Necropolis by S. A. Lusher Read Free Book Online

cover behind the shed. In a scarlet flash his head was gone, blood spurting from the stump of his neck. His limbs twitched as he crashed to the ground. Kyra rolled to her side, grabbed her pistol, discarded on the ground, and raised it. Greg heard the gunshots and felt the hot, liquid spray across the back of his head and neck. He shoved the limp corpse off and grabbed for his discarded shotgun.
    Both he and Kyra pressed their backs to the side of the shed, shivering in the rain, crouching and waiting in rapt silence. For several heart pounding, awful moments, there was nothing, just the sound of rainfall. Then they heard footsteps. Whoever had done the sniping was making a slow approach. Given what Greg had just encountered, he wasn't sure he was willing to put his trust in anyone but Kyra.
    “ Who goes there?” he called out after several more seconds of uncomfortable silence. The footfalls stopped.
    “ My name is Cage.” The voice was calm, eerily so, and just loud enough to be heard over the heavy rainfall. Greg glanced at Kyra, who shrugged. This time, she seemed just as lost as he was. He sighed.
    While he debated on what to do next, there was a soft groan and the familiar thud of a body collapsing to the ground. Greg waited for several seconds, confusion taking hold of him. Finally, he peered around the corner of the shack.
    Cage lay sprawled out on the rocky ground, a sniper rifle clutched tightly in one pale hand. He was unmoving. Greg waited another few seconds, then stood and made his way toward the prone form. He was shaky with adrenaline, but his instincts whispered to him. They told him this guy was the real deal.
    Greg reached the body without incident.
    He knelt and rolled the man over. Cage turned out to be a slender, pale man in his early thirties, face rough with stubble, and the flesh around his eyes sunken deep into his skull. He still breathed, but when Greg pushed him onto his back, he saw a gut shot that that soaked his uniform. The man was bleeding out.
    “ Kyra, gonna need some help here!”

Chapter 06
    – Outpost Life –
     
     
    They carried Cage into the infirmary, setting him down on the same examination table they'd laid Kyra's friend out on not all that long ago. The problem became immediately apparent as they got him onto his back. He'd been shot through the stomach and, judging from his pale pallor, he'd lost a tremendous amount of blood.
    Kyra peeled away the torn, bloodied remains of uniform around his midsection while Greg opened up the medical kit. Kyra inspected the wound for several seconds with an intense frown on her face. After what felt like ages, she seemed to come to a decision. She turned and made her way deeper into the infirmary.
    “The bullet went through.” She pried open a medical cabinet and hunted through the abundance of equipment within.
    At least, Greg thought while he waited, this time we have proper lighting. Overhead, the lights hummed with power. Kyra made the rough approximation of a happy noise and strode back over to the examination table. She held a small device in her hand, something Greg didn't recognize, and stuck it into Cage's arm. She pressed a button. A second passed, followed by a soft chime.
    “ Greg, go over to that cold storage unit. There should be containers of blood. Bring me B Positive.”
    Greg hurried over to where she indicated, feeling nervous and out of his element. Basic medical procedures had been salvaged from the murky depths of his memories, but anything beyond that escaped him. He popped open the door and hunted through the packets until he found one with B+ printed on it, grabbed it, and hurried back across the room.
    Kyra had set up a stand for the blood to hang from and now slipped a needle into Cage's arm. Greg handed her the packet of blood and watched her work, impressed with how competent and deft her hands were. She hung the blood and got it going, feeding it into Cage's system. That task complete, she turned her