Necropolis by S. A. Lusher Read Free Book Online Page A

attention to the wound. It was obvious that the man had attempted to do a quick patch job himself, but either hadn't had enough material or time. Kyra worked quickly, cleansing the wound, and then patching it on both sides and injecting him with something.
    When she finished, she ran a scan over him with another handheld device. After several moments of silent consideration, she set it aside and let out a long breath, as if she'd been holding it for the entire procedure.
    “He'll be fine...for now, but this is really just a patch job. We'll have to get him somewhere with a real medical bay eventually. No major organs were hit, at least,” she said.
    He gave a nervous laugh and felt a bit of tension drain out of him. He rubbed at his face and winced. Several cuts and scrapes had collected there while he was being pushed into the dirt. Kyra frowned and collected more medical supplies.
    “Hold still.” She came at him with a sterilization pad.
    He hissed in a sharp breath at the sting of antiseptics.
    Kyra huffed out a little laugh. “Don't be baby.” She continued, focused on her work, running the pad across the wound several times.
    “ It can't be that dirty.”
    Kyra sighed. “Someone was stepping on your head, grinding it into the ground. It's filthy. Now hold still .”
    She worked for a few seconds more until she seemed satisfied that his cut was clean, and went about bandaging it.
    “So...those guys...you knew them?” Greg asked quietly.
    Kyra hesitated, and finally nodded. “They showed up at my outpost...” She took a deep breath, and let it out. “Like I said earlier, I got control of everyone at my outpost...everyone left alive, anyway. Then they showed up. That group of assholes. They cut us down. Killed the men, and prepared to rape the women. They never got the chance. More zombies showed up. Still don't know how the bastards snuck up on us, but they were everywhere. Me and Tom were the only ones to make it out. He was another technician, worked with me a lot. Heh, he, I think...” Kyra trailed off, her eyes misty, staring off across the room.
    “ I think he had a crush on me, but I never fostered it. I just...he wasn't my type. I’m still not sure why. Anyway, he got bit. I threw him in the back of the jeep and made a run for it, and you know the rest.”
    Kyra forced a smile. Greg stared at the floor, rubbing the back of his neck. Before the silence had a chance to play out, Cage shifted on the table behind them. They both turned to face him. His eyes snapped open. His mouth remained a flat, indecipherable line. With slow deliberate moves, he propped himself up on his elbows. The movement appeared to cause him pain, but there was only a brief twitch in his right eye.
    “Where am I?”
    Kyra and Greg filled in the blanks for the mystery man. He listened, remaining propped up the entire time, despite the obvious effort it took. By the end, he was sweating. Kyra grabbed an injector of painkillers, but he waved her off.
    “I prefer to suffer through my pain.” His mouth pinched into a thin line.
    Greg glanced at Kyra who shrugged before he spoke. “That seems a little...extreme.”
    “I find that it serves as a good motivator for success in the future. I also find that, in my line of work, a higher pain tolerance is preferable to a lower one.”
    Greg wasn't sure what to say to that, so he just nodded and fell silent.
    Cage spoke up again. “I suppose you want to hear how I got into the position I’m in?”
    Both of them nodded.
    “It's dull, I'm afraid. I was stationed at a military outpost not far from here. Those men came in. There were more when they first showed up, but those who didn't join their cause managed to kill a fair amount of them. In the end, they won out. They shot me, thought they'd killed me. When I came to, I did a quick patch job on myself, grabbed my sniper rifle, and followed them. I tracked them here, to this outpost.”
    Something about Cage's voice unsettled Greg. At