Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 110492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 552(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 552(@200wpm)___ 442(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
Torri hurriedly stood up, but then she bent down quickly and kissed him on the lips.
“I love you, Vic,” she said, looking him in the eyes. “I realized that after…after I thought I lost you. And I was so afraid I’d never get a chance to tell you.”
Vic smiled at her and kissed her back.
“I love you too, sweetheart. Now go get some clothes on—we’ve got some fast flying to do and you’ll need to be strapped in,” he told her.
Torri nodded and went to go find her clothes.
The minute she was out of the view of the com-link’s view screen, Vic punched in the coordinates for the Mother Ship. He had to get Commander Terex on the viewscreen and tell him they were out of time—that the Fathership was almost to Earth’s atmosphere.
But there was no answer.
Vic tried again and the again but each time, his call failed to connect. He frowned in concern as he stared at the blank viewscreen.
Where was the Mother Ship?
Fifty-Three
Thankfully, Torri’s duffel bag with her clothes and the remaining jar of her Nana’s cinnamon apples was still in the ship. She pulled on some underthings, a pair of jeans, a t-shirt and a sweater. The Scourge guards had taken her shoes, but luckily she had packed an extra pair of those, too. Always be prepared for anything, Nana had taught her, and as usual, her advice came in handy.
Still feeling a little surreal—like the past few hours had just been a terrible dream—she came back to the front of the ship, only to find that they were orbiting just above Earth.
Vic glanced up at her.
“Oh good, you’re back. Strap in, sweetheart. We’re about to enter Earth’s atmosphere as soon as the Fathership does.”
“We are?” Torri looked at the viewscreen, where the huge black ship was just coming into sight. “Have they, uh, figured out your little deception yet?” she asked.
“I got a call from them while you were in the fresher, getting some clothes on,” Vic told her. “I assumed the Scourge doctor’s visage once more and assured them I was still ‘conducting experiments’ and I would meet up with the Fathership soon. It seemed to satisfy them for now—but the deception will be over as soon as they find the real doctor’s body,” he added grimly.
Torri shivered when she realized that the disguise he’d been using was taken from someone he had killed. But she was sure it had been a necessary killing—there was no other way to escape the Fathership. And after all, the Scourge had killed Vic first.
That thought and the memory of her terrible grief at his loss made her want to wrap her arms around the big Kindred and hold him close, but this was clearly not the time or the place. There would be time later, (she hoped,) to talk about what had happened, how he had escaped and most especially, how he had come back to life.
He had told her that the Goddess which the Kindred all seemed to worship, had brought him back from the dead. That sounded crazy, but Torri had seen his lifeless eyes and the huge hole the metal spike had made in his chest and now he was alive and well again. So maybe there really had been a miracle.
But for now, she had to put these thoughts on the backburner. The Fathership was hovering above the Earth’s atmosphere and the Kindred were nowhere in sight.
“Where’s the Mother Ship?” she asked Vic, who was scanning the viewscreen anxiously.
“I don’t know.” He shook his head. “I’ve been trying to raise them on the com-link but I’m getting no response.”
“Oh no—do you think the Scourge are jamming your signal?” Torri asked.
“No—they have more important things to think about at the moment. Look—they’re going in! Hang on, sweetheart, I’m going to follow them. I’ll keep trying to send their coordinates to the Mother Ship, so they know where to go when they get here.”
At least he had said “when” and not “if,” Torri thought. But she still felt very uneasy. Where were the Kindred and the Mother Ship? What was going to happen to the Earth if they didn’t show up in time?
“What do you think the Scourge are going to do?” she asked as Vic steered his sleek Kindred shuttle to follow the huge black bulk of the Fathership.
“From what I heard them saying, they intend to raze major cities to the ground and kill world leaders in order to ensure human compliance with the Scourge domination,” Vic said grimly.
“Oh my God!” Torri looked at him, wide-eyed. “I mean, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised but that’s awful!”
“Look—they’re zeroing in on a city now. I’m going to follow them.”
They were through Earth’s atmosphere now, darting along after the massive Fathership.
“Oh God—they’re headed straight for DC!” Torri gasped. “Look—there’s the Washington Monument!” She pointed at the tall marble monolith, which rose like a finger pointing towards the sky over the Capital’s landscape. The Fathership skimmed past it and then came to a stop.