Riposte (The Redivivus Trilogy Book 2) Read Free Page A

struggled to break free from its tenacious grasp. As though finally managing to unzip her sleeping bag and poke her head out of the blissful nocturnal realm, her mind cleared, and it became all too apparent that she was nowhere near the campground of her dreams.
    As she glanced around in a futile attempt to escape the scorching rays of the sun beating down upon her upturned face, she realized that the campground was in fact the scene of a grisly accident, and the fire raging all around her was anything but a lazy campfire. Thick plumes of black smoke billowed up from a smoldering tire, filling the air with an asphyxiating mixture of volatile chemicals that seemed to crowd out all of the atmosphere’s vital oxygen.
    In that moment, a gut-wrenching shriek like that of an animal caught in a trap, pierced the sky and violently jerked her back to the present. Turning toward the source of the caterwauling, the identity of the previously unrecognizable smell became sickeningly clear as Lin’s gaze fell upon the writhing, flaming body of a man pinned beneath an overturned vehicle. His flesh was so badly scorched that she was unable to determine who it was. She swallowed hard to avoid vomiting as she watched the skin of his desiccated face split like an overcooked baked potato, his ever-tightening integument giving way to the rapidly expanding fluids and gases inside. A barely audible pop was followed by a low sizzle that sounded like a pot of water boiling over. Her own screams hung in her throat as she imagined the excruciating pain the man must be experiencing. Where the hell am I? Maybe this is the dream. She could only hope that were true.
    Lin rolled to her side and slowly eased up to her hands and knees. Still feeling dazed, she desperately tried to block out the burning man’s agonal cries as she crawled away from the inferno. In that instant, Lin did not think it possible to witness anything more horrifying. As she rounded the corner of the wrecked truck, however, she realized just how wrong that sentiment had been. Mouth agape, she stared at the source of the droning sound. A far cry from the buzzing insects she envisioned, over twenty walking abominations swayed and groaned, jostling one another for position as they tried to find a way around the wall of fire and debris standing between them and their quarry.
    Bit by bit, the details of her situation slowly filtered into her addled brain, falling into place like the pieces of a puzzle. The infected—the monsters—are the victims of an engineered pathogen called the lyssa-niuhi virus, and we are trying to find a cure. Her thoughts instantly shifted to the small USB drive she had been given by General Montes. Buried somewhere in the cryptic pattern of ones and zeroes was the key to unraveling the wretched plague. Above all else, including her own survival, she knew she had to protect that drive and the secrets it held. Where the hell is it?
    Despite the dangers all around her, Lin crouched motionless, midway between the horde of infected and the burgeoning fire. As though recorded on a film reel, the events of the last twenty-four hours played through her mind at high speed. She saw herself in her lab with General Montes and the two imposing soldiers. Snapshots of Dr. Marcus Johnson’s chilling journal entries followed visions of boarding the massive Brazilian Embraer KC-390. Next came chaotic images aboard the plane just after landing at the air reserve base in Georgia. Her mind immediately focused on the small black briefcase containing her documents and laptop. She scanned the area, frantically searching for the bag that was nowhere to be found. Where could it be? She remembered carrying the briefcase as she fled the plane with General Montes and his men; now she had a sickening feeling the bag and its precious contents were somewhere in the raging pyre behind her. Without the data from the experiments responsible for the creation of LNV, she doubted she had any