Trial by Fire by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781788630634
Publisher: Canelo
Published: 2018-03-02T00:00:00+00:00

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Threading her way through the tangled woodland that had encroached on the abandoned fairground, Frost approached the building Drake had designated as the rendezvous point. To her surprise, the place looked immediately familiar. The building’s general design and layout was so similar to her former high school that she felt like she’d just stepped 15 years back in time.

The yawning entrance lay ahead, a pair of sturdy double doors still hanging ajar on their hinges. Crouching down near the main gates, she spoke into her radio. ‘Delta to all units, I’m approaching the rendezvous point. What’s your position?’

Her hail was met with the buzz of static.

‘Negative copy. Say again your last.’

For a moment she thought she heard a voice amongst the distortion, but she couldn’t swear to it. She knew that radiation could play havoc with comms gear, but anything strong enough to nullify a radio signal could only spell bad news for anyone in the area.

‘Is anyone reading me? If you can’t speak, acknowledge with a key tone.’

No response, save the pop and buzz of her earpiece.

‘Fuck.’ Reaching for the radiation counter at her wrist, she pulled back the cover far enough to check the reading: 15 Rads.

‘Well, that’s not good.’

They weren’t even at the target area yet, and she was already well on her way to receiving a dangerous dose. She needed to reunite with the others, find Flashback and get the fuck out of here before she ended up glowing in the dark.

‘Okay, Drake. We’ll do it the hard way, as usual.’

With no other option, she gripped the USP, rose up from behind her cover and advanced on the main entrance, trying to suppress a shudder of foreboding as she passed through the doors and darkness swallowed her.

Fortunately her eyes were adapting to the lack of light again after being practically blinded by the car headlights earlier, allowing her to see well enough to navigate down what was clearly a central access corridor. Doubtless this had once been a busy thoroughfare, filled with students rushing to make their next class and teachers berating their tardiness. Now it was dark, cold and lifeless as a tomb.

Much like the other buildings in the area, the place was completely dilapidated after 20 years of abandonment, with paint peeling from the mildewed walls and the cold breeze whistling through cracked windows. The floor was scattered with broken glass, yellowed sheets of paper and chunks of broken concrete. Rusting cables and steel pipes had either fallen or been ripped down from the ceiling, and now hung across the corridor like the vines of some nightmarish jungle. Cyrillic writing had been crudely scrawled across one wall with red paint, though Frost had no idea what the slogan meant.

Hopefully it wasn’t a warning to stay out or die.

The air tasted stale and musty, and she detected the unmistakable odour of decay, as if the entire building were a dead body slowly decomposing around her. Broken glass crunched beneath her feet as she moved.

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