Free Terra Nova (The Variant Conspiracy Book 3) by Christine Hart

tables on either side of the car. Two pairs of facing booths were more than enough seating for us. We each stuffed our bags into the net-enclosed overhead shelf and wedged into a booth.
    “I’ll help you get around to Compendium sites as much as I can. The more time passes since I left Ivan and Tatiana, the more I realize I’d been working for the devil.” Melissa sat down next to Josh and re-applied her lip balm. Josh sat a bit taller.
    The train’s electronic bell chimed and we began to move.
    Leaning across the table toward Melissa and Josh, Cole whispered, “Do you know anything about how contagious Terra Nova is?”
    “I think I saw test results in Compendium docs that compared contagion rates for rabbits and rats. All were between five to ten minutes of exposure to the same air. They haven’t tested extensively on humans yet, at least I don’t think they have.” Melissa knitted her fingers together resting her hands on the table.
    “So it is airborne. We were pretty close to a coyote that contracted and died within minutes of being stung.” Cole rubbed the back of his neck as he fixated on a point outside the window.
    “If even one of us had become a carrier after that exposure, we would know by now. But we have to assume that the bee sting is only how they’ll introduce the virus to a population quickly. It wouldn’t be an effective way to infect masses if that was the only method of contracting the virus.” Jonah spoke as hushed as the rest of us, but still skimmed our surroundings to ensure we hadn’t alarmed anyone.
    I locked my arm in Jonah’s for comfort as I felt a chill shiver through my body. Across from us, Ilya and Faith were cuddled as well. I felt a moment of longing for the European couples’ trip Ilya had promised me.
    Envy roiled in my gut for every other blissfully ignorant group of friends backpacking around Europe. I perused the city as the train plowed through it. I pictured streets full of people dying from Terra Nova and I shuddered again.
    We had four hours to kill before we would arrive in Chester. I didn’t want to spend the whole trip wringing my hands and speculating on just how bloody the end of the world might be. I stood up and fished my tarot cards from my backpack.
    I sat back down and began to shuffle. I tried to picture what might wait for us in Chester and the face of Ivan’s pet snake popped into my mind. Had the snake been named for the town? If so, why? Was the site important?
    The train dissolved around me I stood in a glowing golden field outside a small village of cone-shaped thatched huts. I saw a peaceful scene, free of the complications of modern urban life. At the center of town was a simple brick well. At the far end of the settlement stood a small pavilion made with rows of tall white pillars. It suggested a temple of some sort. A woman in a white robe emerged from one of the homes and approached the well. As I watched her walk with a large vase on her head, a flash of red caught the corner of my eye.
    A ball of flame rocketed toward the field on the other side of the village. It left a trail of smoke behind that stretched up into the stratosphere. The red ball hit hard and the ground vibrated under my feet. Smoke rose from the patch of wheat around the impact point. A soldier ran past me, past the well, driving toward the crash site.
    A rumbling sound came out of the field. An armored thing burst out of the wheat and in one swoop of his metal-plated arm, knocked the soldier to his knees.
    The woman had dropped her vase. Several other villagers ran out of their homes only to stand frozen in shock as the armored person came to a stop in the middle of their town.
    The thing rubbernecked around for a few moments. Its helmet was a smooth metal dome with a dark black slit where eyes should be. The figure reached to either side of its neck with both its three-fingered metal hands and somehow released the helmet from the rest of the armor.
    The thing lifted its