The Extinction Series | Book 4 | Spread of Extinction Ellis, Tara (top 10 ebook reader .TXT) 📖

hard look at her. She was in shock and dazed, but other than the somewhat superficial cut, she was right. She’d be okay.

A hand on his arm caused Jason to refocus, and he turned to find Eddy standing next to him. “I think it’s well past our time to go.”

“Peta!” Devon called out as he ran up to them. Putting one of his own hands on top of her bloodied ones, he applied pressure while turning her toward the truck. Staring openly at Jason with a bewildered expression, he then glanced down at the body missing the top portion of its head. “Come on,” he said with a grimace, leading her away.

Jason was still on edge, and continued to sweep the visible roads as Eddy got behind the wheel. Devon was rummaging through their limited first aid supplies in the back while Peta sat stoically on the open tailgate.

Jason pointed at Tyler. “Get up front, and help spot for Eddy. Take Marty with you.”

The kid was smart enough not to ask questions. He just nodded in response and hopped down before calling to Marty.

Climbing up next to Peta, Jason pulled her back and then closed the tailgate, as the truck moved forward with a jerk. Sitting down in the limited space around Hernandez, he then reached a hand out to Devon for the first aid kit. When Devon eyed him questioningly, Jason scoffed. He didn’t have time to deal with whatever territorial feelings the other man was having about Peta. “I’m a trauma doctor, Devon. I think I’m more qualified.”

Unable to come up with a valid argument, Devon reluctantly gave him the bag. “How did you know you wouldn’t hit Peta?”

Jason wasn’t surprised by the question, but he was still irritated that he had to defend his actions. “Because I was close enough that I knew I wouldn’t miss.”

Peta raised a hand to ward off any further comment from Devon. “We don’t need to talk about this now. Please.”

Devon obviously bit back a reply, and instead turned to watch the road behind them. “Do you think there’s more?”

“Possibly,” Jason said, as he inspected Peta’s wound. As he suspected, her collarbone had prevented it from going very deep. In a perfect world he would have thrown a few stitches in it, but some butterfly Band-Aids and clean gauze would have to do. “But not from the same group. I think they got the message loud and clear that it’s best to leave us alone.”

“Um, I don’t think everyone got the memo,” Devon replied, pointing off to the right side of the road.

They were on a road that skirted the main part of the city until they reached the far side, so the buildings and streets were still spread out and more rural. They were approaching what looked like an elementary school, and there was a large, open field alongside it.

In the field, there were at least a dozen tents set up. They were spaced out in what appeared to be even distances, in a circular pattern. Several fires were burning, interspersed between them. The orderly fashion it all presented was curious enough, given the state of the rest of the city. But that wasn’t the oddest thing about it.

People were gathering in front of the tents, near the fence that lined the road. As they came abreast of them, Jason counted ten people, and several more were approaching. Eddy must have seen them too, because the truck slowed to a crawl.

They held no weapons, and there was no yelling or anything else that indicated any sort of threat. There also wasn’t any music, or loud conversations. No children laughing, or any of the other sounds you’d expect from a large group of people out in the open. They might be able to pass as any other refugee camp they might expect to come across, except…

“How come they’re so quiet,” Devon whispered. “And why are they staring at us like that?”

As a woman raised a hand in greeting. Her face was devoid of joy, or fear, or any emotion at seeing them. It was then that Jason understood.

“They’re the Cured,” Peta said, not bothering to whisper like Devon. “They’re finding each other.”

The truck sped up, leaving the band of survivors behind. Jason tried to distract himself with cleaning the blood off Peta’s shoulder and face, and then the careful application of the Steri-Strip’s. He didn’t know why the knowledge that the Cured were gathering together should be so troubling…except that it was.

“Okay, guys,” Devon said as he rearranged Hernandez’s head on a balled-up jacket for a pillow. “Anyone else find that Children-of-the-Corn kind of creepy?”

Peta chuckled, and Devon smiled at her appropriate response to his joke. But Jason wasn’t laughing. He was remembering the equally creepy conversation he’d had with Eddy four days prior, deep in the underground facility. “He said this would happen.”

Peta put her hand over his to take over the direct pressure on her fresh bandage, and met his troubled gaze. “Who said what would happen?”

Chastising himself for saying anything out loud, Jason grimaced and struggled to find the right words. Sighing, he decided to be blunt. They were way past the point of sugar-coating anything. “Eddy. He said the Cured would seek each other out.”

Peta and Devon exchanged a nervous look.

“Why?” Peta asked, squinting at him with what he was coming to understand was her expression for when she heard something she didn’t like.

Shifting, Jason stared for a moment at the unconscious man lying in the middle of them, blessedly oblivious to what had just happened. That he’d been forced to kill some of the limited survivors of The Kuru. Why? Because they were following the fallacy of human nature Eddy had so recently accused them of. He’d been right about that. What if Eddy was also right about The Cured?