Extensis Vitae by Gregory Mattix Read Free Book Online

something to grab on to as panic struck. The pilot swung the chopper into an evasive maneuver, but Reznik could see it would be too late. He clutched at one of his unused shoulder harnesses and managed to loop it around his arm.
    The fiery streak of the rocket-propelled grenade exploded into the tail section of the Black Hawk. The explosion tossed the helicopter around and it began spinning out of control. People were shouting in terror—whether curses or prayers, Reznik would never be able to say.
    The last time Reznik saw his friend Nash, he was falling backward in slow motion out the open door. His hand reached out and was close enough to grab onto, his eyes wide with fear and his mouth open in a silent scream. But Reznik couldn’t move—his body had gone numb, and he found himself frozen in place. Little did he know that his paralysis was due to the shrapnel that had torn away from the fuselage and lodged in his back, severing his spinal cord.
    Reznik and Nash locked eyes for a moment before Nash tumbled away from the Black Hawk and disappeared into the darkness below. The helicopter spun out of control and quickly began losing altitude as Reznik tried to fruitlessly will his limbs into motion and grab on to something. His arm slipped loose from the shoulder harness, and then came the terrifying vertigo as he found himself tossed out the open door like Nash had been moments earlier. Smoke and fire were all around as the Black Hawk plunged into the mountainside.

    ***

    A splitting headache and a sore back were his reward from the dust-up with the security team. Reznik looked around and picked himself up from the floor of the holding cell. The cell looked like it could have been taken from any small town jail. It had a hard cot on one wall and bars on two sides. The metal walls of the bunker made up the other two sides.
    “What did I tell you about staying out of trouble?” a familiar voice asked.
    Reznik looked around and saw Myrna seated in a chair near the door. She had her feet propped up on the desk. He couldn’t tell whether the look on her face was one of amusement or irritation.
    He stretched his sore back and grinned sheepishly at her. “What Swanson wants me to do is madness. I told him no and that I was leaving, but he and his security goons weren’t happy with that answer.”
    “I told you the word ‘no’ wasn’t in his vocabulary.”
    “Yeah, you were right. So what happens to me now?”
    She smiled. “Well, lucky for you, Swanson is desperate and I was able to talk him into letting me convince you to help.”
    Reznik shook his head. “Not gonna work. This is a suicide mission. I need to get out of here and get back to my fiancée in Denver. I was planning on proposing the next time I saw her.”
    Myrna had a funny look on her face—part pity and part anger, it looked like. “You really don’t know what has happened, do you? How much did Swanson explain about the outside world?”
    “He said something about there being nothing left except this Colony and the others, and that Denver didn’t exist anymore or something like that. I don’t know…he didn’t make any sense.” Reznik sat on the bunk and put his head in his hands.
    “That bastard. What did he promise you in return?”
    “Nothing really. He just said that he’d help me be on my way after I helped him.”
    “That’s not right. He’s trying to bargain with you when you don’t even know the terms.” She got to her feet. “I’m going to have to explain a lot to you. Do you realize I’m sticking my neck out for you? Will you promise not to get in any more trouble while you’re under my care?”
    Reznik felt a little guilty about that. She had treated him well all along. “Yes, I promise,” he said as she approached the cell.
    She swept her hand over a control pad on the cell door. It beeped, and then with a clank the lock disengaged. “Proximity reader—it scans the embedded chip in my hand,” she explained to his