#The darkness ii go back for relic skin#

The same man who had deemed her a slave at first glance ordered, “Get her off the ramp before that creamy skin burns. In raggedy underclothes, head pounding, muscles noodley, Eugenia found the strength to lean up on an elbow and spit every drop of life-saving water in her mouth at the traitor.

If you don’t work, you get tossed over with the rest who failed to pull their weight.” Or maybe there was just nothing but evil. That’s why he suggested the shortcut when his whining never won her. That’s why the pussy kept pushing for City. John had been planning to sell her all along. Right then, right when that water hit her gut, she knew it. allowed him to travel with her and glimpse the precious map.Įven though someone held a canteen to her lips, even when clean water warmed by the sun splashed her tongue and was gulped. How dare he! After she’d hunted for him, shared resources. Her companion coughed, then sucked in a breath to say, “Brought the girl for sale. You got air conditioning on this ship?”Ī masculine chuckle was the only answer supplied. Eugenia, still blinded by the sun but doing her damnedest to point her eyes in the direction of the dark figure hovering closest, muttered, “Mister, just tell me one thing. The sounds of her companion being pulled from the water, of his sputtering and coughing, were ignored. Trying to swat off the attention was almost more effort than her exhausted muscles might put forth. “Well, aren’t you a pretty one?” Someone was pawing at her face, turning her chin and brushing wet, red curls off her cheek. Fingers reached the bobbing gangplank, having somehow passed the boat, somehow passed John, who splashed in her wake.Ī stranger’s firm hands pulled her from the lake, where she fell immediately to her back, staring up at a sun so blinding she couldn’t make out the shadowed faces standing over her. Delirious, the body fought the mind and she cut through the water like a fish. The human condition wouldn’t let her sink. Off went the hat, the backpack with her precious volumes, the outer layers that would come between her filthy skin and cool, murky water.

That she was smarter than leading them on a merry chase through dead woods. Men who looked large and well fed.Ĭonsidering it was so fucking hot, why not take a final swim? Potentially drowning in that lake would be better than dying under strangers, chased down by the men earnestly slicing oars through water to reach her.

She didn’t have the strength to swim.īut no way on God’s dead earth was she going to stand on the shore and be collected. Or, wait for the party already boarding a dinghy to come chase her down in the woods. Swim across the lake and face whatever might be found on her terms. Men pointing right at her as if to say, “Collect that.” “John, come back!” But he ignored her, swimming on.Īnd she could see those few gathered outside were armed. Filtration systems that pumped out water she could actually drink. There was a red-carpeted gangplank leading up to the upper levels, welcoming passengers as if they were about to take Eugenia’s dreamed-of cruise to the Bahamas. This wasn’t a good place if no one knew about it and no map she’d seen marked a moored, massive ship large enough to hold thousands.īut there were people on the landing, coming out at John’s hollering. Who uses electricity when the sun is up? That awful gut feeling that kept her as safe as one might be in this new world clenched so hard it stole her breath. Splashing through sludge, having left his valuables right there on the shore, he dove in, swimming toward the enormous, shining boat. “Wait.” The word was dry, so dry that even though she tried to stop him, John had already begun to run toward the shore. And that she’d gone too long without hydration and was hallucinating. That electricity didn’t exist in the no man’s land on her map.

#The darkness ii go back for relic full#

Knowing full well that an ocean liner had no business in a freshwater lake. Shamefully daydreaming of air conditioning and a soft bed. Which meant water.Īlready making a mental list of the crap in her pack, trying to scrounge up any idea of what to trade for a full canteen. Yet, a glitter broke through the copse of decaying trees.