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

perfectly on his right shoulder. Blood poured down the front of his climate suit. Greg lifted his head up, his eyes gray and dull. He turned to the terrified woman standing next to him, and plunged a finger deep into her eye socket. Pulling her close, he dug his teeth into the side of her face and ripped away a chunk of her cheek. Retracting his finger from her eye he placed both hands in her open mouth and pried her jaw apart.
    The remaining members of the group ran in every direction despite having nowhere to run to. Henry’s screams had stopped, but the woman’s still dominated the atmosphere. As one of the researchers ran past Henry’s body toward the back of the room Sam grabbed for his ankle and dug his fingernails deep into the calf muscle. The man fell to his side and tried to pull his leg free; however, Sam had removed most of the flesh and muscle, revealing the bone underneath.
    Henry sat up stiffly. Most of his arm had been torn asunder and several fingers were chewed down to the bone. Standing up he made his move toward Brian, who found that he was able to out maneuver him easily enough.
    “I got it!” Lawrence shouted as the door slid open. The rest of the researchers could be seen standing out in the hallway trying to figure out what was causing all of the chaos that seemed to envelope their friends and coworkers inside of the lab.
    Tim stepped through the door and aimed the pistol around the room. “What do I shoot at? Who do I shoot at?” he yelled in confusion, never assuming that he would experience any real danger in a research laboratory.
    “Just keep Lawrence safe!” Brian shouted in return. “Lawrence, can you see if you can override the locks on the rest of the building and get everyone to safety?”
    “Anything to get the hell out of here!” he replied as he sprang through the door behind Tim.
    The two shots rang out as Greg turned from his victim toward Tim. Each bullet hit him in the chest tearing holes in the flesh. Greg moved forward as if he had not even noticed. Tim fired another two shots into Greg’s chest. This still had no effect. Tim fired the fifth shot into Greg’s head which caused him to drop to the floor.
    Before Tim could celebrate, or share his success, the pain burned through his right shoulder like lightning scorching the earth where it strikes. Henry had bitten him in the shoulder and was now violently pulling on his arm. Weakened by the pain, Tim fell to the ground. Henry continued to pull on his arm. From the left came the woman. Her eye was missing and her bottom jaw hung down, held in place by the flesh on her right cheek. She grabbed Tim’s other arm and began to pull in her direction.
    Tim clamped his teeth together in an attempt not to scream as his right arm was pulled off of his body by Henry. The bones cracked and crunched as they broke, flesh and arteries tore, spraying blood in all directions as the arm came off. As Tim came free of Henry the woman dropped to her knees and dug her hands into Tim’s stomach with deep scratches. His spleen was ripped out of his abdomen. The cries he let out were silenced by his death.
    Seeing no way out through the turmoil, Brian slid under one of the counters along the wall and pried open the vent by pushing off of the wall with his feet. He felt awful about leaving his coworkers, but he did not see any way to win this fight. Climbing in feet first he closed the vent behind him. Brian was able to turn around as he came to a T-intersection in the ventilation system. From there he climbed up and over the fifth floor.
    Through the vents, he could see that each one of his injured coworkers was moving around, attacking other researchers. Lawrence was unable to override the security for the elevator, yet he was able to open the security door that led to the stairwell. Blood covered the walls in the hallway. He came to the realization that this was indeed a bad thing. Lawrence could ultimately lead them out of the