AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I go down. Hard.
I feel hot blood gush down my front, and I can’t heal myself. It’s me who’s going to bleed out. Here on this rooftop so far from home.
This is the end. I’m dying.
When Lazarus’s face comes into view, the holes are closing. With blood transforming his face into a deranged mask, he places the muzzle of his gun under my chin. The pressure forces me to turn my face up, opening the wound in my neck even more.
Blood fills my mouth and throat. I’m drowning in it. I doubt I’ll live to feel the bullet pierce my face before it destroys my brain.
“As soon as I raise you,” Lazarus says, “I’m going to fuck you! Over and over again!” He throws his head back and laughs, and everything goes black.
Grim
I’m pounding pavement,running toward the casino.
A few minutes ago, Cora and Stealth called out to me from the maximum security section of the psych ward. While I was rushing to meet them, I literally ran into Doc. Thank God for my layers or he would have fallen dead to the floor.
“Just the man I’m looking for,” he said, out of breath. “Get to the casino! There’s a guy named Lazarus who can raise the dead. Sarge wants you to take him out.” Then he went tearing down the hall toward Stealth, who was yelling, “Down here! He’s down here!”
I’ve never felt more torn between two directions in my life. They found Jud! And he was less than fifty meters away. But duty called me to the casino.
Spitting a curse, I retraced my steps out of the hospital and found the military truck in the street, still running. I climbed in to take it, but reconsidered. Jud would need the transportation if he was as bad off as we feared.
Fortunately, the casino was only a few blocks away. Abandoning the truck, I hoofed it, and now, I have the tower of the hotel in sight. At its top, muzzle flashes light the night. Someone’s firing rounds. That means one of my brothers, or one of my new friends, is in danger.
Our chopper makes a wide arc around the roof, and in the lights, I see what at first looks like a writhing storm cloud. But it’s no storm. It’s a mass of blackbirds swarming the roof.
I pick up my pace. I don’t know what role this Lazarus might be playing in all this, but a bad feeling sits heavy in my chest. My pounding boots take me around a corner, and a block away is the glass dome of the casino. We planned on bombing the place, but according to what Stealth heard over the comms, the strike was called off. Something about more of the enemy underground…and a woman.
I’m thinking about the possibility of there being a woman in this city when a man slams into me from my right side. I flail to the ground, helmet taking a hit on a cement curb. My body rolls, arms and legs banging the ground.
Pain shoots through me as I come to a skidding stop, but I dismiss it. This is battle. Pain is expected.
Fast as I can, I get my feet under me and force my throbbing knees to hold me up. On the asphalt across the street is a prone man in a denim coat with a patch on the back. He’s not one of us. That means he’s enemy.
The man groans as I stalk toward him.
I remove my gloves.
“Get away from him!” someone shouts. It’s Brawn, I realize.
I turn to see my brother running toward me, and suddenly, I’m unable to move.
My feet feel rooted to the ground, and my arms, neck, and trunk become frozen like epoxy has hardened all around me. I try to yell to Brawn, but I can’t move my mouth. I can hardly breathe.
While I watch, helpless, Brawn levels a handgun at the prone man and fires.Bang, bang, bang!
Three deafening shots, and suddenly, my body sags with relief, once again under my control.
“What was that?” I ask, ears ringing.
Brawn crowds close to the man on the ground, and I obligingly step back, giving him space. He is massive in his custom-made tactical gear, and he has Target’s favorite weapon, the vaporizer, slung across his back.
“That was Rigor.” He moves a limp arm with the toe of his boot. “You okay?” He looks me up and down and frowns.
“I’m okay.” My bleeding knees and elbows are not worth mentioning. “Glad you arrived when you did.”
He holsters his handgun. “He paralyze you?”
