Decay (Book 1): Civilization by Linus Locke Read Free Book Online Page A

to the platform the boy appeared standing over Greg. Brian froze in place. The boy looked exactly as he had for the past few days. There was very little color remaining in his eyes. Greg looked up at the boy, the terror clearly visible on his swollen face. This look was soon washed away by relief as he was able to look at the boy and say, “I’m sorry, Sam.”
    The small boy lunged at Greg while letting out a terrifying shriek. The fingers on both hands entered into Greg’s throat and he pulled outwards. Greg’s scream changed tone as his larynx was torn apart. Blood sprayed over the boy’s body. Holding open Greg’s neck Sam bit down into his throat pulling out the esophagus. As Sam stood up to his full height, Greg’s esophagus hung from his mouth like a soft wet rope.
    “What the fuck?” The voice came as a shock to Brian, who turned and saw both security officers standing open-mouthed next to him. Brian recognized the taller of the two as a middle aged man named Henry. He had been with the company far longer than Brian had. The other officer, a younger man named Tim, Brian knew from his earlier days with the company.
    Henry pulled his stun gun from its small belt holster and aimed it at the boy. Tim soon followed by pulling out his own stun gun and stepping off toward the left of the raised platform. Security had handguns, but they never had a reason to use them. Carrying stun guns was completely pointless up on the fifth floor. First floor security stunned the occasion trespasser, but nothing ever happened higher up.
    “Son, you need to step away from the man and place your hands on that table right there,” Henry commanded in his smooth southern voice.
    Sam looked between the three of them and let out another terrible shriek. The electrodes from Tim’s stun gun pierced the almost colorless skin of the boy’s chest causing him to shake violently for a brief moment. He quickly recovered and charged at Tim. The second set of electrodes hit the boy in his right side. Only this time the effect was much briefer.
    “Run and grab one of the guns out of the closet, quickly!” Henry shouted the order to Tim who turned and ran from the room in a dead sprint. “Dr. Sawyer, you need to get behind me if you would please and slowly back toward the door.”
    Sam shrieked once more and began to move toward them. His movement was slower than it originally looked when there was less ground to cover, but he could still move quickly. Damage to the muscle tissue was evident in the way he moved. All of the commotion was beginning to attract the attention of the other researchers on the floor, and despite the researchers being highly educated, they were still human enough to flock to danger.
    Henry stepped forward to grab the boy in an attempt to detain him. Sam bit into Henry’s arm and began to claw at his chest. At that exact moment Henry let out a scream and the door to the lab closed. Tim had hit the alarm before making his way back. The alarm on the fifth floor, as Brian remembered, wasn’t like the alarm on any other floor. It put the entire building into lockdown to prevent top secret information from being stolen.
    Brian turned to see who all was locked in here with him in hopes of one of them having the technical skills to open the door. Henry’s screams continued to fill the room as Brian looked to each of the four researchers that had the misfortune of stepping too far into this particular room.
    “Lawrence. Do you have the authorization to open the doors in an emergency?” Keith Lawrence stood there terrified. He was the Network Security Technician and one of the only non-research employees with access to this floor. He picked a bad day to do preventative maintenance on the lab computers.
    “I’ll try,” Lawrence responded turning toward the control panel for the door and grabbed his keycard.
    Brian turned to run over to help Henry when he noticed the fifth man standing with the group. His head rest