LZR-1143 (Book 4): Desolation Read Free Page B

Kentucky lodged itself near the bottom of the narrowing ravine, only three quarters of a mile from a particularly unstable stretch of the subduction zone.  
    In the history of the world, there has never been a larger explosion.  
    The cold, dark water around the site vaporized and churned, the rock walls of the canyon imploded. Beneath the ship, the vibrations rocked the very bedrock of the fault line, sending waves of energy through the fragile and unstable earth.  
    Had Captain Marcus lived, he would have wept. For it was by his hand that the entire west coast of the United States would now be unmade.  

CHAPTER TWO
You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here ...

    Our faithful companions…
    Approximately 100 miles north of Seattle, Washington.
    Approximately 15 miles east of the Pacific Ocean.

    “You’re holding it wrong.”
    “Shut up, I’m a grown-ass man. I’ve got this shit.”
    “Fine. Just don’t blame me when you shoot that poor squirrel.”
    “I’m not going to hit a squirrel.”
    “Do you even see the squirrel?”
    “There’s no squirrel.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “Yes, dammit, now let me do this…”
    I held the crossbow up, sighting it with one eye closed.  
    “Don’t get your face that close—I told you, it could snap back at you.”
    I sighed.
    “I heard you. I’m not effing deaf, for God’s sake. Don’t you have some angst to work out or some boy bands to swoon over?”
    My hand tightened on the grip.  
    I got this.
    No problem.
    Forty yards to the tin can, using a weapon that had been designed by men who only bathed once every four fortnights, millennia ago. A weapon designed to be passed out to illiterate conscripts so they could kill the horses of knights during battle from twenty feet away.  
    No problem.
    Thwap.
    “Ouch! Mother fu—“
    Squeal.  
    Shit.
    “What was that?”
    Ky was already on the ground, rolling in laughter.
    That was fast. How did she get down there that fast?
    “Oh…my…God” she managed, between gasps for air. “You actually hit the squirrel and you cut your face—I totally win! I told you so!”  
    I touched my hand to my face and looked at my fingers. Blood.  
    Man, this kid wasn’t going to let me live this down.  
    “Let’s go see about the squirrel,” I said begrudgingly, starting downrange and searching on the ground for the wounded animal.  
    I heard an outraged chatter above my head as I approached the tree line, and looked up. A large, dark brown squirrel was glaring at me reproachfully, glancing back at its full tail—a tail that was now pinned to a tree branch several yards from the unmolested tin can I had been trying to hit.
    “Well, you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” I muttered as Ky walked up. “Thanks for nothing, Rocky.”
    The squirrel returned the sentiment with what I was sure was the squirrel version of “go fuck yourself.”  
    “You know, you might want to promise him that you’ll aim for his tail next time. He could hang out here all day.” She was still smiling as I reached up for the arrow.
    “Yeah, yeah. I get it. I suck.”  
    The squirrel chittered angrily as my hand hit the arrow, sending vibrations along the shaft.  
    “Hold on,” I cursed and yanked the arrow free of the branch.
    The small creature bolted from the limb, jumping several branches higher before examining its wounded tail.
    “You’ll live, dude,” I said wryly, tossing Ky the arrow.
    “So, I’ll just stick to my carbine if you don’t mind,” I said, trudging back toward the small clearing. “I obviously can’t be trusted with weaponry that pre-dates the wheel.”  
    “Oh, don’t be so hard on yourself,” she shouted, wiping squirrel blood from the arrow head and sighting it to make sure it wasn’t bent. “You were within a few yards. If there were hundreds of those things around you, you would have hit one.”  
    I grunted as I waded through the last of the tall grass and sat down heavily