[Interloper #1] Icebreaker by Steven William Hannah

Author:Steven William Hannah [Hannah, Steven William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Post-Apocalyptic, Science Fiction
Amazon: B0991VVK6L
Published: 2021-07-07T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Dusty opens his eyes shortly after his first plasma infusion, lying flat on the same med-bay bed that Bear had sat Bee on earlier. Bee is holding the plasma bag high above him, while Bear monitors the flow into his veins.

“He's stirring,” says Bear. “Dusty? Hey old fella, how are you feeling?”

Dusty groans. “Like I've been fucking shot, son.”

“He's fine then,” says Bee, and laughs out of pure relief.

“How bad is it?” asks Dusty, wincing.

“Abdomen shot, clean through. Nicked a blood vessel or six, judging by the bleeding, but your internal organs seem ok. We'll know soon if something important has burst, I guess. ”

“That's reassuring,” sighs Dusty. “What the hell happened? Is everybody ok? Where's Glass?”

“Driving,” says Bee.

“Ah, smart – in case of exposure.”

“It was his idea,” she shrugs.

“Speaking of exposure,” whispers Dusty as they lean in. “That glowing bastard; May tried to target him, and it frazzled her. She shut down – meant I had to manually drive in with my sensory gear on. He's got something of Gaia about him, I think. Never seen that before.”

“He's covered in post-exposure runes,” says Bear. “That could explain it. Looking at his palms hurt my eyes in the same way that the runes do.”

Dusty gives a sad laugh of defeat. “Well, shit. I guess that's a thing now, then. The computer can't target him, you can't look at him -”

Bee smiles and pats Dusty's chest. “I guess we'll just have to settle for Glass hitting him with a machete, eh?”

Bear folds his arms and finds the courage to break a taboo. “Ok, I've got to ask,” he says. “Why doesn't exposure bother Glass? What's his deal?”

“Why would exposure bother him?” asks Bee. “He's already survived it.”

Bear closes his eyes in realisation, nodding. “I knew it. That makes sense. Right. Right.”

“He used to be Forestry,” says Dusty. “That's all I'll tell you. The rest is Glass's story to tell, not mine.”

“Yeah, like he'll talk to me,” he shrugs.

“He might, given time.”

The trio stay in silence for a minute as Bear works on his stitching, sewing Dusty together again. Bee breaks the silence in good humour.

“I guess I'm not Acting-Captain any more then?” she sighs melodramatically.

“Not any more, lass,” he says. “So what's the situation in White Anchor? Some bastard debrief me.”

Bee drops into her more professional tones. “Ok, so: White Anchor got the dreams last night, realised that the Devil was taking a stroll nearby. Whole town got into their sensory gear to tough it out, the Forestry got ready for a fight... and instead, the Dreamers showed up outside, gunned them down, got to the radio tower and, we suspect, played some of Hell's song down the microphone. Everybody who was hooked up to the radio waiting for an all-clear is gone, we reckon. Then Messenger – that's the bald bastard with the tattoos – said that he had called his demons down, and we had to fight for our lives. I think he wanted us alive, boss. Like, he really wanted us alive.

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.