Read Online AZU-1: Lifehack by Joseph Picard - Free Book Online Page A

The barrier also surrounded a large, open area
in front of the entryway. The kind of concrete front yard you might
expect a co-operation to grace with a fountain of some gaudy
abstract stature.
    AutarLabs didn’t choose to have
anything there, but they had something now. Right in the middle
stood a large zombie.
    This big fellow wasn’t quite a zombie.
It was twice the height of a person. Zooming in closer revealed
that its form consisted of random body parts and gore held together
by seemingly nothing more than will. It stood like a General behind
his troops, staring forward without any noticeable eyes.
    It all seemed to have some kind of
purpose.
    The only feature the General had
besides the random mish mash, was a loose cable hanging out of its
side. It didn’t look like a power cable. She zoomed tight on the
suspicious cable and raised the P90 to aim.
    No good. The gun was so magnified
through the goggles that it was impossible to even know if she even
had it facing the right way, if it wasn’t for the fact that she
could feel it in her hands.
    She looked around the building for
hints about how things were inside. A few windows had lights on and
one caught her eye. She counted what floor it was on. Thirteen,
fourteen, fifteen. It was Harold’s lab. At least, it was the window
he waved at her from before.
    She zoomed into it as tight as she
could. She couldn’t see activity, but she couldn’t exactly see a
lot inside other than the ceiling. He could be just a couple meters
away from the window and be obscured thanks to Regan’s viewing
angle. On the plus side, there were no signs of violence that she
could see.
    That was it, she needed in there. She
felt a bit more like she hadn’t just wasted her time. Now she just
needed to get past the General and his troops.
    She zoomed back in on the General’s
suspicious cable. She sat back and lifted the goggles onto the top
of her head, and stared at the P90. She was still getting to know
the weapon. She had taken long enough to figure out how to switch
it from single shots to fully automatic firing, and she still
didn’t know what the little cable on the bottom was for.
    A lightbulb turned on over her head.
She felt like an idiot. She pulled the little cable out and found
it plugged in quite nicely into the mysterious little socket on the
side of the goggles. She put the goggles back on
properly.
    The goggles displayed ‘wait....’ for a
moment then popped up with ‘Accept weapon targeting data feed? Y/N’
Regan giggled at her stupidity, not having tried this before... but
then, she didn’t have a need to.
    Now when she aimed a handy red icon
waved around in front of her. She zoomed into the General. The
aiming icon was shakier the more she zoomed in. The minor
unintentional movements in her aim counted for more at long range,
but she could deal with it. She aimed at the cable sticking out of
his side. It must be important. She switched to single
shots.
    She fired and missed. She quickly fired
again and hit the cable, severing it. It fell to the ground. The
other end wasn’t attached to anything. It wasn’t important.
However, shooting it off was not entirely without
effects.
    She zoomed out a bit to see that the
General had turned its eyeless head towards her. She zoomed out
more and saw about thirty zombies headed her way. They weren’t
moving faster than a brisk walk, but they were determined, they
were focused, they were following orders.
    She switched to full-auto and targeted
one of the approaching zombies. It fell easily enough, but the
moment it did, another from the formation started towards her. She
shot it, and again it was replaced. She debated just mowing them
all down until she saw stray zombies coming from various directions
to fill the gaps.
    The General..!
    She zoomed back to him, and traced the
severed end of the cable, and visualized where it might be leading
inside his body. She fired. The General’s body jerked back a little
for a split