The Return Man: Civilisation’s Gone. He’s Stayed to Bury the Dead. by V. M. Zito

Author:V. M. Zito
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: FIC002000
ISBN: 9780316218276
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2012-04-01T07:00:00+00:00

8.2

Marco watched. Watching was all he could do–sprawled on the dirt, handcuffed to the quad–as the bearded soldier whirled with his gun upraised, and a fast-moving shadow struck from overhead, and the gun blasted, and Marco twisted away, confused, certain that the next bullet would come streaking right into his gut.

Instead the soldier hit the ground, tackled by… a corpse, Marco thought, his heart misfiring.

But no, thank god… it was Wu.

Wu! Alive, bleeding. Shot. The bullet had grazed him, clipped off a chunk of his arm as it passed. The wound spat red droplets like a demonic sprinkler as Wu and the soldier tumbled down the embankment, caterwauling like animals as they went.

The two fighters somersaulted onto the desert highway and somehow landed upright, bouncing to their feet like an acrobat act gone wrong, each man streaked with blood but determined to perform. The soldier struck first–a powerhouse punch straight to the gory bull’s-eye on Wu’s left shoulder, the gunshot wound. Wu barked in pain and staggered backwards, and the soldier struck again, this time with the gun in his hand, hammering Wu across the jaw–a sickening crack that echoed in Marco’s stomach–and Wu’s legs seemed to go slack, and he toppled to his back. Without hesitation the bearded man raised the gun, aimed into Wu’s chest—

‘HEY!’ Marco screamed.

The soldier flinched–barely, barely–his head cocking to the side for just the smallest fraction of time, but it was enough.

On the ground, Wu seemed to burst into fire.

A white-hot flash of light consumed him whole, stretched across the desert and then just as instantly retracted, and Marco saw Wu on his feet, the steel rounded knife blade in his hand, catching the sun. With a snap of his wrist, Wu sent the knife spinning like a lethal discus at the distracted soldier. The blade gyrated twice and clipped the soldier’s gun hand.

The man yipped as his firearm clattered to the road and his fingertips tumbled and scattered, sliced off, his fingers spraying blood like hose nozzles. His thumb flopped and bounced at his wrist, held only by a disgusting meaty hinge.

In a burst Wu was up again, darting, sliding feet-first at his opponent. With a single fluid motion Wu kicked the gun where it lay, sending it into the brush off the highway, and followed with a chop to the man’s ankles, toppling him to the pavement…

An ugly racket, a sound like splintering, distracted Marco.

The bar across the road. Bill’s. The door had broken open.

Out into the daylight staggered a putrid-skinned corpse in a red plaid sleeveless vest, the crown of its head bald and peeling, long ratty hair clinging to the sides around its ears. Its mouth hung freakishly open, the bottom jaw broken and resting on its chest, exposing its entire bottom row of shit-coloured rotten molars and a tongue torn in two, each half wriggling obscenely independent of the other. It stumbled a few steps into the dirt lot, looking like a drunk venturing out to his car after a hard night’s drinking.

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.