Ash Princess (The Deviant Future #6) - Eve Langlais Page 0,8

ruin the element of surprise if he left the tank and attempted to be stealthy.

The helmet and gloves he kept beside him on the dash. It felt too much like being caged having it on his head. He did remember to put on his holster, a few notches wider than usual for the extra girth. It wouldn’t do to be caught unaware. He always felt better with his weapons in reach.

Everyone seemed of the opinion that all life in Diamond had expired when the air turned fatal, but the Fall was proof that, even in the harshest conditions, predators would adapt.

As prepared as he could be, Cam seated himself and drove on, the rumbling engine a good sign. Despite the lack of electronics on board, there’d been concern that machines just plain wouldn’t work.

With Burton not even stuttering, he kept going. Soon it wasn’t just the ash on the ground that swirled in the air as his passage disturbed it. Speckles of it arrived on a light breeze.

He couldn’t have said when he passed the border that demarked Marshland from Diamond. Borders obviously meant nothing to the tainted air. The longer he travelled, the more he fully grasped the horror of what awaited the Marshlands if the calamity that struck Diamond wasn’t stopped.

Forget clumps of grass or hints of sky. Everything he saw was dead. Trees. Bushes. The ground was a shifting mass of ash. Not a hint of green or blue or purple to be seen.

Nothing moved. The sun, while bright that morning, barely penetrated the haze. The way it illuminated the fluffy dust left him almost blind. It meant he had to watch even more intently.

Burton plowed through the swirling fog of ash, not daunted in the least. The monotonous journey went on for hours. Long, boring hours where he had to jab himself until he felt pain to avoid nodding off.

Thump-thump. The machine rolled over a swell that proved solid enough that he was curious. Which was probably stupid.

Affixing his helmet, he checked all the seals like Riella taught him. It felt strange to hear himself breathing in the confines of the sealed glass. The gloves, while form-fitting, did require getting used to, which was why he made sure he pulled his gun from the holster and had a good grip on it before he entered the tiny cubicle by the exit hatch. The addition Riella created would offer him a way in and out of the tank without inviting the ash inside. It felt like a coffin those few moments where he sealed one entrance and waited to hear it click before opening the other. Even then, a curtain of plastic strips hung down to prevent the worst of the debris from drifting in.

The hatch hit the ground with a clang, forming a ramp for him to walk down. He stepped into the ash, his foot sinking past his ankle. He eyed where it touched the armor, waiting to see if it sizzled and burned. It brushed off easily at the flick of a gloved finger. He didn’t realize he held his breath until his lungs screamed for air.

Whew. He breathed out, then in, taking a moment to reassure himself he wouldn’t suffocate before turning to look around. Standing outside the tank didn’t change his view. Still a barren wasteland, just not comprised of hard-packed dirt or loose sand. Kicking his feet produced puffs that hung in the air before slowly sinking.

He trudged to the rear of Burton and then a few feet more to see what he’d run over. Probably a fallen tree or a rock. Not surprising given no one was caring for the road anymore. The only reason he even suspected it was a road was because it ran through the dead forest in what was an obviously cleared route.

The lump he’d run over appeared partially crushed. Kneeling, he brushed at the ash to see what it was. Rocked on his heels when he uncovered it.

A person lay on the ground, nothing more than bones still partially encased in clothing, a large pack by its side. Dead for a while by all appearances. They wore a mask of some kind. At least the skull did, not that it had helped them. More perturbing, no one had disturbed the bones until Burton crushed them. The pack remained shut, and when he opened it, he found more of the masks and a few packs of travel rations that probably weren’t any good. Some kind of