Mother Ship by Scott Bartlett

Author:Scott Bartlett [Bartlett, Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mirth Publishing
Published: 2019-11-17T16:00:00+00:00

36

4 days to extinction

Another window shattered, and Ravagers clambered through, heedless of their own flesh ripping on the glass shards that bordered the frame.

Ted stalked across the living room, combat knife held in reverse grip. His hand flashed out, and a Ravager earned himself a gaping red smile to go with his angry grimace.

A red curtain poured down the thing’s neck, but still it came on, hands grasping for Ted’s throat. He drove the knife upward into its face, through an eye socket and into the brain. That finished it. When he withdrew the blade, the man staggered forward to crash into a curio cabinet filled with little porcelain ornaments.

Bleeding out stopped the mindless killers eventually, but in the meantime they’d try to kill you all the same, heedless of their own doom. The next Ravager to come through got a knife to the skull for her trouble, Ted’s weapon sinking to its hilt, again through an eye socket. That was the easiest point of entry.

All around him, hunting rifles crackled, automatic fire chattered, shotguns roared. He’d holstered his FNX Tactical for now, at least until he could make it back to the hall, where he’d stashed his backpack full of ammo. The three magazines he kept on him were spent, but the combat knife would never run out of ammo, and it suited the close-quarters combat that was becoming more and more necessary.

Benson’s people were fighting with admirable resolve. Benson himself and Maisie stuck together, roaming the house just as Ted did, sticking Ravagers with hunting knives—Maisie had steak knives—that protruded downward from their clenched fists. Ted could criticize their form, but not their ferocity. He’d seen them experience a couple close calls, but they were hanging in there, and he didn’t exactly have the time to train them in proper knife-fighting technique just now.

Ted tried to avoid glancing out the windows, focusing solely on the fight inside the house. But sometimes he slipped, and let himself see the sheer numbers outside, all clamoring to get in at the defenders.

Rounds rained down on the heads of the mindless, from the handful of turrets Benson had installed just below the farmhouse’s roof, but the overall effect was minimal. Ravagers fell, and others replaced them. The only thing keeping the house from being overrun were the bottlenecks provided by the doors and windows, almost all of which had been compromised.

He heard Benson say something to Maisie about “the nuclear option.” His ears perked up at that.

Maisie gave a grim nod, then left the dining room to go to the hall. A Ravager almost took her out when she rounded the corner, but their tussle ended with a steak knife sticking out of its skull. She tried to dislodge it, but it was stuck, so she gave up and continued into the hallway.

Ted wanted to ask Benson what the nuclear option was, but more Ravagers were coming through the living room windows, and they needed killing. The two men fell on them, knives flashing.

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