Akuba shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. “We are where we belong,” she said without any remorse. “And the rest?”
Slaider stared at his feet again. “Many of those touched by the Kra Puru left with Doctor Davies for the resort, after he came through a couple of days ago. Last night—" he paused to clear his throat. “Last night, those of us that remained were attacked.”
Jess decided she didn’t want to hear the rest, but couldn’t figure out a way to leave without it being obvious that she was scared. In her new role as the confident, mature Jess who could handle pulling her own weight, she felt she needed to prove herself. Nervously chewing at the inside of her cheek, she reconsidered her choices.
“Attacked by who?” Kavish asked.
“Not who, but what.” Slaider looked up then, and it was apparent how terrified he was just talking about it. “In all my life, I’ve never seen anything like it. A shadow of jaguars. As many as a dozen. When they… finished, there were only a handful of us left, and we ran in different directions. I had heard of others being brought here from the hospital, and found myself walking in this direction without really thinking much about it. I didn’t expect to find you here,” he added, looking again at Akuba.
“We’re glad you came,” Akuba reassured him. “But we are not without our own troubles.” She turned to Kavish. “Something has attacked the chickens. Recently, and with a bloodlust I have not witnessed before.”
Jess bounced anxiously on the balls of her feet, eager to retreat back to the house. She was already thinking of the extra candles she was going to pull out of storage, and where she would place them. Night was still hours away, but she saw no problem in planning ahead.
“I’ll go with you,” Slaider immediately offered to Kavish. “If you have weapons, we should ready them.”
“We have a couple of rifles,” Kavish confirmed. “But we could use more ammo.”
Slaider was shaking his head emphatically. “That won’t be enough. We must go in search of more tomorrow. How many of the Immune are here now?”
Jess frowned, confused by the question. “What do you mean?”
Glancing at Jess, Slaider then stared intensely at Akuba. “You know the past better than most. There is a war coming, and we have to prepare.”
Jess’s scowl deepened. She didn’t like what he was implying. “You’re talking about an ancient story from two-thousand years ago. I’m not about to be a part of planning how to attack and kill my own dad.”
“No one will be doing any such thing,” Akuba declared, glaring at Slaider. “We appreciate your offer to help protect the animals, and we will gladly take you up on it. Anyone is welcome here, so long as they are willing to work and contribute. But that is where it ends, Slaider. We’re all simply trying to survive, and I won’t have past stories used to encourage a fictional conflict.”
“This has nothing to do with my perception, and it certainly isn’t fictional,” Slaider insisted. “If what is happening at the Libi Nati Resort isn’t enough, then the unbalance in the animals of the Amazon should convince you. Sides must be chosen. It has been prophesized, Akuba. Surely, you remember that?”
Jess was already watching Akuba, and so she saw her immediate reaction at the mention of the prophecy. “What’s that?”
Akuba turned to her, and when she tried to look away without answering, Jess stepped forward and took her hand. “Please,” Jess pushed. “Tell me.”
“It is part of the ancient text on the walls of the Bergi Olo,” Akuba explained, reminding Jess of the location of the source of the Libi Nati. Letting out a heavy breath, she squinted at Kavish before looking at Jess again. “It has been translated many times over the years. This is the one shared by my mother: In the time of a great unrest, oceans will drain, lands will move, and a plague will be set free upon the Earth. As it has happened before, it will happen again, and only the chosen will endure.”
Jess was silent for a moment, as she considered the words carefully. “It happened before…” she muttered, her frown deepening. “You said the writing in the cave was thousands of years old.”
Akuba’s only confirmation was a slight bobble of her head.
“That means it has to be talking about another infection,” Jess gasped, understanding the implication. “A long time before the last Kra Puru.”
“Disi kai ala psa bifo,” Akuba whispered, reminding Jess of what she had said the first day of the MOHO event and the geyser eruption at the Libi Nati.
This has all happened before.
Chapter 4
PETA
Howard Air Force base, Panama
“Someone should wake him up.” Jason stared at Peta as he made the declaration, clearly indicting who he thought that someone was.
The man irritated her, and Peta wasn’t quite sure why. They’d hardly spoken to each other during the more than forty-eight hours since leaving the CDC lab, so she didn’t have much to go by. He’d spent most of his waking hours in the co-pilot seat, talking with Hernandez. The two of them apparently had tons in common and became fast friends. Which was the main reason she was annoyed that he was the one advocating to wake him up.
“You’re a doctor,” Peta reminded him, not moving from her spot. They were crammed into the back of the light utility helicopter. Hernandez had called it a UH something-or-other Lakota. All she knew was that it was pretty small, fast, and of course military, so lacked things like actual passenger seats or anything comfortable.
