Chill Factor: Ice Station Zombie 2 by Gurley JE

Author:Gurley, JE [Gurley, JE]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Severed Press
Published: 2013-11-28T05:00:00+00:00

16

Sept. 10, Port Augusta, Australia

Val Marino stood by the fresh grave, dirty Stetson hat in hand, weeping openly, not caring what the others present might think. His tears ran warm down his cheeks, mingling with the beads of sweat elicited by the unnaturally hot day. Elliot Anson had been his friend and colleague. If not for the gruff Australian, Marino had no doubt that he would still be stuck in Antarctica or more likely, dead. He would miss Anson, and the small mound of earth and building rubble didn’t seem monument enough for all Anson had done.

Alex Nelson from Coober Pedy offered him a few words of comfort. He slapped Marino on the back and said, “It seems to me that Anson died in the way he lived – by his own rules.”

Marino nodded. He had known Alex only a few days, but the opal miner – he called himself a fossiker, another Australian stine term Marino didn’t understand – had made a quick impression on him. Like Anson, Alex was hard enough to cut diamond but easy going and friendly.

“I shouldn’t have left him.”

“The flash drive is important,” Alex reminded him. “It allowed Jeffries to fine tune the devices. It will save lives.”

Marino nodded. “Maybe, but it didn’t save Anson’s.”

When the two had landed in Adelaide just five days earlier – Has it only been five days? Marino thought. It seems like a lifetime ago – searching for Anson’s sister and brother, they had set out north for the Flinders Range after them, only to find them murdered by a highwayman. Their chance encounter with Nelson had prompted Marino’s return to Woomera with him to deliver John Gilford’s flash drive that they had brought from Resurrection City. He knew he shouldn’t have left Anson alone, but Anson had insisted. Anson’s thirst for revenge on the murderer of his siblings had driven him to take chances. They had found Anson, or rather, Anson had found them, in Port Augusta as Marino, Alex, and the scientists from Woomera used Electro-Magnetic Pulse devices to clear the city of zombies.

The properly tuned EM waves rendered the nanites inoperable, killing their zombie hosts, but at a safe distance, they were harmless to humans. In fact, the EMP provided temporary relief from nanite infection, a rudimentary cure. However, Anson’s injuries, a bullet wound to the stomach, were so severe that only the nanites infecting him kept him alive. Using the new device would only kill him.

“He took his own life to save you from having to do it for him.”

Marino turned on Alex angrily, his fists clenched; then relaxed as he realized that Alex was right. “It doesn’t make it any easier.”

“It doesn’t get any easier, mate. It never will.” With those parting words, Alex left Marino alone by the grave.

Marino shoved his hat hack on his head. Alex was right. They still had work to do. Australia was Anson’s home. He wouldn’t want anyone slacking off because of him.

Port Augusta was clear. So far,

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