The First

Chapter 52

Ross returned from behind the tipped fire engine. Mud and blood dripped onto the road from a single boot in his right hand.

"There's bloody ..." He took a deep breath as he opened the door.

"... footprints leading into the field. I followed them. They'd cut and run north toward the semi." He geared up and threw the boot at the firetruck.

"The tri-allele's we encountered then?" She had to be sure. If he'd seen more than the original three, they'd all be in much worse danger than she initially anticipated.

"Yeah." He turned the truck around.

For some reason, she had a lapse of normal conduct. Before she realized it, she'd reached over, touched Ross's arm, and immediately retracted her hand back to her lap.

"I'm sorry about your friend."

"I don't think he ever told me his real name." Steel etched his eyes, not from the road ahead, but of a more dark and sinister nature.

"Maybe if we'd been quicker ... or if I would have followed them, he'd still be alive?"

"You can't ... would've, could've, should've, this. The physical and mental facts tell us much. Their motive is food and procreation. Everything else is semantics. Probably to scare us to death."

His fingers raked his hair back. An obvious habit he'd picked up probably as a teen and never stopped. Unlike other boys she had known, this man didn't have to flex, his arms barely fit into his short sleeves.

"What are you thinking about?"

You.

Stop Alexa. It's neither the time nor the place for such nonsense. Teagan would say, "Get a grip, Mom."

Grip or no grip, it wasn't going to happen. "I'm thinking we have to get back to my lab; fast and safe. No more jeopardizing the girl's lives." She'd be adamant about that.

Both girls had curled up on their respective bench seats and slept like they'd been given strong sedatives. They'd probably need some when they awakened. For now, she'd let them sleep. The blood on the shirt against her wound had dried and she tossed it to the floor. Since they had a bit of a drive before them and her head felt like a balloon ready to pop, rest wasn't a bad idea.

Alexa closed her eyes. The next time they opened, Ross had his shotgun in his lap and they'd taken the exit into Beaverton. Her logic senses overloaded.

A war zone. That's the best description she had for her hometown.

Ross fidgeted with the gun. "Can you believe this?"

"No. Why'd you get off the highway?"

"You think this is a mess? I won't even tell you what happened back there."

Flames sprouted from an overturned pickup they crept past. Abandoned and broken vehicles cluttered the streets. A ripped open torso dangled from a shattered window at Teagan's favorite Starbucks.

"I guess a group of Trills came through here?" Ross shook his head. His knees held the steering wheel while he checked the clip from the dart gun.

Swirls of light from stores and signs clashed against her eyes, deepening the resounding thumps in her head.

"Any of those left?"

He slapped the cartridge onto the seat.

"Empty."