Read Online The Cloudy Skulls (Cloudy Sandbox Book 1) by Eva Harper - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Eva Harper
Ads: Link
into my trousers. When I looked up Parker was clutching my knife with a bloody grin. There were more bite marks on him now and his nose was crooked.
‘We’re dead anyway,’ he rasped. ‘And I don’t know about you but I’d rather die the way God intended and stay dead. I’ll shoot you, you shoot me. Together.’
With shaky hands he lifted his gun to aim at me, but over his shoulder I could see salvation. ‘I’m not bitten,’ I told him, just as the shot fired out and the pyrebullet exploded in Parker’s back. He lurched forward, but thankfully didn’t fire, and crumpled to the ground.
Lucan came running over to me, and grabbed my hand to haul me to my feet. ‘Are you alright?’
‘I’m- owww. Shit. Stabbed. But fine. What are you doing out here?’
‘I went to one of the towers to give you backup, but I couldn’t see well enough with the tower beam lights. So I decided to come out and find you. Are you…?’
‘No bites. Not yet. There’s still some walking dead I think. And…where’s Parker?’ I asked, panic rising within me. I shone my light on the ground where he’d fallen, but apart from a pool of blood there was nothing. Except an empty bullet; Cartell must really regret declining the vest I’d offered her, it would have saved her life. She just hadn’t expected to be hit by her own team.
‘Where did he go?’ Lucan asked, shining his own p-luma about, illuminating Parker as he rushed toward us, screaming like a lunatic and with his gun raised to fire. I grabbed Lucan by the arm to brace myself and kicked up with my injured leg, feeling pain tear through all the way up to my hip. My boot connected with his chest, and from the force of his run I heard a rib or two crack as he went stumbling backward. He must have tripped over a body or something because I heard him fall in the darkness, but then suddenly the whole world lit up. Bright blue sparks flew out and the wires of the fence glowed neon blue. Parker screamed and convulsing as the electricity coursed through him, the stench of searing flesh enough to make me gag. His body kept seizing long after his screams died, and by lumalight we saw the steam rising and heard the hiss of the burning, and finally his body fell forward and hit the ground hard with a heavy thud.
‘Fence is back on,’ I said.
‘Indeed it is,’ Lucan said. ‘Shall we get back inside?’
‘That would be a good idea, I think we can clean him up in the morning, along with any leftover victims.’
‘Think you got a good chunk of them,’ Lucan said, as we made our way back and shone our p-lumas over mangled corpses.
‘Well, less work for tomorrow then.’
Just a metric crap-tonne of paperwork what with aircarrier explosions, victims infiltrations and two dead officers. All in all, not a bad start to my command.
Epilogue
When the sun came up the next morning we sent out a small team to kill the last few remaining victims, and to burn the corpses and toss them over the fence. We did the same to Parker and I have no shame in admitting that I wasn’t sad to see his body being thrown out for carrion. Major Cartell’s body was treated with a little more dignity as she hadn’t been bitten by a victim and wasn’t a scumbag traitor, so she was zipped up in a body bag and stored in the medical bay to be taken home and given a proper funeral.
The remaining officers handed me the base officially with very little fanfare, and when the airslicer arrived they left with barely a goodbye. I ended up being stuck with Keswick, thanks to all the repairs that needed to be made, and the fact he hadn't completed setting up the base in the first place. He put in a request for more engineers to come and help him to speed up the process but I think the officers were too quick to leave to hear him. That and the UR isn't exactly teeming with extra staff. So god knows how long we'll be stuck with him, but at least I'm not worried about him shooting me while I sleep now.
Our spare
‘We’re dead anyway,’ he rasped. ‘And I don’t know about you but I’d rather die the way God intended and stay dead. I’ll shoot you, you shoot me. Together.’
With shaky hands he lifted his gun to aim at me, but over his shoulder I could see salvation. ‘I’m not bitten,’ I told him, just as the shot fired out and the pyrebullet exploded in Parker’s back. He lurched forward, but thankfully didn’t fire, and crumpled to the ground.
Lucan came running over to me, and grabbed my hand to haul me to my feet. ‘Are you alright?’
‘I’m- owww. Shit. Stabbed. But fine. What are you doing out here?’
‘I went to one of the towers to give you backup, but I couldn’t see well enough with the tower beam lights. So I decided to come out and find you. Are you…?’
‘No bites. Not yet. There’s still some walking dead I think. And…where’s Parker?’ I asked, panic rising within me. I shone my light on the ground where he’d fallen, but apart from a pool of blood there was nothing. Except an empty bullet; Cartell must really regret declining the vest I’d offered her, it would have saved her life. She just hadn’t expected to be hit by her own team.
‘Where did he go?’ Lucan asked, shining his own p-luma about, illuminating Parker as he rushed toward us, screaming like a lunatic and with his gun raised to fire. I grabbed Lucan by the arm to brace myself and kicked up with my injured leg, feeling pain tear through all the way up to my hip. My boot connected with his chest, and from the force of his run I heard a rib or two crack as he went stumbling backward. He must have tripped over a body or something because I heard him fall in the darkness, but then suddenly the whole world lit up. Bright blue sparks flew out and the wires of the fence glowed neon blue. Parker screamed and convulsing as the electricity coursed through him, the stench of searing flesh enough to make me gag. His body kept seizing long after his screams died, and by lumalight we saw the steam rising and heard the hiss of the burning, and finally his body fell forward and hit the ground hard with a heavy thud.
‘Fence is back on,’ I said.
‘Indeed it is,’ Lucan said. ‘Shall we get back inside?’
‘That would be a good idea, I think we can clean him up in the morning, along with any leftover victims.’
‘Think you got a good chunk of them,’ Lucan said, as we made our way back and shone our p-lumas over mangled corpses.
‘Well, less work for tomorrow then.’
Just a metric crap-tonne of paperwork what with aircarrier explosions, victims infiltrations and two dead officers. All in all, not a bad start to my command.
Epilogue
When the sun came up the next morning we sent out a small team to kill the last few remaining victims, and to burn the corpses and toss them over the fence. We did the same to Parker and I have no shame in admitting that I wasn’t sad to see his body being thrown out for carrion. Major Cartell’s body was treated with a little more dignity as she hadn’t been bitten by a victim and wasn’t a scumbag traitor, so she was zipped up in a body bag and stored in the medical bay to be taken home and given a proper funeral.
The remaining officers handed me the base officially with very little fanfare, and when the airslicer arrived they left with barely a goodbye. I ended up being stuck with Keswick, thanks to all the repairs that needed to be made, and the fact he hadn't completed setting up the base in the first place. He put in a request for more engineers to come and help him to speed up the process but I think the officers were too quick to leave to hear him. That and the UR isn't exactly teeming with extra staff. So god knows how long we'll be stuck with him, but at least I'm not worried about him shooting me while I sleep now.
Our spare
Similar Books
