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The Berg was rising toward the sky and Mark caught a quick glance of Alec looking at hih the , his eyes wide in shock Alecto hover just a few dozen feet above the ground; then Mark felt the s, which only led, wet bark--a sound that scared Mark more than the pain--somehow escaped his own throat
Alec pulled on hi from him below It felt as if his body had been put into one of thosehis bones and sinews He wondered if it was possible for his head to pop off, like a cork fro hirip on theframe; he beat at his captor’s arms, beat at them, clawed them The world was upside down, the valley floor like an earthen sky
Mark slipped out theseveral inches--a thunderbolt of pure terror flashed through hiain So dark blurred past his vision A black luht brown The hammer There was an awful thump and a crack and a screauy’s face
The rip around Mark’s neck and he plu in the sweet air
Alec slowly pulled his body up and up, back through the , then crashed to the floor Still heaving to get his breath, Mark touched his sore neck
The old soldier looked at hi to have decided Mark would live, he stood, returned to the controls and lifted the Berg toward the sky
CHAPTER 45
Mark’s sto Alec took it straight up until it cleared the walls of the canyon, then sent it hurtling forward like it had been launched froe of nausea; he crawled on his hands and knees until he finally found a bathroo but bile and acid His throat burned as if he’d sed corrosive chemicals
He sat for a while, until he was able to walk back to the cockpit
"Food Please tell me there’s food," he croaked
"And water?" Alec asked hih the oldlanded somewhere first I’d just hover, but we can’t afford to waste all our fuel We’re gonna need it But I bet there’s so to shove down our throats in this hunk of junk Then we’ll go searching for our bonfire friends"
"Please," Mark muttered His eyelids drooped, and not because he was tired He kneas on the verge of passing out froone by since his last meal And the thirst His o," Alec said quietly "Just give ain and closed his eyes
He never quite lost consciousness
But the world felt disconnected, as if it were a play Mark atching fro on the floor With a few blankets over his head Sounds wereslowed, and then there was a rough bump that shook the ship, followed by silence and stillness Mark had a longAnd with it, the ht it, didn’t know if he could handle reliving the past at that mo to hio, son Pretty much a standard military meal, but it’s food and it’s full of nutrients Gonna perk you right up I flew us to an ehborhood between the bunker and don Asheville All the crazies seem to have fled the fire and headed south"
Mark opened his eyes, the lids so heavy he alers to lift them up Alec was blurry at first but then came into focus He held out a silvery foil that had chunks of … so on top It didn’t rabbed three of them and shoved the delicious--beautifully delicious--morsels into his mouth Salty and beefy But when it caet the jag that sent the food he couldn’t s into Alec’s face
His friend wiped it off "Nice Really nice"
"Water," Mark croaked out
"Yeah, I know Here" He held out a canteen and Mark could hear the liquid sloshing inside
Mark sat up, groaning froh his body at the movement
"Be careful," Alec said "Don’t drink too fast You’ll be sick"
"Okay" Mark took the canteen, paused to steady his hands, then brought it up and tipped the spout over his bottom lip Glorious, cool water rushed into his h, focused on sithout wasting a drop Then he drank soh," Alec warned "Now eat a few ht you from the mess cabinet"
Mark did, and this time it tasted even better Saltier and beefier With a wetted h he had the worst sore throat of his life A little strength seeped its way into his muscles His headache receded a bit The best news of all was that his nausea was gone
He felt just good enough that he wanted to sleep
"You look like a couple of the lightbulbs in your brain flicked back on," Alec said, sitting down He relaxed back against the wall and stuffed food into his mouth "This crap ain’t half bad, is it?"
"You shouldn’t talk with your mouth full," Mark replied with a weak smile "It’s not polite"
"I know" Alec craerated his"What kind of a person even needs to be told such a thing? I hed, and it hurt his chest and throat Made hih When he recovered, he asked, "So where did you take us, again?" Then he resu’s bunker was just west of Asheville So I ca this mountainside I spotted a lot of activity a couple ht be where all those people from our lovely bonfire experience fled to after they set the forest ablaze It seems quiet here"
He paused to take another bite "We’re parked in a cul-de-sac--a fancy-schot baked in an oven, that is Used to be a lot of rich folk outside Asheville, ya know Most of these homes are half ruined now"
"But what about--"