Fate's Surrender (Eternal Sorrows Book 3) Sarra Cannon (best english books to read txt) 📖

mind. The handsome man, holding her hand and falling to the ground as his life withered away.

Who was that?

Someone Lily had known?

Parrish couldn’t make sense of it. Why did she see that man sometimes when she touched the stone? How was he connected?

She released the stone and the man’s face went away. She didn’t have time to piece together that puzzle right now. She just needed to focus on her abilities and how they were going to survive that city.

She needed to be at her absolute best. So far, each battle they’d fought had brought out new abilities and powers. She had to believe there were still secrets locked inside them that could help them save David and her sister.

She needed to trust herself.

The only other option was surrender, and that was never going to happen.

She closed her eyes and felt the wind in her hair.

She breathed in the salty scent of the ocean.

She let her worries fall away and focused, instead, on the growing power inside her. She focused on her love for her sister. On her determination to save what was left of this dying world.

She focused on the warmth of Noah’s strong leg pressed against hers as they sat side by side.

He’d really been there for her these past few weeks. She grabbed his hand and laced her fingers through his, letting his strength become her strength, too. They could do this.

They could find a way to defeat the Dark One and restore this world.

They had to.

Or they would all die trying.

“This is it,” Crash said, slowing the boat as they approached Manhattan.

No one spoke. Instead, everyone’s eyes were glued to the scene. The horror of it all. From the looks of the smoke, most of Brooklyn had been on fire at some point. With no organized firefighters in the city, there was nothing to stop even a small kitchen fire from getting ridiculously out of hand. Curls of smoke rose up from a few spots in Manhattan as well, but nothing as serious as the fires across the bridge.

As they passed the Statue of Liberty and got close enough to see the city ahead, the destruction nearly took her breath away.

Massive container ships had crashed into each other, blocking off parts of the river. Some buildings had hundreds of windows blown out. Smoke rose from different areas all around them.

“Dear God,” Parrish whispered.

Seeing the smoke from afar or looking at the destruction through satellite images hadn’t really prepared her for the horrors of what really had happened here in New York City.

She held her breath as Crash slowly steered them around the wreckage in the water and under what was left of the Brooklyn Bridge.

It looked like a bomb had gone off, and from the presence of military vehicles and boats all around the island, maybe a few had. To control the rotter threat, desperate measures had been taken in the early days to try to quarantine and eliminate.

They’d never had a chance of controlling this, though. There were simply too many infected. Too many dead bodies in the city right from the start. And by the time the dead had started to awaken, it was too late to do anything about it.

All along the river, the city itself told the story.

Groups of survivors had tried to do what Tank had done in Philly. Structures had been erected out of everything imaginable. Fences, barbed wire, even stacks of cars in some places.

Nothing looked to have held for long.

Now, everything they could see from the water was either completely destroyed or packed with throngs of zombies. At the sound of the boat, many of them turned toward the river, their jaws snapping open hungrily as they threw themselves over the sides of the railing and into the water.

“Looks like some of these guys ran out of food a long time ago,” Karmen said, shuddering. She was right. Most of the rotters looked emaciated, their flesh hanging loosely from their bones. “I wonder what happens if they don’t eat for a long time. Do you think they eventually starve to death?”

“Maybe,” Crash said. “I hope so.”

The ride up the East River only took a few minutes before they hit a point where the water was too congested to continue. Crash steered them toward the Queensboro Bridge, pulling the boat in between Manhattan and Roosevelt Island. “There,” he said, pointing. “Looks like we can dock there just after we cross under the bridge.”

It definitely wasn’t as close to Zoe as she wished they could have gotten, but for now, it was enough. She was just anxious to get on the ground and start moving toward her.

Parrish had to keep reminding herself to breathe as they pulled up to the docking area. Her heart felt like it was lodged in her throat, she was so nervous.

Crash pulled the boat up to the edge of a platform and Noah jumped out. Parrish tossed him the rope from the back, and as Noah tied them off, everyone gathered their weapons and supplies.

Luckily, the docking area was clear of any rotters, but from the looks of it, the second they stepped off the docks, they were going to have to start fighting. Their presence was already drawing some attention, and Parrish kept watch for red eyes. She could tell Karmen was doing the same.

“How are we going to get through these mobs of zombies?” Noah asked. “I don’t know that our original plan of slash and dash is going to work.”

“I wasn’t expecting there to be so many out in the open.” Crash tried to swallow, but it came out more of a croak. Parrish handed him a bottle of water.

“Thanks,” he said.

“We discussed this. Guns are too dangerous at this stage of the game. We’re just going to have to rely on our new abilities,” she said. “The main thing is we stick together at all times. No stepping away from the group to run after a straggler. We let them come