Outcasts by Alan Janney Read Free Book Online Page B

screaming.
    How did they all know where to go?? The sea of humanity surged over the road and spilled onto lawns.
    “Air support is too far. We’re trapped,” Anderson noted.
    “Where’s that chopper?”
    He pointed eastwards. Above the squat houses and commercial buildings and palm trees, a Black Hawk helicopter was climbing into the sky several minutes away.
    Katie’s apartment was half a mile north.
    I had to shout above the screams. “Stay here! They’ll follow me.”
    “I recommend remaining here. We can keep them off the roof.”
    “They’ll swarm us. Some will be Jumpers. I’m getting Katie. Shoot anything that tries to come through that window.”
    I Jumped and landed in the street, barefoot. Savages poured from my home, disintegrating the front wall. They flipped over Anderson’s car. If I didn’t move I’d be swept away like a pebble before a wave.
    I Moved , like an Olympic sprinter on speed with the throttle wide open. The Chosen were fast, but not Outlaw-fast. I raced down the street. Samantha’s truck was parked on the grass at Katie’s building, and her heavy pistols roared from within.
    The Chosen were already there!?
    The trap sprang. They fell on me from hidden spots in evergreen trees, all teeth and claws. Screaming and hitting and scratching. Bodies piled on until the sun blacked out. Dozens. The combined weight crushed me. I couldn’t get to my feet. No leverage, face first, flat on the earth. My arms were pinned. Higher and higher the mountain climbed. My chest couldn’t expand to draw air. The noise was obscene and loud. They bit and tore, white hot pain.
    I couldn’t hit. Couldn’t kick. But I could elbow. I began pumped my arms backwards as far as possible, driving iron elbows into flesh. Harder and harder, faster, farther, like pistons, pulping and moving bodies trapped above me. I cleared space until I could pivot my torso. Finally, a little room. I bucked and shoved at the ground, breaking the human mountain’s foundation, carving out a small cave, large enough to barely get my feet underneath my body. I exploded upwards, over and again, like a volcano trying to erupt, my shoulders and skull punishing anyone above me. Bones broke. Flesh surrendered. Finally I reached blue sky and fresh air.
    The horde focused blindly on me. The two girls raced unseen to Samantha’s truck. Katie still wore her pajamas, pink pants and white tank top, and her hair was tied up. She got behind the wheel and gunned the engine.
    “Outlaw, get your ass over here!” Samantha shouted. She climbed into the truck bed and picked up an assault rifle.
    I roared and tore free from desperate clawing hands. Leapt clear of the mountain. The masses turned like a singular animal and followed me. Truck wheels boiled into dirt and the vehicle leapt forward. Samantha opened fire. Bursts of three rounds each dropping a human being.
    I reached the truck easily. But so did the Chosen. I anchored beside Samantha in the back and wielded the Rod like a sword. Any savage that survived Samantha’s murderous hail of bullets met the Boom Stick, solid thumps to their cranium.
    I needed to pick and stick with a name. Thunder Stick, maybe. I liked that one.
    “Faster!” Samantha called to Katie. Our truck raced out of the suburbs, shedding bodies. The Five was dead ahead, under the distant Hollywood sign. Katie cut across a lawn, ruined a hedge of green boxwoods, and squealed onto the entrance ramp. “Faster!”
    We tore onto the Interstate and brought the storm of chaos with us, a black dragon of bodies profaning beautiful Los Angeles. Nearby police sirens wailed. Two helicopters closed.
    My phone rang. Somehow, in the midst of mayhem, I heard and felt it. I knocked on the truck cabin’s rear window. Katie slid it open and said, “I’m a little busy, handsome.”
    “Eyes on the road! Phone’s for you.” I dropped the device onto the passenger chair.
    “Who is it?”
    “No idea. Might be important. Take a