A Glimpse of Decay (Book 3): Lost in Twilight by A.J. Santiago Read Free Book Online Page B

bullets tore through the aluminum door.
    “Shit!” Vincent screamed.  “Get behind something!”
    Nick threw himself down to the oily concrete and continued to crawl towards the door.  As he reached the bay door, he drew himself up along the aluminum and took a quick glance through the grimy Plexiglas window.  “Holy shit!” he exclaimed.  He looked back at Vincent and Shondra, and with a big smile, he yelled, “It’s the Army!”
    Out along the fence line, two tan colored armored personnel carriers were rolling up to the main gate as their turret machineguns swept away the crowd of runners.  Not being able to move quickly enough, the lumbering reanimated had already been dispatched before Nick had had a chance to look out of the window.  In a crazed fit of rage, the remaining runners turned and charged the Bradleys, climbing up on top of the armored vehicles.  In response, several soldiers emerged from the turrets, shooting down the runners at close range with rifles.
    “I got three more up here!” screamed one soldier as he swung his legs from out of the turret and down onto the deck.  He sprayed the three charging attackers with a burst from his carbine, and as they tumbled off of the vehicle and flailed about on the ground, he placed a shot in each of their heads.
    The soldier then leaned over the open turret hatch and called down into it.  “By the fence, there’s a few more.  Waste them!”
    The turret traversed to face the remaining runners at the gate and the coaxial machine gun began to hose them down in a stream of bright red burning lead.  Within a matter of seconds, the bodies of the runners began to fall apart as the hot rounds simply shredded apart their flesh.
    “Man, they’re fucking them up!” Nick yelled in a giddy voice.  Spittle was flying from the corners of his mouth as he was overtaken with uncontrollable excitement.  “Those bastards don’t stand a chance!  Finally, somebody is helping us!  Thank you, God!”
    “Get your ass down!” Shondra screamed at Nick.  “They don’t know that we’re in here!”
    In a flash of clarity, Nick looked over at Shondra and Vincent and realized that she was right.  The troopers had no way of knowing that live people were inside of the garage.  He turned to make his way back to his partners and as he was in the process of hunching down, a burst of gunfire came through the door.  Two bullets tore into Nick’s left thigh, shattering the bone and severing his leg at the knee.  A third bullet caught him just under his left rib cage and the fourth bullet tore into the base of his neck, sending a portion of his head skidding across the greasy floor of the garage.
    “No!” Shondra screamed as she bolted towards Nick.  Vincent immediately pounced on her, knocking her down to the ground.
    As the two cowered on the floor, Vincent grabbed Shondra by her arms and yelled, “He’s dead!  You can’t do anything for him.  We gotta get behind some cover…now!”
    Sobbing, Shondra crawled back towards the offices with Vincent right behind her.  They made their way to the supervisor’s office and they curled up in the far corner.  As Shondra continued to cry, Vincent pulled her into his chest and held her tight.  He tucked her head under his chin and tried to keep from crying himself.
    As the soldiers killed off the remaining runners, two more armored vehicles rumbled into the parking lot of the police station.  Within a matter of minutes, their guns had cleared out the remaining stragglers, allowing the vehicles’ passengers to exit from the rear troop hatches.  One soldier, a young second lieutenant with a baby face and green eyes, stood on the deck of one of the troop carriers and began to issue orders.
    “Secure that police station and check for survivors,” he shouted in a hoarse voice.
    “And if we have wounded in there?” asked one of the soldiers.
    “If they’re bit, you know the drill,” the lieutenant answered back