leaping back with surprised cries.
Bryant threw his eyes in Jessie’s direction before he leaned out to glimpse the two she’d fired upon. She took aim at the woman on the left, but the woman had a bead on Jessie and fired a burst of rounds. The wall exploded next to her, and something pinched her shoulder. Jessie spun and hit the floor, throwing her arms over her head just as a larger explosion tore through the garden hall.
A dark cloud shot down the chamber like a cannon, followed by the sound of crumbling rock and then silence. She lay in a gray cloud, her eyes squinted tight as she breathed sparingly, only to choke on the dust, anyway.
She heard someone else coughing, and it sounded like Bryant.
Jessie used the door frame to climb to her feet, peering ahead. After waiting for the dust to settle, she staggered into the garden hall, still illuminated by the remaining luminescent fungi.
A pile of rock had crashed inward and down, tumbling right up to Bryant’s feet. Jessie spotted the man kicking off smaller rocks as he grasped for his weapon bag and tried to crawl away. Stepping carefully over the rock-strewn ground, she made it to the soldier and squatted to help him up.
A sharp pain shot down her right side, and her arm refused to obey her command. She stood, grimacing in pain as something warm and wet made her armpit sticky.
They shot me.
Her stomach turned with nausea, and her eyes watered with tears. She’d die underground in the dark, and her family would never know what happened.
“Boy, that was dumb,” Bryant shook his head, sputtering dirt and sand, not realizing her distress.
“Seems like I saved your butt.” Jessie said, and she reached for him with her left hand, letting her right hang useless by her side. “What’s that, twice now? Am I two and one in saving your butt?”
“You and Kim are competing to save my butt,” Bryant took her offered hand and climbed to his feet. He slung his weapon duffel bag and rifle over his shoulder. “Thanks. I didn’t realize they were so close.”
Jessie squatted, grabbed his crutch, and handed it over to him. “You need any help?”
“No, I can manage now. Thanks.”
They took their time getting to the service tunnel as blood soaked her shirt and pants. A bout of nausea passed through her guts when she realized it might be a good idea to make a tourniquet around the wound. Or at least identify where they’d hit her.
“The garden is ruined,” Jessie said, groggy as she slowed. “You want to break the news to Paul, or do you want me to?”
“You can do it,” Bryant said as he hobbled ahead of her, unaware of her wound. “The old wizard’s bound to conjure some lightning down on my head.”
“But he likes you,” she slurred, fumbling with her belt. She’d unbuckled it but struggled to pull it from the tight loops, finally stopping to stare down at her fumbling fingers with a frown.
“Jessie?” Bryant asked, half turning to see where she’d gone.
She focused harder to get the belt to come off, but her view shrank until all she could see was her blood-covered fingers, the edges over her vision filled in with black.
&nb
sp; “Jessie?” Bryant shouted, louder this time.
She looked up as the soldier hobbled back, a look of terrified concern on his face. Then the last of her vision faded, and she collapsed.
Chapter 25
Burke Birkenhoff, Yellow Springs, Ohio
Burke sat at a console inside his RV and watched the exchange between Lexi’s team and Bryant in the underground tunnels of Paul Henderson’s lab. He’d watched through Lexi’s helmet camera as the assault team were ambushed by a C4 explosion, the tunnels collapsing in a storm of dust and stone.
In all his time working with the mycologist, Burke had never received an invitation to Paul’s personal lab. As the assault played out, Burke gaped at the magnificent gardens filled with luminescent mosses and fungi. And he understood why Tom Flannery had sent Kim to seek out the mycologist. Paul had always been brilliant, and apparently very busy building his underground kingdom, too.
Burke’s eyes drifted to a second camera screen as Lexi and her remaining mercenary jogged across the parking lot toward the bus. They appeared dusty but otherwise unharmed. Burke pressed the button to open the back door, inviting them in to decontaminate. Lexi remained outside with her legs placed shoulder length apart and her rifle barrel pointed down.
Burke spoke across their secure line. “What is it, Lexi?”
“We need to finish them.”
“The tunnel caved in. They’re all dead.”
Lexi remained standing outside with her feet planted shoulder width apart, seething like a miniature volcano. “I just lost two of my best people.”
“They were my best people, Lexi,” Burke reminded her.
“I want to see that soldier’s corpse.” Lexi snapped. “What did you say his name was? Bryant?”
“That’s correct. Lieutenant Colonel Scott Bryant.” Burke frowned, remembering his disappointment to find Kim Shields and the lieutenant colonel alive with Paul in his underground lab. “You have a point about wanting to see their corpses. They have a way of coming back.”
“What is the chance the scientist built more tunnels?”
Spore Series | Book 3 | Fight Page 15
