Dark Future by KC Klein

Author:KC Klein [KC Klein]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2011-10-10T13:00:00+00:00

I woke to find three ConRad’s staring down from above. My head hurt too badly to try and merge them together, besides something was wrong with his face. He was all pasty white and grim looking. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he was scared. “What happened?”

“You’re awake?”

“Yeah, but I don’t want to be.” I groaned. “My head. Did I hit it?”

“That and every other body part. How do you feel?”

“Like I hit my head and every other body part.” I raised myself up on one elbow and glanced around. I’d somehow been carried from the command center and was laying in one of the many adjoining pathways. ConRad was kneeling besides me, his hands clenched on his thighs.

“What happened? I remember throwing the grenade, an explosion, and then not much else.”

He turned his attention to the ground, and took a deep breath as if he needed a moment to focus himself. “When I first caught sight of you, you were flying through the air within inches of an alien’s razor-sharp teeth. I thought I’d see your head leave your body for sure. But you made it, by the goddesses, I don’t know how, but you did. Then the grenade went off inside the tunnel.”

I nodded. That must’ve been the explosion I remembered.

ConRad shook his head in disbelief. “How did you know to do that?”

“Do what?” My body hurt and for some reason I wanted to burst into tears.

His mouth twitched at the corners. My treasonous heart responded, skipping beats at ConRad’s version of a smile. “You triggered an earthquake of sorts and collapsed the whole tunnel, sweetheart. All the alien AlMy s in the tunnel were crushed under a thousand tons of dirt and rock.”

“And the rest?”

“With no new recruits we were able to take out the remaining aliens, and still maintain the integrity of the portal.”

“In other words we kicked butt?”

“If that saying means like it sounds, then yes.” He smiled fully—this one reached his eyes.

I cut my glance away and swallowed hard. “The wounded . . . they need my help,” I said, trying to push myself to a sitting position.

ConRad shook his head. “There are no wounded. They’re dead or alive, not much of an in-between with this battle.”

I closed my eyes in regret, but decided to get up anyways. “I feel better. Let me try to stand.”

“Good.” He helped me to my feet. “We’re evacuating the compound in fourteen hours. This place was barely habitable to begin with and now it’s toxic.”

I searched the area around me, trying to find anything familiar in the destruction. Debris was everywhere. Overturned tables and chairs, and computer monitors were thrown about and broken. Live copper wiring crackled and swayed from the ceiling. And of course the bodies. Blood flowed from alien and human alike. Unidentifiable parts were strewn about like a scene from the gruesome underworld.

I could never have imagined anything so horrific. Instinctively, I looked toward ConRad, trying to reach out for comfort. He stared at the same scene, but with his concrete mask in place.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.