Page 47 of Echos and Empires
But even as the weight of the responsibility settled heavily upon his shoulders, Alex felt a flicker of hope kindle in his chest. They were not alone in this fight. They had each other, their bond forged in the crucible of shared trauma and tempered by unwavering loyalty. And now, with the truth laid bare before them, they had the most powerful weapon of all: knowledge.
He met Emma’s gaze, seeing the fear and uncertainty that clouded her eyes. Instinctively, he reached out, his hand finding hers and giving it a reassuring squeeze. “We’ll get through this,” he said softly, his voice rough with emotion. “Together. I swear it, Emma. Those babies will be born into a world free from that madman’s grip, even if it’s the last thing I do.”
She managed a watery smile, her fingers tightening around his. “I know,” she whispered. “I believe in us, in what we can do when we stand united. We’ve fought through two other battlefields. This will just be our last.”
Alex nodded, his jaw set with grim determination. They had a long road ahead of them, a path fraught with danger and uncertainty. But they would walk it together, shoulder to shoulder, until they had torn down the façade of this false paradise and built something real and true in its place.
SEVENTEEN
Chris stared againat the damning report, the words blurring together as a cold dread continued to seep into his bones. This couldn’t be real. But even as disbelief clawed at his mind, a traitorous voice whispered that he’d always suspected something deeply wrong about Victor Warrington. He’d just never imagined the scale of it, the sheer audacity and cruel calculation spelled out in stark black and white.
Warrington had spent years preparing for this, amassing resources and consolidating power while the rest of the world burned. He had an army at his command, a stranglehold on the island’s supplies, and a network of informants that made organizing any resistance a deadly gamble. It would take more than a ragtag band of survivors to topple a man who fancied himself humanity’s savior.
But Chris refused to let depression take hold. He’d faced impossible odds before and come out the other side. This was just one more battle, one more fight for the right to live free. And he wasn’t alone.
His gaze swept over the others, taking in their expressions of shock and horror, the way they leaned into each other forsupport. There was fear there, yes, but also a flicker of the same defiant fire that had brought them together in the first place and kept them together when they found Emma years later. These were no longer just his comrades, bound by the necessities of survival. They were his family. And he would burn the whole damn world down before he let anyone tear them apart.
Chris knew that the stakes had just been raised to a terrifying new height. Because it wasn’t just their own lives on the line anymore. It was the tiny, fragile sparks of new life that Emma carried.
The promise of a future beyond mere survival.
In the face of Warrington’s grand designs, their unborn children seemed impossibly small and vulnerable. But to Chris, they were everything. They were his hope, pure and simple. And he would fight with every last breath in his body to protect that hope and his children.
They had battled starvation, sickness, the slow creep of radiation, and the cruelty of desperate men. They had carved out a place for themselves in the ashes of the old world and then grown flowers in the new one.
And now, they would face this new threat the same way they had all the others—together. Chris’s jaw tightened with resolve. Victor Warrington wanted to play god? Well, he was about to learn that even gods could bleed. And this little band of survivors, this patchwork family forged in the flames of the apocalypse? They would be the ones to bring him to his knees.
Because there was one thing Chris knew with bone-deep certainty. He would storm the very gates of hell to keep his family safe.
And that was a promise he’d keep just as he’d kept all the others.
He met each of their gazes in turn, a general marshaling his troops. They had to be smart about this, cautious. One wrongmove, one whisper in the wrong ear, and they’d be finished before they even began.
“Let’s go over where we’re all going to look for an army. We need to ensure we’re not doubling up. Not doing anything that would make people suspicious.
Alex leaned forward, his hazel eyes sharp. “So, Liam and I tried this before and nothing happened, but maybe this time will different. I can listen around the clinic. People talk when they’re in pain, or worried about someone they love. If there’s resentment brewing, I’ll hear it and pull them aside.”
Chris nodded, choosing to ignore the reminder that Liam—and apparently Alex—had acted without his knowledge.
The clinic was a good start, a place where people might let their guard down. “Good. But be careful. We can’t afford to tip our hand.You’ll have enough on your plate ensuring Emma isn’t harmed, and that she escapes with her memories intact after each check up.”
“When I take Ranger out for walks, bet I can sneak closer to them. People don’t pay as much attention when there’s a cute dog around. They let things slip.” Liam chimed, his glasses resting on the keyboard instead of his nose. Chris didn’t blame him for not wanting to see the words any longer. “Before I was focused on a way out if we needed one. This time I’ll be listening.”
Beside him, the big black lab thumped his tail at the sound of his name. There was something reassuring about Ranger’s presence, a reminder of the simple bonds that still endured. Chris felt a flicker of gratitude for Liam’s quick thinking.
“I’ll keep an eye out at the work building,” William offered, his voice quiet but sure. “If there are any signs of organized discontent, I’ll spot them.”
It was an angle, Chris had to admit. William had a way of noticing things others missed, of reading the undercurrents. In this case, that talent could be invaluable.
Bash cracked his knuckles, the sound like a gunshot in the tense quiet. “I can try to get a read on some of the security guys. See if any of them seem a little less than thrilled with the boss man.”
Coming from anyone else, it might have sounded like bravado. But Chris knew the depth of Bash’s experience, the keenness of his instincts. If anyone could sniff out a potential ally among Warrington’s goons, it was him.
“I can talk to some of the other pregnant women, maybe—” Emma began, but she was immediately cut off by a chorus of vehement objections.
“Absolutely not,” Chris bit out, an icy fear seizing his heart at the thought. “You’re already at risk, Emma. I won’t have you putting yourself in any more danger.”
“But I can help!” she insisted, her eyes flashing. “They might talk to me, one mother to another. I can’t just sit on the sidelines, not with everything that’s at stake!”
