Plague War: Pandemic by Alister Hodge

Author:Alister Hodge [Hodge, Alister]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Severed Press
Published: 2018-08-21T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Erin ran down the corridor after Bourke and his remaining guards, heading for the dining room at the back of the building. As the first shells from the Navy Frigate hit home, she stumbled slightly as the ground shook beneath her feet from the blast. The sound of smashing glass followed, windows destroyed by the concussion wave and shrapnel.

Lieutenant Bourke had stopped at the dining room’s main door, counting off his guards as they entered. As Erin passed him, he drew it closed, shoving home the security bolt into the top of the frame. It wouldn’t hold for long, the panels of the door being made of glass.

Bourke turned around, his eyes flicking over the people present in a quick appraisal. The back half of the room was filled with men, women and children, although it was a pitifully small contingent of the total numbers that the camp originally held. A few held improvised weapons, lengths of wood or metal; some had clearly been created prior to tonight in readiness for such an event. Others gripped large cooking knives that had been liberated from the kitchens behind. Next to the kitchen was another doorway into a different corridor that held a set of stairs to the second floor. A few people were already edging out this exit to avoid the coming fight. He ignored those leaving, better that the room only contained people directly involved in holding the choke point against the Infected.

‘As you already know, we are under attack. Plague carriers from the sunken cruise liner have arrived on shore and breached the fences surrounding our camp,’ said Bourke. A woman started crying in the back of the room, the sound carrying abnormally in the otherwise quiet room. From behind the locked dining room door, a guttural snarl echoed up the corridor.

A harsh whistling sound was followed by a series of violent explosions that set the light fittings to sway as another artillery strike fell. Bourke’s expression hardened at the sounds. ‘This fight isn’t over. Everyone here has made it through nightmares on the mainland; and we will again. Once the artillery has cleared out the worst of their numbers, the Frigate will land marines to support. We just have to survive the next few hours,’ he said.

One of the children screamed, pointing behind him at the door. Bourke swore violently as he spun around; he’d been hoping for more time to create a defence. A group of Carriers had rounded a corner further down the hallway and were headed toward the dining room. The creatures were in awful shape. Clothes torn and blackened by the falling shells, their bodies pierced by fragments of shrapnel. Bourke’s eyes were drawn to the leading ghoul, one of his own fallen guards returned to fight against him. The man looked like he’d suffered horribly in death, the right side of his face had been ripped off by unforgiving teeth and his eye punctured. A loop of entrails dragged behind him, pulled free of a fist-sized hole in his abdomen.

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