The Farming Saint in the Starry Wasteland (Elizabeth Schofield) novel Chapter 496

Chapter 496 Running Into Hi

Chapter 496 Running Into Him

Dominique bowed his head and let the silence swallow him whole.

He knew it too. Tyson had never been the kind of man to deceive anyone.

He was honest to his bones, stubborn as bedrock, and constitutionally incapable of a lie.

If Tyson said the farm was worth it, then it was worth every single syllable.

If not for the life he owed Bukowski, he’d have walked away without a second thought.

Jebediah reached over and gave his shoulder a firm, quiet pat.

“Stop thinking about it. We’ve got work to do.” He turned away and started gathering their gear.

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Dominique stood where he was, staring out at the dense, indifferent wall of jungle, watching the light filter down through the canopy in broken, shifting fragments of gold.

A memory surfaced without warning. Clara leaving, and that woman, Elizabeth, speaking with that calm, unhurried certainty of hers.

“We have a rule at this farm. People with bad character don’t get hired.”!

He still didn’t know if she’d been talking about Nathaniel specifically, or about all of them.

Behind him, Bukowski muttered something else, low and throttled, the sound of a man grinding his frustration out through his own teeth.

Dominique didn’t turn around. He crouched beside Jebediah and helped sort through the equipment in silence, head down, jaw

set.

The jungle quieted around them like a held breath.

The birdsong had ceased at some point without anyone noticing, and the wind had stilled with it, and even the leaves had gone perfectly, heavily motionless.

Only Nathaniel broke the silence now and then, a faint, fraying sound escaping him that confirmed, at least, that he was still breathing.

Four people. One broken. Two silent. One furious.

That was Black Panther Squad now.

No. Not Black Panther Squad anymore, not really.

Black Panther Squad had been ten people. Now it was four.

And maybe someday it’d be fewer than that.

Maybe someday it’d be none at all.

But that was a problem for another day.

14

Chapter 496 Running Into Hi

L

Right now, they still had Cluckoo Chickens to find.

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The jungle in the afternoon was a different beast entirely from the morning, denser and hotter and more suffocating, the air sitting thick and wet against the skin.

The sunlight came through the canopy in shredded fragments, scattering across the leaf-carpeted ground in restless, dappled patches, and every footstep through the undergrowth produced a soft, papery rustle beneath their boots.

Elizabeth walked somewhere in the middle of the group, working through a handful of raisins that Ella had pressed into her palm on the way out.

“Tyson, how much further?”

He checked the locator in his hand.

“Just over that ridge ahead. Cluckoo Chickens like valley terrain, and they roost toward evening, so they’ll be gathering.”

Olivia kept an easy pace beside Elizabeth, her eyes bright with the particular gleam of someone who already knew what was waiting.

“Ma’am, we scouted that valley yesterday. There are at least a hundred of them down there. And there are chicks too, little ones, fast as anything.”

Elizabeth’s expression sharpened with instant, vivid interest.

“Chicks? Even better. We can take those back and raise them ourselves.”

The group moved forward through easy, wandering conversation, Desmond cutting the path at the front, Melton holding steady at the rear, and the rest fanned out in a loose perimeter of quiet vigilance.

Clara’s injuries were nowhere near healed, but she’d refused to be left behind, and Elizabeth hadn’t had the heart to win that argument.

She walked in the sheltered center of the formation, with Olivia and Felix flanking her on either side, and Rocket bringing up the rear with the capture net slung across those broad, unhurried shoulders of his, every step slow and deliberate and absolutely certain.

They crested the ridge, and the world opened.

The valley floor spread below them, a wide, sun-soaked meadow laced through its middle by a stream so clear it looked like spun glass.

Across that meadow, dozens of Cluckoo Chickens moved in easy, unhurried clusters, pecking at the ground with the serene entitlement of creatures that had never once feared anything.

They looked like chickens, but the resemblance stopped there. Two or three times the size of any ordinary bird, their plumage was a deep, lustrous riot of color, and the long trailing feathers at their tails caught the afternoon light and threw it back in cold,

metallic flashes.

Further out, a group of chicks tumbled through the tall grass, round and impossibly fluffy, weaving in and out of the greenery with chaotic, irrepressible energy.

Elizabeth dropped into a low crouch, her voice dropping with her.

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Chapter 496 Running Into Him

L

They’re gorgeous.” She glanced back at Tyson. “How do we do this?”

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Tyson pointed out several positions along the valley floor.

“We come in from both sides and use the nets to cut off the exits. They can fly, but not far and not for long. Hem them in and we can take the whole flock in one sweep.”

Desmond added from just beside him, “Keep it clean. We need these birds intact. We’re counting on them to breed.”

“Right.” Elizabeth gave a crisp nod. “Let’s move. Fast and clean.”

The group shifted into motion, and then a sound split the quiet behind them, urgent and close, the sharp percussion of someone moving through the undergrowth at speed.

Every head turned at once. Every hand found a weapon.

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