Crucifixion - 02 by Dirk Patton Read Free Book Online

the minigun fall silent.  Pulling two
fragmentation grenades out of my vest I stepped to the edge of the roof as
Anderson brought the Pave Hawk into a low hover and nearly blew me over the
side with the rotor wash.  I looked over, bracing myself against the wind, and
was astonished to see the seething mass of infected clawing their way over each
other to get to the roof.  I kicked a couple of females in the face as they
reached the edge of the roof, watching them tumble to the bottom of the pile,
then pulled both grenade pins.  Letting the spoons fly I dropped both grenades
over the edge, aiming for a spot a few feet up from the bottom.  Five seconds
later both grenades detonated within a fraction of a second of each other.  I
felt the concussion in my chest and was rewarded with the pile of infected
collapsing into the void created by the falling bodies that were destroyed.
    I turned and ran back to Gwen and Stacy, grabbing the
braided steel cable with a canvas harness on the end as it dropped to roof
level from the winch arm that extended out from the side of the hovering
helicopter.  There wasn’t time for niceties so I grabbed Stacy and slipped the
harness over her head and shoulders, positioning the cable centered on the
front of her body.  Grabbing her hands I wrapped them around the cable and
raised my arm in the air and twirled my hand.  Mayo was on the ball and her
feet immediately left the roof as he winched her up.  A quick scan of the roof
and I spotted two different locations where hands were grasping the edge and I
readied my rifle in time to shoot the first female that climbed up onto the
shingles.  The body flipped over backwards and disappeared over the edge.  More
quickly followed and by the time the harness was on its way back down I’d
already gone through a magazine and a half of ammunition.
    Gwen was pressed against my back and I could feel her
shivering in fright as the volume of infected females reaching the roof
increased.  I was firing as fast as I could acquire targets, and the only good
thing about the situation was the range was so short I was making every shot
count.  Another magazine change and I had to shoot down two females that had
reached the roof and covered half the distance to me in the time it took me to
make the swap.  Damn they were fast.  I risked a glance behind and saw the
harness dangling a foot off the roof and shouted for Gwen to get into it.
    “How?”  She yelled back.
    “Just like I put it on Stacy.  Get it over your shoulders
and in your arm pits and hang on to the cable.”  I kept up my rate of fire
while I yelled the instructions to her and was now having to defend three edges
from infected.  Fire, turn and acquire, fire, turn and acquire, as fast as I
could.  I glanced behind me and Gwen and the harness were gone.  I didn’t have
time to look up to make sure she was OK. 
    The infected were coming up onto the roof now in numbers
that were greater than I could keep knocked down and I had less than a minute
before I would be overwhelmed.  I was OK with that as the harness should be
heading back down any moment and I’d be plucked to safety in plenty of time. 
That is if my rifle didn’t jam, which it did the same instant the thought went
through my head.  Fuck me if I didn’t just jinx myself.  No time to clear the
misfire I let the rifle drop and hang on its sling and whipped out my pistol
and pulled the trigger on an empty chamber.  Shit!  I hadn’t been able to load
a new magazine when I was stuck in the attic and had committed the cardinal sin
of carrying a weapon that was not ready to go.
    I was out of time.  Five females were on the roof, climbing
and leaping over the bodies of the ones I’d shot as they charged my position
and I was down to two edged weapons.  I had a Ka-Bar fighting knife with an
eight inch blade and a Ka-Bar Kukri machete with a wicked 12 inch curved
blade.  One weapon in each hand I met the first female as