Ceaseless by S. A. Lusher Read Free Book Online

held. The softer material of the neck area gave once the pressure was relieved, allowing him to breath unobstructed once more.
    Someone was helping him up. He kept his gaze on the killer, who was slowly getting up now. Allan got to his feet, groaning, resisting the urge to rub at his neck. He cast a quick glance at Lucy and saw that she had somehow not only managed to find an all-terrain, open-top jeep but also to drive it into the camp itself.
    He froze when he saw someone else in the passenger's seat. Had someone else from the team survived? But he wasn't wearing any kind of armor and he didn't look familiar. Lucy gave him a hard shove to the jeep.
    “Get in !” she snapped.
    Allan coughed again as he stumbled towards the driver's seat. He slipped in behind the wheel and Lucy hopped in back. Allan turned his attention to the killer, who was standing up and now and facing towards them. He, Allan had come to think of the mystery titan as a he, was walking towards them now.
    “What the fuck do we do now?” the man in the passenger's seat whispered.
    “We run him down,” Allan said, throwing the jeep into gear.
    “No! We should get the fuck out of here!” the man hissed. “Hitting him again probably won't put him down but it will do more damage to the jeep and then what!? You want to be trapped here with that son of a bitch!?”
    “Who are you?” Allan asked, but it came to him.
    The missing body. The last survivor of the outpost.
    “He's stopped,” Lucy said from the back.
    Allan's gaze snapped back to the killer, who was instead simply standing there, stock-still, almost looking like a statue.
    “What the hell is he doing?” Allan whispered.
    “Who cares?! Let's get out of here!” the newcomer snapped.
    Before anyone could do anything, the killer turned and began stalking towards the front entrance to the facility. There was a new purpose in his stride. No longer were his movements slow, no longer did they carry the gleeful malice of a cat playing with a dying mouse. The man in black armor was moving with a purpose now.
    “What's he doing?” Allan asked.
    “Who fucking cares !?” the survivor groaned. “If we don't leave we're going to die !”
    “Will you shut up !?” Allan snapped.
    He began moving forward, following the killer, who seemed to have utterly lost interest in him. He was already beyond the front gate, moving towards the jump ship. Allan cursed briefly as he watched the immense man disappear into the back of the ship. A moment later, the jump ship rose up into the sky, reoriented itself and shot off.
    “Fuck!” Allan shouted.
    He smashed the pedal down, driving into the wastelands, following the jump ship that was already beginning to fade from view.
     
    * * * * *
     
    “So, you must be Johnson,” Allan said.
    They'd been driving for nearly five minutes in silence. The jump ship had accelerated to its maximum speed, beyond their ability to see it and then beyond the jeep's ability to track it. But it had been heading in one direction with absolutely no deviations thus far, which was good enough for Allan. He was still driving in that direction.
    “Yes, Richard Johnson,” the man said after a moment. He was the lone survivor from the relay. The spare technician who had been on staff. If Allan remembered correctly, he was the one who'd been exiled there for insubordination. He hadn't really looked at the man's first name though. An unexpected bubble of laughter took him, then.
    “Wait...your name is Richard Johnson?” he asked.
    Johnson sighed. “Yes.”
    “I...but... Richard . Johnson ?” Allan pressed.
    “I don't get it,” Lucy said from the back.
    Johnson sighed again, more explosively this time. For a moment, Allan felt almost drunk, his head swimming from all the lethargy, anxiety, excitement and terror he'd experienced in the past twenty four hours. He gripped the steering wheel, but found it hard to stop laughing.
    “Dick is short for Richard...God knows why. And