The Lethal Bones by Nick Thacker

Author:Nick Thacker [Heskett, Jim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Turtleshell Press
Published: 2019-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

21

Dalton’s ears rang with a revolving thump, like standing outside a dance club with a boom of relentless bass coming through the walls. He took a visual inventory of his surroundings, trying to count who was still alive.

A pair of legs stuck out from underneath a slab of broken concrete. Looks like Alex’s jeans. Dalton knelt down next to him and tried to lift the concrete, but it wouldn't budge. The puddle of blood on the ground suggested the Alex was gone. If the concrete hadn't crushed him, then he'd bled to death. Dalton tapped the legs a few times to see if he could get a reaction, but Alex didn't move.

“That bitch," Dalton said, and his voice came out like a far away sound, like an alarm clock waking him from a dream. His ears popped, and when he stood, he had to brace himself against the husk of an exploded truck.

Rennie and his other men were running around, trying to salvage what was left of the factory. As far as he could tell, Dalton didn’t think he’d lost anyone else. He didn’t spot Kevin, but with everyone scrambling and working to prepare for a second attack he knew wouldn’t come, he had trouble recognizing some of their faces. His vision was blurry and strained.

Standing amid the rubble, Dalton considered going after Ember and Bennett. They had disappeared over the ridge to the west only a minute ago. He knew a bit about the area, but not enough to know exactly what lay that direction. And he didn't know if he could even command a hunting party at the moment, or how effective they'd be. His head thumped, and every part of him ached. Streams of blood cooled his forehead, and only the thickness of his eyebrows prevented the blood from dribbling into his eyes.

He stumbled across the wreckage. Stepping over metal beams, chunks of drywall. Powdery clouds puffed every time he set a foot down. Must have been bombs in the trucks, because they were all blown to shit. That meant all their supplies were gone, as well.

Good thing he’d not been in the basement when it had happened. The call from outside alerting him to an intruder had drawn them all out, onto the factory floor and toward the exits. Dalton could see parts of that floor had collapsed. Alex had been unlucky somehow. Too close to a concrete support, or something. Dalton couldn’t string together a coherent thought pattern to piece together how Alex had died. He even had trouble keeping his eyes open.

“Sir?” Rennie said, standing in front of Dalton. Sounded like he was a thousand feet away. He had appeared there, and Dalton hadn’t noticed him before.

“What?” Dalton shouted.

“We need to get into the basement. The file cabinets down there… the paper copies. We have to get all that stuff out of the building as soon as possible.”

Dalton shook his head. "No. Burn it all. The police will be here soon. We need to make sure no one can ever know we were here.

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