Spore Series | Book 4 | Exist Read online

  EXIST

  SPORE Series

  Book 4

  By

  Kenny Soward

  Mike Kraus

  © 2020 Muonic Press Inc

  www.muonic.com

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  www.kennysoward.com

  [email protected]

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  www.MikeKrausBooks.com

  [email protected]

  www.facebook.com/MikeKrausBooks

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, without the permission in writing from the author.

  Table of Contents

  Preface

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

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  Special Thanks

  Special thanks to my awesome beta team, without whom this book wouldn’t be nearly as great.

  Thank you!

  SPORE Book 5

  Available Here

  Preface

  Last time in SPORE...

  In Ft. Collins, Colorado, Bishop Shields grew restless to make contact with his wife, Kim. He suited up in protective clothing, hopped in his truck and drove to the local football stadium to search for a satellite phone.

  He navigated the downtown streets in his SUV, gawking at the crashed cars and scores of fungus-riddled bodies strewn everywhere. Bishop parked, stepped out, and headed for the stadium. Inside the gates, he descended a stairwell onto the field where the military and FEMA resources had set up camp.

  He searched the grounds and surrounding vehicles, collecting guns and air filtration masks along the way. As he looted the valuable items, a feral growl drew his attention to a pack of wild dogs feasting on corpses nearby. Armed and ready to fight, Bishop squared off with the animals but backed away when the beasts didn’t attack.

  He turned his focus to the fifty-yard line where five abandoned prefab buildings sat in the dark. Military personnel lay dead around the entrance, surrounded by massacred civilians. It was clear a terrible fight had taken place, though Bishop couldn’t say what had happened, or why.

  He stepped over the bodies and entered the main structure. In the control room, a dozen computer operators slouched in their seats, covered in the black fuzz. Cursors blinked on blank screens, requesting passwords he didn’t have.

  Bishop found the primary switchboard room with two dead officers inside. His eyes were drawn to a control panel with a satellite phone resting on top. In his anxiousness, he snatched up the device but froze at the sound of another deep growl, this one more ferocious than the beasts outside.

  He turned to find a snarling Rottweiler standing over a dead, half-eaten guard. Fungus mottled the dog’s black and brown coat, and its eyes glared at him full of pain and hatred.

  The beast leapt at him, and Bishop caught it as it pinned him against the wall. He held the snarling, snapping maw away from his face, receiving a bite on the wrist for his trouble. With a cry of rage, he hurled the Rottweiler through the back wall, grabbed the satellite phone, and scrambled from the control room with the dog fast on his heels.

  Once outside, Bishop escaped and returned to his SUV. He drove home, eager to clean up the vicious bite. Could animals spread the fungal infection through their saliva? Could the tainted air infect his blood through his wound?

  Arriving home, Bishop quarantined himself in his basement to keep his children safe. Then he tried the satellite phone and called all the numbers he knew to reach his wife. When no one answered, he dialed 911 and reached the military’s emergency switchboard. An operator named Alex promised to help him find Kim, though it would take time.

  Days passed before he heard from Alex again. When he did, it was with positive news. She connected him to Lieutenant Colonel Bryant who then transferred him to Kim where she was travelling in her bus. In a tearful reunion, the Shields traded stories about their adventures and the dangers they’d faced. Bishop was elated to hear she was on her way to Ft. Collins, and he promised to stay home and wait for her, so they wouldn’t miss each other on the road.

  When Bishop didn’t hear from her, he took matters into his own hands. He packed up the kids and hit the road to meet her.

  Kim was on the road when she passed through Indianapolis, and Colony forces tried to capture her. They planted a little girl and her “wounded” mother in an apartment building, calling for help over the CB channels to lure in travelers. It was only by Randy Tucker’s intervention, and warning, that Kim stayed one step ahead of the enemy and navigated around the city without being caught.

  Kim kept a steady course, gassing up in Kansas before embarking on the longest leg of her journey to Ft. Collins. On the way, her automated management interface (AMI) detected a vehicle stalking the bus. Kim stopped the bus, got out, challenged the intruder. When she recognized it was the mercenary, Richtman, she tried to sneak up on him, but he slipped away. After a brief shootout, she withdrew to the safety of her bus and continued to Ft. Collins. She stopped long enough to block the man from following her by pushing several vehicles together into the middle of the road with her bus.

  Richtman broke through Kim’s barrier and later jumped ahead of her, crippling the bus by throwing down a spike belt in front of it. Trapped inside, Kim sat helpless as he shot at the vehicle and damaged its delicate equipment. Unwilling to let that happen, she took her rifle and an extension ladder outside and climbed to the top of the bus. She fired back at the mercenary, wounding him as he sprinted for cover. He retaliated by lighting the bus on fire and forcing her down where they fought to the death. In the scuffle, Kim stripped away his filtration mask and exposed him to the tainted air just before he knocked her out.

  When Kim woke, she was tied up and her face ached with pain from the blows she’d sustained. The sneering Richtman demanded she open the bus, so he could have access to the Asphyxia serum she and Paul had developed. Kim stalled, waiting for the right time to strike. She knew he’d kill her once he had the cure.

  The thug wised up to her scheme and struck her again before she escaped. On her hands and knees, Kim expected to die. A familiar figure interrupted the moment. A girl appeared, marching along the side of the road, distracting the mercenary. Kim was shoc
ked to see it was her daughter, Riley!

  She thought Richtman would capture the girl, but her husband, Bishop, crept up behind him and knocked him out with one blow of an aluminum bat. Then he dragged the thug away and killed him.

  Reunited at last, Kim wept as her family cut her bonds and embraced her beaten body.

  Back in Indianapolis, days before meeting Kim, Randy escaped the Colony with Jenny and Tricia and fell into the hands of rebel fighters led by a man named John. They were driven to camp and allowed to stay and rest while they decided what to do.

  As part of their payment, the twins agreed to take warehouse jobs while Tricia recovered from her leg wound. In return, they received food, shelter, and the company of friends.

  John allowed Randy to go on a reconnaissance mission with a scout named Dodger. The fast-talking man took him out in his Tesla SXP100D and ran circles around the slower Colony vehicles. While out on patrol, they overheard the enemy trying to trap Kim as she passed through the city, luring her in with a little girl and her wounded mother. Despite Dodger’s objections, Randy grabbed the CB and warned Kim about the trap. They laid down cover fire as she escaped the Colony vehicles in her bus.

  That display of foolhardiness earned Randy another meeting with John, who wasn’t happy that he’d put the camp at risk. Randy apologized and promised to do better. The leader allowed the twins and Tricia to stay, provided they kept their heads down and remembered to respect the community.

  True to his word, Randy put his nose to the grindstone and worked hard, settling into a routine and further developing his relationship with Tricia. Things grew uneasy when a former scavenger named Kirk showed up at the warehouse. Kirk had sabotaged the twins back at the Colony, and Randy thought he was shifty and mean. He didn’t trust his presence in the camp and dedicated himself to keeping an eye on him.

  In Chinle, Arizona, Moe Tsosie and John Wolf led an excursion to Window Rock, the seat of the Navajo Nation. They rode across the desert on quad motorcycles to investigate why the military had cut communication between the two cities. Once there, they hid their ATVs and snuck through the modest subdivisions in the middle of the night. When they reached John’s sister at her home, they were horrified to find she and her family were infected with Asphyxia. An army patrol chased them away, but not before the woman told them the entire town was on lockdown and no one could leave.

  As they fled, a soldier shot and killed John and his son, leaving Moe and John’s daughter-in-law, Aponi, to return to Chinle alone. Back at Moe’s house, he formed a plan with her to notify the town elders to discuss what happened. In the meantime, Moe revisited the FEMA camp, concerned the Asphyxia fungus might have taken control there like it had in Window Rock. As he searched for Sage and the other medical staff, he saw the first signs of trouble when a woman died of the infection right before his eyes.

  He found Sage and Dr. Brandi Reemer as the camp fell into chaos. The soldiers tried to separate the sick people from the general population, but the refugees fought back, overwhelming the soldiers and turning their guns on them in a full-blown insurrection. Bloodshed ruled the night, and hundreds died. In the melee, Moe escaped with Sage while Brandi broke off in search of her people, promising to meet them the following day. The two retreated to Moe’s house, hoping everyone made it out alive.

  The next day, they still hadn’t heard anything from Brandi. Moe and Sage struck out on horseback to scout Chinle for themselves. They carefully circled the town, discovering that refugees had taken over. They looted and burned businesses and destroyed property, leaving the city a smoking ruin.

  From a distance, they smelled the stench of scorched bodies and watched sooty fires rise into the sky. Moe used binoculars to scout the FEMA camp and saw it was also overrun by defected soldiers and refugees. He spotted Brandi and her doctors where they were held captive in the main surgical building.

  With the help of Rex and Sage, Moe waited until the cover of darkness and snuck to the edge of camp, killing a pair of guards. From there, he posed as a guard himself and discovered that a group called the Light and Venom Commune had taken over, led by a man named Carver. In disguise, Moe talked his way into the surgical building where Brandi and her medical team jumped him. He quickly revealed his identity to them, and they made plans to escape.

  Moe formed the team into a line posing as prisoners and then marched them toward the edge of camp. A young guard asked if he was taking them to be executed, and Moe responded that he was. The guard joined them, hoping to get in on the fun, only to be surprised when they reached the outskirts and Moe put a bullet in his head.

  The sound alerted the camp, and in the ensuing flight, several medical personnel were shot and guards killed. The fugitives raced across the desert on foot, helping each other as the camp mobilized to stop them. Rex met them halfway in his truck, Brandi and her team and jumped aboard. Rex drove the survivors to safety while Moe and Sage escaped on horseback, fleeing under a hail of gunfire.

  Carver’s people pursued Moe to his house where the truck driver engaged them in a pitched battle. His favorite horse, Rust, was killed in the fight. Enraged, he turned into a cold-blooded killer and disposed of a dozen of his enemies before Captain Melissa Bryant swooped in with her marine helicopter and bailed him out.

  In Yellow Springs, Jessie Talby and Lieutenant Colonel Scott Bryant held down Paul’s lab as the mycologist tweaked his Asphyxia cure.

  Burke Birkenhoff had other plans. To keep from being tied to mankind’s destruction, he called in a special forces agent named Lexi to destroy Paul’s lab and their defenders once and for all.

  Thanks to a radio control drone piloted by Jessie, they spotted the incoming threat and prepared for battle. Bryant held the intruders off in the underground garden while Jessie, Paul, and Fiona escaped through a service tunnel.

  After hearing explosions behind them, Jessie returned to Bryant’s side where they stood their ground. She fired multiple times at the enemy before a return round ripped through her shoulder. As a last resort, the lieutenant colonel blew up the tunnel and pulled Jessie to safety.

  The passage led to Paul’s home, where Bryant carried Jessie upstairs to recover. The soldier cleaned her wound, revealing that she had a bullet lodged in her shoulder, though they didn’t have the tools or skills to properly remove it. Jessie choked down some bourbon to ease the pain.

  That evening, she woke to an explosion and gunfire rattling the house. Pistol in her left hand, groggy from sleep, she staggered into the hallway to see Bryant descending the stairs with just a knife for a weapon. Jessie spotted an intruder sneaking along the stairwell wall beneath him, so she fired and killed the man.

  The mercenary, Lexi, engaged Bryant in a fierce hand-to-hand brawl that almost killed the soldier. Luckily, Jessie got a shot in, frightening the intruder and leaving her friend wounded but alive.

  Paul and Fiona came up from the basement, ecstatic to find everyone okay. The mycologist checked Bryant’s wounds and stressed the need for a scavenging run to acquire proper medical supplies.

  As they took stock of their condition, four of General Miller’s troops arrived as test subjects for Paul’s treatment. They held Burke Birkenhoff between them, captured by seemingly sheer luck. Enraged to see his nemesis, Paul charged the man and tackled him into the yard, seeking revenge for the misery he’d brought to the world. Jessie stopped him, realizing they might need him down the road.

  We start the next installment with Moe Tsosie and his friends as they meet with Carver to discuss terms of a deal.

  And now, SPORE Book 4.

  Chapter 1

  Moe, Chinle, Arizona

  The Ford pickup wove out of Canyon de Chelly and descended to the canyon’s narrow foot. The wheels spun through a shallow creek, spitting mud and rocks before finding purchase in the dry dirt.

  Three people hunkered in the truck bed, clinging to the sides as they bounced around. The noon sunlight reflected on their heads like honey and glinted off puddles on
the canyon’s dirt floor.

  Moe stared ahead, taking comfort in the pistol clipped to his hip. He glanced across the truck bed at Captain Melissa Bryant. The soldier carried two handguns and a knife strapped to her calf.

  She nodded and stared back at him with blue eyes beneath a pair of striking eyebrows. Sheriff Ahiga crouched down behind the cab, holding onto the roof as he peered over it toward the canyon’s entrance.

  The canyon floor blossomed with brush and grasses, a vibrant green brought on by the rains. The sky glowed a bright blue, filled with large, puffy clouds like spilled cotton balls.

  The ancient red rocks, rising up hundreds of feet on both sides of them, embraced them. Water and wind erosion painted the rough stone with pale striations. Boulders and gravel lay at the base of the cliffs’ sheer faces.

  Rex guided the pickup truck onto a dirt track that wound out of the canyon, and the wheels stabilized on drier ground, smoothing the ride. Moe shifted his position, his ankle still aching after last week’s fall. While defending his home, he’d acquired bruises and scrapes, and his right arm was dislocated. It was still stiff days after Melissa popped it back into its socket.

  He’d been lucky. The escape from the FEMA camp had been harrowing, and he estimated they’d fired a few hundred rounds at him. Yet, he’d come out relatively unscathed. He regretted that Rust hadn’t been so fortunate, and he’d mourned the horse like a lost friend.

  It would serve to remind him how violent and unrelenting Carver and his people were. The Chinle folk must be careful dealing with them and trusting them to any degree wasn’t an option.

  Carver.

  He remembered the man and his hippy group when they’d first come into camp as refugees in their oddly painted bus. They were strange, dark and dangerous looking people. And he recalled one of their followers arrived snake-bit under mysterious circumstances. Now the cult controlled the FEMA camp and all the military weaponry that came with it.