Read Online The Exodus Towers by Jason M. Hough - Free Book Online
Authors: Jason M. Hough
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bolting for shelter when he stepped into view. The smell of the place forced him to cover his mouth and nose. He moved on, rushing around the back of the building, dancing around abandoned skid-steers and electric forklifts.
Shrieking tires and anxious shouts were heard behind him. They’d stopped short of driving onto the dock then, killing Skyler’s hopes for a farcical end to the chase. He let his pace dip so that he could get his breathing under control. Everything stank, worse than even Darwin’s choked shoreline. The odor brought tears to his eyes.
He jumped over a corpse, a dockworker judging by the faded coveralls. Nothing but bone and some gray skin with matted hair underneath the brittle clothing now. Bodies were everywhere in the urban places Skyler had visited, but once in a while he saw one that still disturbed him. They were a hard reminder of the billions that died in the first months of the disease.
He heard footsteps somewhere behind, and took the next corner to put himself between buildings again, facing the brownish river now. Guessing his pursuers would flank himfrom both ends, he stopped and lay down on the grimy wood. A hard three-count later, he rolled back around the wall with his gun at the ready.
The man pursuing him was looking down, stepping around the decayed body of the dockworker.
Skyler lined up the red dot of his holo-sight on the man’s chest and squeezed off two rounds. The gun’s sight made his aim virtually flawless, and the poor fellow collapsed on top of the body that already lay there. One more to the tally .
A pang of regret gripped him for shooting a fellow immune, something he’d never done before. The sound of approaching footsteps meant he would have to repeat the performance if he didn’t get away. So Skyler set aside his instinctual urge to search the body, stood, and ran.
Moving quickly again, he dashed along the backside of the warehouses, scaling one chain-link fence and ducking through a gap in another. Near the end of the dockyard he heard shouts off to his left, over a series of ragged grunts.
Then came a familiar wail.
Subhumans .
He never thought their presence would be so welcome.
Against a backdrop of shouting and gunfire, Skyler left the dockyard and bolted straight into the dense slums of Belém, head thick with confusion and numbing fear.
Melville Station
29.APR.2283
T ANIA COULD NOT look Zane Platz in the eye.
He sat across the metal table from her, drumming his fingers like his older brother had sometimes done. Between them lay the comm, their link to the ground, theoretically. Nothing had come across in forty-eight hours.
They should be celebrating. The first climber to rise from Belém with a significant shipment of air and water was supposed to have arrived hours ago, a critical milestone in the colony’s survival. But the climber never left the ground. Instead Tania had seen Karl thrown violently across the screen, then a hand deactivating the camera. Five seconds later a simple message filled the screen: “Connection lost.”
“Something has to be done, Tania,” Zane said, in a quiet and pitiful voice.
People, Karl had said, not subhumans. People . It couldn’t have been a mistake.
“Tania …”
She kept her eyes on the comm. “What did he mean, ‘Who are you people ?’ What people?”
Zane ran a hand over his tired face. “We’ve been over this many times.”
“Suppose Blackfield snuck an aircraft in and has taken over? They could be on their way up.”
“The controller still shows red. The climber is attached, but it hasn’t left Belém.”
Tania grimaced. “What other explanation is there?”
Zane broke eye contact at that. He stared at the table infront of him, a vein visibly pulsing at his temple. After a moment he pinched the bridge of his nose and winced. “I should have a lie-down.”
Tania studied him. His face contorted in pain for a few seconds, then he seemed to relax. “Okay. We can talk later,”
Shrieking tires and anxious shouts were heard behind him. They’d stopped short of driving onto the dock then, killing Skyler’s hopes for a farcical end to the chase. He let his pace dip so that he could get his breathing under control. Everything stank, worse than even Darwin’s choked shoreline. The odor brought tears to his eyes.
He jumped over a corpse, a dockworker judging by the faded coveralls. Nothing but bone and some gray skin with matted hair underneath the brittle clothing now. Bodies were everywhere in the urban places Skyler had visited, but once in a while he saw one that still disturbed him. They were a hard reminder of the billions that died in the first months of the disease.
He heard footsteps somewhere behind, and took the next corner to put himself between buildings again, facing the brownish river now. Guessing his pursuers would flank himfrom both ends, he stopped and lay down on the grimy wood. A hard three-count later, he rolled back around the wall with his gun at the ready.
The man pursuing him was looking down, stepping around the decayed body of the dockworker.
Skyler lined up the red dot of his holo-sight on the man’s chest and squeezed off two rounds. The gun’s sight made his aim virtually flawless, and the poor fellow collapsed on top of the body that already lay there. One more to the tally .
A pang of regret gripped him for shooting a fellow immune, something he’d never done before. The sound of approaching footsteps meant he would have to repeat the performance if he didn’t get away. So Skyler set aside his instinctual urge to search the body, stood, and ran.
Moving quickly again, he dashed along the backside of the warehouses, scaling one chain-link fence and ducking through a gap in another. Near the end of the dockyard he heard shouts off to his left, over a series of ragged grunts.
Then came a familiar wail.
Subhumans .
He never thought their presence would be so welcome.
Against a backdrop of shouting and gunfire, Skyler left the dockyard and bolted straight into the dense slums of Belém, head thick with confusion and numbing fear.
Melville Station
29.APR.2283
T ANIA COULD NOT look Zane Platz in the eye.
He sat across the metal table from her, drumming his fingers like his older brother had sometimes done. Between them lay the comm, their link to the ground, theoretically. Nothing had come across in forty-eight hours.
They should be celebrating. The first climber to rise from Belém with a significant shipment of air and water was supposed to have arrived hours ago, a critical milestone in the colony’s survival. But the climber never left the ground. Instead Tania had seen Karl thrown violently across the screen, then a hand deactivating the camera. Five seconds later a simple message filled the screen: “Connection lost.”
“Something has to be done, Tania,” Zane said, in a quiet and pitiful voice.
People, Karl had said, not subhumans. People . It couldn’t have been a mistake.
“Tania …”
She kept her eyes on the comm. “What did he mean, ‘Who are you people ?’ What people?”
Zane ran a hand over his tired face. “We’ve been over this many times.”
“Suppose Blackfield snuck an aircraft in and has taken over? They could be on their way up.”
“The controller still shows red. The climber is attached, but it hasn’t left Belém.”
Tania grimaced. “What other explanation is there?”
Zane broke eye contact at that. He stared at the table infront of him, a vein visibly pulsing at his temple. After a moment he pinched the bridge of his nose and winced. “I should have a lie-down.”
Tania studied him. His face contorted in pain for a few seconds, then he seemed to relax. “Okay. We can talk later,”
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