Earthfall: Retribution by Mark Walden Read Free Book Online

Jack leapt across the gap and into the safety of the waiting drop-ship.
    ‘Ladies first,’ Jay called to Rachel and she shot him an icy glare before running towards the hovering vessel and leaping inside.
    ‘You’re next,’ Sam urged. ‘I’m right behind you.’
    Jay gave a quick nod and then followed the other two, jumping on board the drop-ship and turning to offer his hand to Sam.
    ‘Come on!’ Jay shouted. ‘We’re leaving!’
    Sam felled one more of the creatures and then sprinted for the drop-ship. He sprang across the gap and caught Jay’s outstretched hand just as one of the pursuing creatures reached the edge of the roof and leapt behind him. The monster’s outstretched claws caught Sam’s ankle in a vice-like grip, and the creature dangled below the drop-ship as it drifted away from the roof. Sam’s hand slipped from Jay’s and he flailed for a handhold. His fingers brushed past the edge of the door and for one fleeting instant he was framed in the doorway, a look of horror on his face before silently toppling backwards into the snow-filled void.
    ‘SAM, NO!’ Jay yelled, desperately flinging himself after his friend. Rachel, grabbing the back of his combat harness, stopped him from also falling to his doom.
    ‘Take us down,’ Jack yelled at the air.
    ‘That is impossible,’ the Servant replied, her voice coming from all around them. ‘The area below is too hostile to attempt a landing.’
    ‘What do you mean?’ Rachel demanded. ‘Take us down now!’
    ‘I am sorry – I cannot,’ the Servant replied. One of the drop-ship’s bulkheads shimmered for an instant and then resolved into a thermal image of the area below them. The entire street was filled with countless thousands of the creatures they had just been fighting, their faint heat signatures blurring together into one seething mass.
    ‘Oh my God,’ Rachel said, her voice a broken whisper. Behind her Jay stifled a sob. Their friend was nowhere to be seen. Not even the fading heat of his body was visible. Sam was gone.

3
    The drop-ship landed in the compound in the ruins of St James’s Park with a soft thud. Rachel was the first down the boarding ramp, her eyes still red from the tears she had shed for Sam.
    ‘Rachel, what’s wrong?’ Nat asked.
    ‘It’s . . . it’s Sam,’ Rachel said, her voice cracking. ‘He didn’t make it.’
    Nat’s mouth fell open in shock as Jay and Jack slowly walked down the ramp, looks of grief-stricken shock on their faces too. ‘Oh God, no,’ she whispered, feeling her stomach lurch. ‘What happened?’
    ‘It was . . . There was . . . It was horrible,’ Rachel said, fresh tears trickling down her cheeks. ‘He never stood a chance.’
    Doctor Stirling approached, looking older and more tired than any of them could remember. ‘I’m so very sorry,’ he said. ‘The Servant informed me of the situation. Sam was a very brave young man. I’m sure we will all miss him, but we need to debrief immediately.’
    ‘Seriously?’ Rachel said angrily, jabbing her finger into his chest. ‘Is that it? Sam’s dead, the person who saved all our lives, the person who let us take London back from the Voidborn, and that’s all you’ve got to say? Well, screw your bloody debriefing. I have a friend to grieve for.’
    ‘I know how much this hurts,’ Stirling said to Rachel’s back as she stormed away, ‘but we have to understand what these creatures are. They’re like nothing we’ve ever seen before – this could be a whole new threat.’
    ‘Leave it, Doc,’ Jay said quietly.
    ‘But you don’t understand,’ Stirling said, ‘if this is some new sort of Voidborn weapon, we need to understand more about it so that we can properly defend our –’
    ‘I said leave it ,’ Jay hissed.
    Stirling opened his mouth as if to say something else, but the expression on Jay’s face made him think twice. He watched in silence as the other young men and women who might just represent