Plauge of the Dead by Z.A. Recht

Author:Z.A. Recht [Recht, Z.A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-01-12T07:00:00+00:00

“They’ve got their hands full with your outbreak. We can get her out of here,” Anna persis-ted. “Help me carry her!”

“Outbreak of… Morningstar?” Julie managed, pulling herself back up into a sitting position, arms still wrapped around her chest. Her face was pale and sickly in the dim light, but she didn’t seem injured aside from malnutrition. Another wracking, full-body cough shook the journalist, and Anna mentally added the possibility of pneumonia to the list of her ailments.

“I’ll explain the whole thing once we’re out of here,” Mason said. “If we get out. And we won’t, at this rate. If we’re taking her, fine. Let’s go.”

Mason moved over to Julie and pressed the dead guard’s weapon into her weak hands.

“You might need this,” he said. “Cover us if you can while we carry you.”

Julie nodded and allowed Mason and Anna to lift her up and support her as she walked along with them. The trio slowly made their way back up the stairs and into the fluorescents of the main facility, heading back towards the checkpoint they’d abandoned earlier.

“How are we getting past the guards?” Anna asked.

“Leave that to me,” Mason whispered. “The guard in the dungeon had a few surprises in his utility belt.”

They leaned Julie against a wall. She sagged against it heavily, catching her breath and biting back another round of coughs that would have certainly alerted the guards to their presence. Mason kneeled, pulling a blue-tinted cylinder from the guard’s belt slung over his shoulder.

“Grenade?” Anna asked, incredulous. “Half the facility will be after us.”

“Grenade? Yes,” Mason whispered back. “Explode? No.”

Anna shot the rogue agent a perplexed look, but Mason yanked the pin and let the spoon fly free without further explanation. Anna ducked and plugged her ears as the man reached around the corner and sent the grenade clattering down the hall towards the guards. She heard surprised yells from the guards, the safeties being clicked off, rounds being chambered-and no explosion. A loud hissing filled the air, and Mason drew his shirt up over his mouth and nose.

The surprised guards’ shouts quickly changed from frightened to annoyed, and their yells explained Mason’s tactic to a T.

“Gas! Gas! Gas!” one yelled, and Anna could imagine him fumbling for his mask-and in the process letting his guard down.

“Now!” Mason shouted, springing to his feet and rounding the corner. Automatic fire rang out. Anna leaned out from the corner, aiming her pistol. The three guards had been in the process of donning their gas masks when Mason had jumped out and opened fire, catching them momentarily unawares. His first burst had caught one of them in the chest, dropping him to the ground, sending the mask skittering in one direction and the man’s weapon in the other.

The guard was stunned-the heavy armor he was wearing caught the rounds, leaving him breathless but unarmed and surrounded by rapidly thickening CS tear gas.

Anna fired a pair of rounds, both missing but causing the other two guards to duck for cover and abandon their masks.

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