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.Zack folded down a corner and surveyed the area, giving the all clear once he was certain they were alone.They crawled out from under the tree shaken, but alive.Zack wrapped the blanket around Madison, who was shivering uncontrollably.He looked up into the tree tops and then walked a few steps out onto the path.“Shit.” Zack muttered.“What?”“Take a look at this.”Madison joined Zack in the middle of the path.Her eyes grew wide.“Shit is right.”On the path, not more than fifteen feet from where they stood, lay one of the alien creatures and by the angle of its head it appeared to have a broken neck.“Looks like we got ourselves a specimen.” Zack said and walked over to the alien.25 THE DISCIPLESIn an eight by ten room with stark white walls, Austin sat contemplating when he was going to leave.Having spent the past two weeks learning the routine of the disciples and as much as he could about the Section’s layout, Austin was anxious to get topside.Based on his observations security was minimal, with the only functioning cameras being those located in the hallway outside the elevator.And, as far as he was able to ascertain, the elevator remained the only way in and out.The Disciples day to day activities didn’t vary.Breakfast was at seven and consisted of plain oatmeal and coffee or tea.An hour of prayer in the temple room followed each meal.There was three hours of classroom in the morning taught by a different disciple each day.The teachings were based on a hybrid version of the bible.Austin guessed Roth’s hand was heavily involved in the re-writes.In the afternoon they were supposed to spend time meditating, and the where didn’t matter as long as they did so alone.This was Austin’s most productive time of the day as it gave him the opportunity to investigate the Section.He searched in vain for Eve, by now certain she was somewhere in the Section.If she was being kept a prisoner, he was sure he didn’t have access to that area of the section and couldn’t risk asking about something he most likely shouldn’t know existed.Yet she persisted, appearing to him on a regular basis and at times seeming impatient.He found himself arguing with her, pleading with her to help him find her.To which she answered with her usual silence.It was maddening.In fact, the entire Section’s existence was maddening to Austin, who saw what they were doing as pointless and a complete waste of time.When they should have been trying to destroy the Sundogs, they were praying to them.Praying for what, he couldn’t figure out and no one had felt compelled to share.Austin knew there was something going on behind the scenes, but he wasn’t privy to that information and could only assume it was related to the elusive Program he heard whispered about.He wondered if the Program was somehow tied to Eve or maybe she was the Program.Along with having to spend most every waking moment in the company of the Disciples, Austin attended private meetings with Roth each evening, during which the General shared his philosophy on the current state of the world.This turned out to be a complete waste of time as well, since throughout his meanderings the General never explained in any detail his relationship with the Sundogs.Rather he seemed content to spend hours discussing his thoughts on developing, populating and living in a utopian society.If Austin posed a question, Roth either pretended not to hear or dismissed it as unimportant.All the psycho babble about a new world order, Austin handled with ease, but when Roth insisted on talking about Roxanne and his son, it took every ounce of his will power not to act out his desire to kill the man.He held his composure, repeating to himself that Roth was more useful to him alive and the time would come to settle the score.Besides these reasons, something was off in Roth’s account of his relationship with the Sundogs.There were slight discrepancies in his story which prevented Austin from pulling the trigger on snapping the general’s neck.His instincts kept nagging him to look deeper, to open that folder, study the pictures inside, but he couldn’t make himself do it [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]