Forever Until Tomorrow (War Eternal Book 5) Read Online Free PDF Page B

maybe he had just gotten used to the pain. The doctors had always told him that they were the reason he couldn't remember. That he had been so traumatized by whatever had caused the burns that his mind had shut it out, along with everything else. He didn't believe them.  
    There was a reason he couldn't remember, but he was certain it wasn't that. He had become so accustomed to the burning sensation in his skin, even all of these years later, that he barely ever noticed it anymore.  
    A few days earlier, he had told Father John that he was waiting. Then his mind had changed in a way he had never experienced before. His dreams, his nightmares, had entered his waking thoughts, the wall between them breaking down and all of the darkness raging in. The priest had seen it. He knew by the way he had reacted, almost falling over and killing himself to escape. Somehow, Reggie had managed to push the tide back, to force himself to calm down and breathe.  
    Slow.  
    Steady.
    Father John had been back, of course. The old man was too determined to save his soul to let one episode like that chase him away. He had asked about his thoughts, and Reggie had pushed him back the way he always did. It was better that nobody else got involved. It was better if nobody else got hurt.
    That was the crux of it. The bottom line of his nightmares. Death. Destruction. Everything he cared about turned to ash in silent flame.  
    And always at the center of it, a voice. A soothing, comforting voice that had turned more and more caustic over the years.  
    "Find her," it said. "You have forever until tomorrow, but not forever until the end. You'll know when the time has come."
    It was a statement that had haunted him in the beginning, as he tried to work out the meaning. It had puzzled him, confused him, taunted him, agonized him. It had brought him to fits of anger and rage and frustration. It had left him sobbing on the floor.  
    In his nightmares, he was in space, surrounded by explosions and wreckage and debris. The Earth hung below him, calm and unaware. The ships sat above him, the tips of their pyramid-shaped bows pointed at her, with glowing balls of death building on the ends.  
    His brother was gone. His companion was gone. His friends and comrades were all gone. He couldn't remember their names or their faces, but he could feel them in his gut, and he could feel the punches again and again every time he saw them die.
    Was it real?  
    It felt real. It felt true.  
    He was certain he was crazy.
    He dropped to his hands and feet on the floor, resting his body in plank position for thirty seconds, before rising and falling, pulsing out a quick rhythm of push-ups. He stopped when he reached one hundred, standing up and letting his breathing relax. His body tingled from the exertion, but he felt strong. After thirty seconds, he repeated the motion again.  
    He had made sure to continue the routine from the time his arms had been healed enough to stand the pain. It was familiar to him; something so ingrained that he knew that somewhere, sometime, he had been trained to do it. He had to keep his body in shape. It became more important as he aged. He was still fit, still strong. He needed to be, even if he didn't know exactly why.
    He had seen the news earlier. He had noticed it for the first time he could remember, as more than a buzzing in his head, as more than a distraction. His dreams of starships weren't completely insane. He knew one had crashed on the same night they found him. Maybe that was the cause of the nightmares? But that had happened thousands of kilometers away from where he was, so how could those things be connected?  
    He also knew that they had built one of their own. A starship. They were calling it the Dove, a symbol of peace for the whole world. Was the violence in his mind a warning? Was humankind not supposed to reach the stars?
    "Find her," the voice had said. A young girl's voice. Who was she? "You'll know when the