The Extinction Series , Ellis, Tara [famous ebook reader .txt] 📗

TYLER

Suriname border, Courantyne River

“I think I see the river,” Devon shouted, holding up a hand to shield his eyes from the rapidly rising sun. Even with the increasingly dense haze, it was still harsh.

Tyler twisted around and squinted, trying to see beyond the trees rushing by as his eyes watered from the stiff breeze. The road had followed the ocean for the past few hours, and they hadn’t been headed inland for very long. They had stopped at sunrise, less than two hours earlier, so that Tyler could swap out with Eddy and get in the back of the truck. It should have been Devon’s turn to sleep inside the cab, but he refused to leave Hernandez.

Feeling guilty, Tyler glanced down at the man who had helped him survive several impossible situations. Devon had ridden in the bed of the truck with Hernandez for pretty much the whole thirty-six hours they’d been driving. After only two hours of watching him struggle for every breath, Tyler was ready to bail. He couldn’t stand it. For some ungodly reason, it reminded him of a time earlier that year when his dad hit a dog. They’d raced it to the nearest vet, which on the island of Madagascar, was a really long drive. Tyler would never forget the horrible death sounds it made the whole way there, only to be put to sleep and out of its misery because there wasn’t anything the vet could do for it except end its pain.

Licking his lips and swallowing against the nausea that hadn’t gone away for days, Tyler couldn’t help but compare the two situations. Hernandez was dying. There was no way to pretend it was going to end any other way, so all they were doing was watching him suffer, the same way he had with the poor, pathetic dog.

“Oh, that’s just great,” Devon muttered.

Flinching, Tyler sat back hard against the wheel well and looked up at Devon, certain he’d somehow read his morbid thoughts. But the other man wasn’t paying any attention to him. He was still up on his knees, leaning against the cab of the truck as he faced forward. His thick hair was pushed back into one large mass by the wind as he searched the horizon.

Curious, and thankful for any sort of distraction, Tyler moved to join him. The activity woke Marty, who was sleeping quite comfortably on Hernandez’s legs. He raised his ears at Tyler and then chuffed before lowering his head again. He didn’t know if dogs could suffer from anxiety or depression, but he was pretty sure Marty was having as difficult a time as the rest of them.

Pausing, he rubbed the German Shepard between the ears before turning to see what they were headed toward. Devon had been right, and the river was definitely looming large. It was massive, and Tyler could already tell the brownish water was moving fast. There were even a couple of islands in the middle of it, and he guessed the far shore was at least two miles away. The problem was that there didn’t appear to be a bridge anywhere. They were rapidly approaching a large parking lot that the road dead-ended at, along the edge of the river.

“That’s a ferry terminal,” Devon huffed, dropping back down into a crouched position, with his back against the cab.

“A ferry?” Tyler echoed, sitting beside him. Hernandez’s head was between them, supported on a pillow drenched with his sweat. He blinked at Tyler, and it took a moment for him to realize Hernandez was awake.

“Where…are we?” Hernandez croaked, sounding nothing like himself.

Devon didn’t miss a beat, and leaned forward so he could be heard over the truck and wind noise. “We’re coming up on the Suriname border, my friend. We’ve almost made it, if you can believe that. Should be at this hot spring place by tonight.”

Hernandez tried to shake his head in disagreement, but groaned as the motion caused an increase in his already unbearable pain. “Not…me.” His eyes flitted over to Tyler and he attempted to smile, but it came out more like a grimace. “I—” he gasped, unable to suck in enough air to speak.

Tyler wanted to run. To smack his hand on the glass of the back window and scream at Peta to stop driving, so he could leap over the side and run blindly into the jungle. To find a way to forget everything, and pretend like his mom, his dad, and Hernandez were still out there somewhere, happy and alive.

“Tyler.”

Tyler couldn’t ignore the plea from Hernandez, so he met the other man’s gaze. In that moment, he was forced to accept it all. The harsh, ugly, unimaginable truth of what he’d been through and what was still happening. Because it was still happening. The Kuru might have just about run out of people to kill, but the nightmare from the domino effect it caused was still unraveling. Combined with the seismic impacts from around the Earth, the future was anything but promising. No amount of daydreaming was going to sugarcoat that for Tyler. And it wouldn’t help him to survive it.

Tyler choked back a sob of acceptance as he reached for Hernandez’s hand. “I’m here.”

“Alejandro,” Hernandez slurred. He took another ragged, hitching breath. “Friends…call…Alex.”

A tear slipped down Tyler’s cheek and soaked into the soiled pillow case. Since the moment he first tried to pry the ensign’s name from him, it had turned into a game of wills. Tyler didn’t want to win that way. All he could manage was a small nod of understanding, and he squeezed Alex’s hand. His friend.

Devon took Hernandez’s other hand as the truck pulled into the parking lot and slowed. “What can we do for you?”

“Pills,” Hernandez whispered, clearly exhausted from just uttering those few words.

Devon and Tyler exchanged a knowing look. He was talking about