Evacuation (The Seamus Chronicles Book 2) by K. D. McAdams Read Free Book Online

the whole ride home. “Basically, as Jane said, we have to leave. Either the virus will kill us or the eradication of the virus will kill us.” It sounds overly simple, but that is the truth.
    “We have to leave Ames?” Liam has not followed the logic this far.
    “No, the planet,” I say. If there were other options, I would have struggled with my answer.
    “Okay. Let’s go over to the lab building and get everyone involved in this. Maybe we can hide out in a fallout shelter,” Dad says, already walking to the door. “I don’t want there to be any secrets and we can’t afford to rely on ideas from just one person. No offense, Seamus.”
    “Please tell me there is a spaceship waiting for us.” Grace asks when we are about halfway across the parking lot.
    “Grace, let’s save our questions and comments for the conference room,” Dad says. He probably needs some time to think. “Liam, go round everyone up. Let them know that Seamus has some answers and we are meeting to discuss them.”
    Liam turns and starts to walk toward the dorm.
    “Oh, and Liam?” Dad calls after him. “Attendance is not optional.”
    In the conference room, Dad is totally in charge. He starts moving all the chairs to one side of the room and making space at the whiteboard. “Seamus, bring up the database on the overhead. I trust you, but you need to show us what you’re talking about.”
    He drops a legal pad and some pens on the table. “Grace, you’re here. I want you to write down open questions, unknowns and any weird comments. Our gut reactions may provide insight that future over-analyzed thoughts might miss,” he says.
    “What are you going to do?” I ask, as if he weren’t doing anything.
    “I’ll get some waters and snacks. We may be round tabling for a while,” he says, and he is out the door. 
    When he returns with a cart full of snacks and refreshments, Liam is in the room along with Sofie, Mom, William and Randy. Grace is at her station but I am standing alone at the side of the table. Leaving his cart in the back, Dad comes to me and physically escorts me to the front of the room. He surveys the gathering and is thinking about who is missing. There are ten adults at Ames, and Dad suddenly can’t remember all of them.
    “The Crenshaws?” Dad is back on track.
    “I told Cassandra she could have a few minutes to try and get her mom out of bed. I guess she hasn’t been eating or doing anything since… the other day,” Liam says, nervous about his answer. “She’s smart. I thought we could use all the brains we could get.”
    “Fine, but we are going to start without them.” Dad pauses to survey the room. “Seamus, the floor is yours.”
    “Ummm. Jane was right that we have to leave the planet. But it’s not just because of the virus; we have to detonate a bunch of warheads and plunge the planet into a nuclear winter.” I was hoping for a Hulk-like transformation that would give me presentation skills and confidence. No such luck.
    “Buddy, why don’t you take a step back and tell us what you found,” Dad says. He’s in dad mode now. I wonder if this is something unique to him or if it’s a skill all parents possess. A minute ago he was a drill sergeant; now he’s a calm supportive therapist.
    “Right.” I turn and look at the projection. “I found something called the ‘sore loser’ virus. The U.S. government, under the auspices of deterring an alien threat to our planet, engineered it. Its goal is to leave no humans alive on earth. The information isn’t new, but now we have a name.”
    “Does this mean we survived an alien attack?” Mom has the first question.
    “I don’t know.” Not having the answer is hurting my brief burst of confidence.
    “I suppose it doesn’t matter,” Grace says, looking back at the room.
    “It may matter, but we can’t spend time worrying about that with no evidence.” I have the floor again. “On the wall is the response protocol for the ‘Global