The Terminal War by Hadfield A.C

Author:Hadfield , A.C.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Binary Books Ltd
Published: 2017-09-27T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Mach’s heart beat furiously. He clambered through the hole in the wall and ran as fast as he could in the environmental suit down a narrow alley.

The suit’s fabric caught against his thighs and hips, slowing him down. His body’s upgraded adrenal system was being wasted, the energy fighting against the constriction of the suit rather than being turned into velocity of motion.

Adira kept pace with him, her elegant fidian shape not as restricted by the suit as his bulky human form. “Where’d he go?” she said, casting her head around. The alley was short, and they had already reached its end.

Either side of them, peculiar architecture stretched high above them, the surface texture resembling a network of stone veins and arteries. Dark, black-green vines clung to the sides, entwined with the stone, creating a weird mix of urban and jungle.

Mach noticed that the jungle part was denser here. The vines and other creepers were no longer dying, but thriving, claiming the city’s old remnants.

Once beyond the edge of the alley, Mach looked right then left down the only two options. There was no movement from either end. He switched on his helmet light and fought to calm himself and be methodical. Panicking and running off in the wrong direction wouldn’t save Beringer.

He scanned the ground. Flat-leafed purple weeds grew up between the cracks in the flagstones and through the boulder-constructed walls. More of the dark-green vines hung over the tops of the walls to loop down to the ground, the thick branch lying slack among the weeds.

“There,” Adira said, looking over his shoulder and pointing a few meters in front of them. Among the foliage were signs of disturbance: crushed leaves and a part of the vine split down its length.

“Come on,” Mach said. He set off, running north through the narrow passage. They were making their way toward the rear of the temple on the outside of the courtyard. When they reached the edge of the passage, it opened up into a wider street that ran alongside a frozen canal. An arched bridge crossed the ten-meter-wide stretch of ice. The bridge itself was yet more of the sand-colored stone. Its bricks were neatly cut and on the outside featured still more of the vein-like detail. It rose up in a perfect hemisphere. Green and purple flora was in the process of colonizing its right side, as though they were dragging it down, infinitely slowly, into the canal.

“The fucker’s right there,” Adira said, pointing her rifle at a dark shape standing on the edge of the bridge. It held Beringer around the neck with a long, muscular limb. Beringer’s legs kicked wildly over the side of the bridge.

Mach raised his rifle too, sighting down the scopes. He caught a quick glimpse of the thing before it jumped over the side of the bridge and plunged through the ice with a shattering crash, dragging Beringer with him. Mach’s trigger finger twitched, sending a laser blast toward the froth of white water and fragmented ice, but it was too late, the creature had got away.

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