Spirits of the Earth: The Complete Series: (A Post-Apocalyptic Series Box Set: Books 1-3) by Milo Fowler (reading comprehension books TXT) 📗

all our needs, and She will bring our husbands to us. Even now, She is speaking to them through dreams and visions." A hint of sadness creeps into her eyes as she reaches to touch the scarf on my head. "We are Her fertile womb..."

I stand. "Thank you, Mother. I need to check on Rehana, she was in worse shape—"

"Rehana is a danger to us all." Mother Lairen rises to her feet opposite me, and the sadness has been replaced by a cold severity. "She has no thought of the Creator's will, and she leads others astray. She hearkens to the voice of evil!"

I take a step back. "What do you mean?"

"Do not be misled by her, my child," she adds in a gentler tone. "Only harm comes to those who do not follow the will of our Creator."

Nodding slowly, I thank her again for tending to me. Then I excuse myself.

I make my way to the other side of the cavern, all the while feeling Mother Lairen's eyes fixed on my head. A shiver snakes its way down my back. Maybe all that time in seclusion praying and fasting has gotten to her. Or maybe she really did hear from the Creator. Either way, she seems...different somehow.

I ask a couple of my sisters where Rehana is being healed, and they point me toward a bed against the far wall of the main cavern. Most of the other women have returned to their slumber; the quaking outside has stopped.

I glance toward the mouth of the cave as I pass. It's sealed up tight, as silent and still as if it's always been like this. Does every opening to our cave network look the same? That would indeed take an act of God. I'll have to check it out for myself in the morning.

Rehana lies on her back. Her shredded garments have been removed, her flesh covered in a layer of clear healing salve that glistens blue and white in my night-vision. Her chest rises and falls evenly due to the sedative she's been given. Sleep would have been impossible, otherwise.

I look at the earthen ceiling above me. How long can we last in here? If rockslides have covered all the exits, how will we breathe in a day or few? Mother Lairen would say I lack faith. But I don't believe it was the Creator who sealed us inside.

It was that Presence, the one I've felt all along. It wants us to die. Somehow, it appeared to Mother Lairen and made her think it was the Creator so she'd let us suffocate without a fight.

I shake my head and release a heavy sigh. My thoughts are out of control, far from logical, and not even close to scientific. I need rest.

I glance back at the effects of the avalanche. There's no longer any need for the night watch. We're safe inside for now. I can sleep.

If I can.

I curl up next to Rehana's bed and pull my knees to my chest. My eyelids sink, and the muscles in my body begin to unclench like an impotent fist...

Darkness slowly dissipates, and in its place I see grass, green and lush, passing swiftly below. Yellow flowers sprout between soft emerald blades and spread out their petals under the sun's warmth. I fly over them, my arms outstretched, my long chestnut hair whisking across my back. I blink into the wind and look up. The sky is clear and blue, its hue rich enough to take my breath away.

The grassy hillside drops away, and I sail out over the sea. The ocean swells reflect the sky, moving with a life all their own. I gasp as a pod of dolphins emerges, jumping out of the water with salty splashes, one after another, only to plunge back nose-first. I want to wait for them to reemerge, but I can't stop. I fly across the entire ocean in a matter of seconds, then I pass over the desert. The ground below me lies bare, cracked, and desolate. As I gaze across it, a sick feeling lurks in the pit of my stomach. There should be life in the desert: reptiles, barrel cactus, sage brush, even flowers. But there's no life here. It's been obliterated.

What looks like a long stretch of mangled highway runs below me now. Mounds of rubble and the twisted remains of buildings stand half-submerged in ashen sand. A great expanse, a level plain covered in dust and gravel, leads to the base of the mountains, thirty kilometers away. My flight gradually slows as I drop closer to the highway. The sun beats hot on my back. A dry breeze catches my hair. Silence reigns as I catch sight of a single figure on the move. Clad in a hooded standard-issue jumpsuit and face shield, he heads toward the eastern mountains at a steady, unhurried pace.

How can anyone survive such loneliness? What does it do to one's soul?

The ground comes alive all of a sudden, gravel and sand flying upward, spraying the figure who breaks into a run—faster than anything I've ever seen. Super-human. Rocks dislodge themselves from the earth and follow, mercilessly striking the figure in the back as if some invisible force is throwing them.

I must do what I can to help this poor soul... Or they'll kill him.

Banking in mid-air fifty meters ahead of the running figure, I hover upright. An enormous cloud of dust rises in his wake, and the gravel at his feet relentlessly launches itself upward, tearing at his jumpsuit, bouncing off his face shield.

I stare at the dust cloud and open my arms wide.

Spirits of the earth, I whisper. I see you.

The rocks and gravel hit the ground and lie still. The cloud of dust hovers, then seems to drift away reluctantly. The figure stops running. He's not doubled-over from the exertion, even though he's run thirty kilometers in a matter of seconds.

I'm not flying anymore. I stand on a mountain ledge high above him. But