The Pandemic Sequence (Book 3): The Tilian Cure Read Online Free PDF Page B

she wondered quite honestly if the sorrow would eventually overwhelm her. And if so, what was it waiting for? It was not until she settled upon returning to New Cuba and facing Duncan that the smallest flicker of purpose shone from the distant end of the dark tunnel of her mind. It was vengeance that drove her now, she realized, and there was a nagging fear that once repayment had been met, the void of sorrow temporarily staved off would consume her entirely.
    The dark thoughts kept her silent during the drive, robbing Matt of any conversation he may have wished to pursue. So new to her world, Michelle was grateful that the man could read her mood. Perhaps because he was only recently added to the small circle of people with whom she could place her trust, she preferred his company to the others. With him, when she looked at his face or managed to find words, there were not the ceaseless reminders of Andrew. As much as she valued Erik, especially his refusal to leave her side in the days after, every part of him spoke of the shared memories. Selfish or not, she could not bear to see her pain, her loss, mirrored in the eyes of Mike, Lisa, and Erik.
    “How far have we gone?” she asked Matt, the first she had spoken in over an hour.
    Startled enough by her breaking of the silence to visibly flinch, Matt looked down at the Humvee’s odometer before answering. “Only forty-seven miles.” Between the crowding on the weather-worn roads and the slower speed their towing vehicle necessitated, little ground had been covered in the nearly two hours since they departed the military base. “Probably another few hours if we keep the same pace,” he continued. “Are you hungry? Do you want to stop for a bit?”
    “No, I’m okay,” she replied with as much honesty as she could manage. “Unless you need to?”
    “Nah, the sooner we’re on the water, the safer I’ll feel.”
    “Did you grow up around boats?” Michelle realized, somewhat guiltily, that she knew little about her companion. From their night-shrouded escape from New Cuba, to the discovery of the military base and all that followed, Matt had simply been a presence, albeit one that had certainly assured her own survival.
    “Yeah, my dad was the owner of a small marina in Miami. Well, he started out as a mechanic, but eventually bought the place a few years before the virus,” he told her. From the slight scratch in his voice as he spoke, Michelle remembered that everyone had their own set of painful memories. “We had a small house boat that we lived on when I was little. Couldn’t afford a real house, but the guy who hired my father let him keep the boat there for free.”
    “That must have been amazing, though. Always on the water,” she said with an easy sigh. For Michelle, a life on the open seas, or simply on a beach, was overly romanticized, no doubt due to being raised quite poor in the land-locked state of Tennessee.
    With a mild laugh, Matt explained. “It is now, but back then I was always jealous of my friends with backyards. I used to love going over to their houses and just feeling the grass on my feet. But, now I realize we had a much bigger backyard… the Atlantic.”
    “You know, I had never been to the beach, I mean a real beach, until we left for Cuba.”
    “No way! That was your first time to a beach? I can’t believe it. What did you think when you got there?”
    “Well, we were being shot at and chased by Tils at the time, so it wasn’t really the best experience.” As she said the words, Michelle was surprised to feel the distantly familiar tug of a smile at the corners of her mouth. For the next while, she and Matt talked about youth, finding much commonality in the meager means by which both their families had lived. It was easy to share those stories with him since they were from a time before Andrew. The memories were not painful reminders of his absence.
    As time passed unnoticed and the distance travelled increased, the