Destiny: Quantic Dreams Book 3 by Elizabeth McLaughlin (books for 20 year olds .txt) 📗

had just died. My father was something of a legend among the colonists; the truth about our escape from the virtual world had grown into something of an urban legend. I never saw the harm in it. Let the old man live out his days in glory. It wasn’t hurting anybody.

“The truth, obviously.” Eliza scoffed. “They deserve to know everything about the threat that is coming for them.”

“I disagree.” Both Marcus and Eliza whipped their heads toward me in surprise. “If we barrel into that camp sounding the alarm it’ll do nothing but cause panic. We’re going to sit down with Jason and Nicole and tell them the whole story. If Fang hasn’t wandered off into the woods to study mushrooms by now, he can sit in too. The rest of the colony gets told that my father was killed. That’s it. When the questions arise, we’re too filled with grief at the loss of a beloved family patriarch to talk about it.” I was surprised at my own voice, deadpan and serious. “We get the colony packed up as quickly as possible. Everything we can carry, but we need to be as mobile as possible.”

“Agreed. Mom, will you have the palm DNA spliced in with the potatoes by the time we get back?”

“I’m close to the solution, but I really need the shelter’s labs to check my math. I’ll do as much work as I can before we get back. We’re going to be telling a thousand people who have just been well fed that they’re going to be hungry again. This should go well.” It was the instability that was the real danger here. Humans are creatures of habit. We could roll with the punches but shakeup our lifestyle too much and the slightest hitch could tip us over the age into chaos. Our shelter had already performed admirably with only a few major interruptions along the way. Things could have gone far worse. One could only hope that this wasn’t going to be the thing that undid us.

At midday, I risked a look at Eliza’s wound. It was healing as well as could be expected given the circumstances. Still on track for some stitches and a wicked scar was in her future, but the flesh was pink and I couldn’t see any inflammation. The walk was probably helping. Keeping healthy blood flow to the area was vital. I rolled my eyes to myself; In addition to the badass fighting skills, now I knew how to treat bullet wounds. Not exactly the life trajectory I had planned for myself.

The terrain had long since gone from thick forest to plains. Long swaths of grass rippled ahead of us with only the occasional creature interrupting the verdant waves. The setting was a sharp juxtaposition with the constant whir of my thoughts. Even with the wide vantage point it was hard to let down my guard. I was surely missing something. Some danger or threat in the grass ready to carry my soul to the afterlife and all of this would be for naught.

The day passed without instant. There weren’t any more transmissions from our mysterious friends. To my surprise I felt a kind of sadness because of that. Human contact was a rare commodity these days and knowing there were strangers out there made me long for home all the more.

There were a few times we had to stop and rest to let Eliza recoup her strength. Each time I felt the urge to run to her and look her over like a dog searching its mate for wounds. As comforting as it would be for me, it would just make things worse for her. Over decades of marriage we grew so close that when one of us was worried, the other tended to worry even more.

On our second night camping under the stars, I let Marcus take the first watch. Eliza motioned me to where she was settling in for the evening. I moved to curl myself around her but she stopped me.

“How are you doing, beloved?” Her eyes searched mine, cloudy with exhaustion and pain. “We haven’t really talked since...”

“I’ll be fine.” It wasn’t a lie, I would be fine. Right now the only way I was getting through this ordeal was by focusing my attention elsewhere.

“I know you’ll be fine, hon.” Eliza rolled her eyes at me. “You’ve been using my injury as a fine distraction.” Ouch. There were drawbacks to having a partner that knew me this well. “You may have Marcus fooled but I haven’t missed it. Finding your father...it was rough, to say the least. I know that he and I didn’t get along all the time, but I did have love for the man. He was a good father to you and a good grandfather to Marcus. I am sorry that he gave his life to this cause. He worked so hard to see his family happy. He deserved to return home and see the people he fought so hard for prosper.” That did it. The flood of grief I held back since that first night ripped through me anew and I hid my face in her good shoulder while I sobbed. If Marcus noticed the noise, he didn’t turn. I bit my lip to keep from wailing to the world and tasted the coppery tang of blood. Eliza didn’t waiver for a second. She held me tightly and whispered nonsense words to me as I let the pain out. When there were no more tears to cry I allowed myself to fall asleep to the sound of Eliza’s breathing.

Marcus woke me up a few minutes before it was time to change shifts. He held a finger to his lips and pointed. In the sky, hundreds of yards away, were two lights. One red, one green. If I slowed my breathing, I could hear the faint whir of rotors. “Has it moved since you spotted it?”

“No, it’s just been hovering there. Hasn’t even