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Chapter Twenty-Nine
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2024-10-29 19:42:56He could feel her body tense as his lips connected with hers in a kiss that could only be described as dry and cautious. He pushed on in an attempt to muster some type of emotion other than repulsion from kissing a sister within him. Shouldn’t he be feeling something more? Hadn’t he been fantasizing about this moment for most of his life? He wondered if she was having the same reaction to their kiss as he was.
She’d entered the cold and barren room with an air that matched it. When he took her in his arms, her body tensed with regret over making such a foolish offer. She’d made it with the desire to bring their relationship back to normal, but hadn’t thought on the offer enough to consider the fact that he might actually go through with it. Deep inside, she’d hoped that the offer would have been enough to satisfy him.
His kiss felt dry and bland to her. Was it the same for him? She focused on the e
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Kendra studied the broad shoulders of her husband as she followed him out of the building to a location that afforded them enough privacy to speak freely. It took a good deal of convincing to keep him from pummeling Felix and it was clear that he was upset with her. She couldn’t comprehend his thinking. Hadn’t he been the one to claim that it was just a body and not the real her? Didn’t he say that he didn’t care if she had sex with Felix? He hadn’t actually come right out and said it, but he also didn’t say “don’t do it” when she asked him about it. Therefore, she assumed that he just didn’t care.When they reached a spot that satisfied him, he turned to face her. His face was almost purple with rage as he struggled to regulate his breathing so that he could speak in a steady and non-threatening voice.“I’ve never seen you this angry,” she said with surprise as
Center Land (Book 3 of Kendra's Journey) Chapter Thirty-One
“Ari is insisting that we take her to Center Land,” Olga grumbled as she positioned herself onto a nearby oversized easy chair that stood proud and stately next to the enormous fireplace in the main room of the guest house. “She has it in her head that she’ll get better medical care there. She’s livid that they removed her leg. One of the nurses produced the mangled appendage to her so that she could see that it wasn’t salvageable, but she’d have none of it.”“We want to go there anyway,” Kendra said.“Not through the front door, we don’t,” Olga said. “The plan was to slip in, grab Eugene, and then slip out. Remember? Now, we’ll have to march through the front entrance to present Ari to them and hope that we’re wrong about them and that they’ll give her the help that she needs before letting us leave.”“I’ve heard
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Since it was a given that Trudy would not be their best way to get the queen’s cooperation, they searched for Gilda. It took some time to track her down, but they finally found her as she was coming out of a large, modest looking, red brick building.“What are you doing wandering about?” she scolded. “You’re supposed to remain in the guest house until summoned.”“We need to see the queen,” Kendra bluntly informed her.Gilda studied them for an excruciatingly long moment before nodding. “She’d have called for you soon, anyway. Follow me.”To their surprise, she turned on her heels and reentered the modest looking building that she’d just exited. They gave each other a curious look before hurrying to catch up with her. Given that she was twice their size, her legs allowed her to walk at a pace that demanded that they -Rex included- practically jog to
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“The queen is refusing to help Ari go to Center Land until Olga is finished using their lab,” Felix grumbled as he plopped his body into a large, overstuffed chair. Letting one of his legs dangle over the chair arm, he sarcastically complained, “She’s fit to be tied about them removing her leg. I can’t wait to tell her about this.”Even though it did nothing for either of them, their intimate interaction, and the news that they weren’t blood relatives had altered Kendra and Felix’s relationship just enough to make her uncomfortable in dealing with him. Because of this, and her annoyance with Ari, her tone of voice was far more aggressive than she’d intended. “She needs to show a bit more gratitude to those who went out of their way to save her life.”Felix gave her a look of surprise before putting himself in check. He wasn’t accustomed to her using that tone of voice
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Despite the fact that Dr. Mac hovered over her every move, Olga managed to complete the alteration of the virus in the matter of a few days without the good doctor grasping too much of the formula. It wasn’t that Olga was being greedy as much as it was that, until she completely trusted these unusual people, she didn’t want them to have access to something so valuable.With the formula completed, the next step was to get the queen’s permission to test it on the alien.“The queen captured the prisoner two years hence,” Dr. Mac said, thoughtfully. “It was creeping around our perimeter. No one knows why. It won’t speak. We have a treaty with the aliens, so our queen contacted their leader to complain about it and the leader told us to kill the intruder. It’s amazing how little they care for each other; or any living thing, for that matter. The queen couldn’t justify killing the alien simply beca
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The thick, brick that made up three of the walls to the alien’s cell was painted white, as was the floor. The front wall of the cell consisted of a clear, thick, unbreakable material that resembled plexiglass, but was called something that Olga had never heard of. There was a cot, a chair, and a commode in the otherwise barren twelve by twelve foot confine.Sitting on the chair was the alien. Other than the thick collar around its neck, it was completely naked. Its flesh looked like golden honey with a hint of a green hue when the light reflected off it.Since the alien was as large as the amazon women, it filled the cell a lot more than Olga or a member of her party would have. An immediate sense of claustrophobia hit her as she studied the foreign humanoid.Dr. Mac watched Olga with amusement. “Have you never seen one of these creatures before?”“Why is it naked?” Olga asked with concern.
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“We should be able to move on in another day or so,” Olga said as she settled herself onto the arm of the chair that Arthur was resting in. “I’ve injected an alien with the altered virus.”“They have an alien on premises?” Kendra gasped with nervous trepidation.Seeing her reaction, Olga gave her a gentle smile. “He’s been locked in a cell below ground for two years. We’re safe from him.”“I’ve never seen an alien,” Alice mused as she leaned against the back of Felix’s chair.Realizing that she was standing behind him, Felix stood up and offered the chair to her. Impressed by his act of chivalry, she smiled and accepted while suggesting that he sit on the arm like Olga was. His brief hesitation made her instantly aware of her skin affliction. Because of this, his consequent warm smile, and the casual way that he eventually settled
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It was day number two before Olga received word that the alien was showing signs of the virus taking over his body from the orderlies who had been monitoring him around the clock.Like with humans, the first thing to shift on him was his motor skills. Depending upon their genetics, humans reacted to the virus at various levels. Although it was the least common, some still retained a semblance of humanity along with the ability to reason while other’s minds checked out to the point that they were walking vegetables with only one focus… to chew on all living things. Olga hoped that the aliens became walking vegetables. It would be easier to deal with them if they did.It was difficult, at first glance, to tell an intelligent zombie from a vegetable-like zombie, since they all lost a good deal of control over their motor skills. It was through interaction that the intelligent ones stood out, since they were able to maneuver and m
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Center Land (Book 3 of Kendra's Journey) Chapter Forty-Eight
It took two days of traveling over what they considered treacherous ground to reach Hope. Between keeping their eyes open for newly made alien and amazon zombies and the wild beasts- many of which were prehistoric- their nerves were completely spent by the time they stumbled into Arthur’s house.Alice was sitting on the porch when she spotted them coming down the hill toward the village. Racing into the house, she frantically prepared him for their arrival.Although Arthur was relieved that his love had returned to him and eager to hold her in his arms again, he dreaded having to give the group the news of Ari’s demise. He’d struggled for days to think of the right way to tell them and had yet to come up with it.Pete’s absence was immediately noticed. Although Arthur was saddened, he wasn’t surprised by the news that his friend had succumbed to the virus. Pete wasn’t immune to it and, therefore, was taking a
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Luck was with them as they slipped through the door and scurried across the wide, well-lit corridor and into the shadows. There was no sign of life, but they dared not speak. Drawing from her experience as a prisoner in the past, Kendra behaved as she had while escaping from the alien camp on the surface and slipped from shadow to shadow as silently as possible.Once again, Olga telepathically spoke to Kendra. “These bastards speak a crazy language, but I managed to decipher the location of Eugene. Look for a door with two ‘X’s’, an upside down ‘V’ and an ‘O’ on it in the west wing. That’s where he is. Hurry, they’re preparing to send a search party out for our bodies.”Feeling the pressure of the urgency, Kendra motioned for Pete and Felix to follow her as she turned a corner and began surveying the writing on the doors. They were already in the west wing, but she saw nothi
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The trio cautiously made their way to the south wall of the settlement in hopes of encountering fewer zombies. They had no choice but to cross a small clearing, but managed to escape notice from the guards patrolling the walls. Fortunately, the zombies that they were forced to battle were ones that had regressed to a manageable state of brain dead and were fairly easy to eliminate.Once they’d reached the wall, Pete looked for signs of a possible entry, but could find none. Although she wasn’t as certain about what to look for, Kendra also searched the exterior of the settlement with her eyes, but saw nothing as well.“We might be too close,” Pete mused. “After all, it would be an escape tunnel.”“Where would it come out, then?” Kendra asked with angst. This was a new situation for both of them. She couldn’t be upset with Pete or Felix for not thinking about that before they’d ri
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Kendra was concerned.Rex was in trance for what she deemed an excessive length of time. What could he possibly be seeing that would take him so long? She was seriously considering joining him in trance to find out, but, then, thought better of it.Moving close to her aunt she whispered, “Do you think that one of us should go into trance to see what’s happening? He might need to be pulled back.”Olga knit her brows together. She’d been thinking the very same thing. It had never happened to her, but she’d heard about visionaries getting stuck in a vision and needing assistance coming back. It was a rare occurrence, but it did happen.She grabbed her niece’s hand and held it to her heart. “It must be me who goes in to see what’s up. If he’s stuck, you aren’t adept enough to bring him back.”She knew that her aunt spoke the truth, but the realit
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Kendra was surprised at how close they were to Center Land. The temptation to enter the city and demand the return of her son was almost all consuming. It took extreme willpower to continue on past it toward the alien’s settlement.“Do you think that alien in the amazon’s cell was from this place?” she asked as they carefully slipped behind a large boulder and looked down upon the modest sized alien settlement.Even though it was modest, it was still impressive. The walls were lined with barbed wire that made the community look more like a prison than a place of residence. Looking off in the distance, they soon learned the reason for the set up. With eyes wide with surprise, they watched as several zombies cooperated with each other to create a mound high enough for one of them to climb over the wall. When it reached the top and grabbed onto the wire, a visible jolt of electricity practically fried it to a crisp.
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Arthur insisted that Olga, Kendra, Rex, Felix, and Pete make haste on their very important mission. Promising to tend to Ari as best he could, he waited until they were well out of sight before turning to Alice.With a frown on his face, he asked with concern, “What do you think, Alice? Do you think she’ll even make it to Hope?”The severe wrinkles on her face made it almost difficult to tell that the young woman’s brows were knit together as she looked down at Ari. “She’s in pretty bad shape. I thought that they were saving her life. It looks more like they were keeping her alive for some reason that didn’t require good health.”Arthur shuddered. “They were a deceiving bunch, wouldn’t you say? All that talk about peace and caring for mankind. I wonder why they really kicked out those rogues. From what I could see, they weren’t any worse than t
Center Land (Book 3 of Kendra's Journey) Chapter Forty-Two
As agreed between Olga and Rex, they informed Kendra of their plans, but nothing was said to the others about them. The main reason was that it was unclear if they’d be successful and, since Alice and Pete weren’t behaving as cooperatively as they’d hoped, they didn’t want anyone doing or saying something to make things go awry.As she’d predicted, Olga replaced the batch of virus that was taken from her with a fresh supply while the guards overseeing her assumed that she was working on the antidote. She cautiously slipped several vials into her lab coat pocket before announcing that it was nearing lunch time and she was excessively hungry to the point that it was interfering with her work. She wanted to be returned to her cell so that she didn’t miss the lunch meal.Since she was required to change clothes before leaving the lab, she slipped behind the screen they’d provided to appease her modesty under the g
Center Land (Book 3 of Kendra's Journey) Chapter Forty-One
Kendra sucked in air as a vision of Queen Isabo appeared before her. The amazon queen was standing amongst a small group of aliens. It was Kendra’s first view of the aliens occupying inner earth. They looked exactly like the ones on the surface. She shuddered with repulsion as the memories of her time as their prisoner fluttered through her mind.Pushing the unsettling thoughts away as best as she could, she focused on the conversation that was taking place between the amazon queen and the alien who was clearly of status. They were speaking a language that was foreign to Kendra, but their tones and facial expressions led her to believe that their interaction was friendly.Her heart raced wildly with remembrance and trepidation as the rogue amazon leader, Minerva, walked up to them. Kendra recognized most of the rogues following her from her time in their camp. They stood a short distance away from their leader as they wai
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By the time Arthur and Alice were thrust into the cell, the group had come up with a solution for their lack of privacy that gave them some semblance of comfort while taking care of personal needs. The women had seriously considered pointing out their dilemma and asking to be moved to a separate cell, but, then, thought better of it. Staying together would allow them the chance to put their wits to work as a unified group and come up with a means of escape. So, when nature called, they swallowed their pride and braced themselves to endure the humiliation as they made the announcement of their body’s need so that the others could stand with their backs turned toward the individual until the person announced that all was clear.The lack of consideration for their comfort and modesty made Kendra equate the amazons to aliens on the surface who treated humans like they were no better than animals.Several hours passed before Olga was yanked from the
