Quarantine (The Shadow Wars Book 7.5) by S. A. Lusher Read Free Book Online

could see that whatever had afflicted the original man he'd encountered also seemed to have a firm grasp on these two. The way they were quietly muttering to themselves, the ruined state of their uniforms, the awkward, jerky movements.
    His decision was made for him, however, when the woman in the white jumpsuit turned, looked at him and let out a piercing shriek. Allan shouted in surprise. She began racing for him, leaping over an examination table in between them as though it were the easiest thing in the world. When she came within arm's length, he hauled off and smashed the side of her head in with the pipe. Bone crunched, blood flew and her body was picked up and tossed a few feet away. Allan began turning to face his second attacker, which he'd heard shout at roughly the same time as the woman, and then he felt a tremendous force crash into him.
    Both him and the insane crewman landed on the floor. Luckily it wasn't a perfect tackle and they'd landed separately. Allan took the opportunity granted to him, threw himself atop the demented Rogue Ops tech, grabbed his neck, lifted his head half a foot off the floor and then smashed it as hard as he could into the metal deckplates. There was a sickening crack , but still the man thrashed and struggled. Allan raised it once more and slammed as hard as he could. There was another disgusting noise, and then the man stopped moving.
    Allan let out his breath in a heaving sigh and slowly stood up, still shaky from the adrenaline. He took a quick look around, saw no one and hurriedly retrieved his pipe. He made a face as he held it up. There were bits of gore and a lot of blood dripping off of the end. Frowning, Allan looked around and finally walked back over to the woman who wore white. He wiped as much of the viscera off on her uniform as he could, then briefly felt a wave of guilt. He was basically desecrating a corpse. He'd learned a lot about respect for the dead in his career. Allan finished the ugly task and then began another one: looting the bodies.
    He patted down both, but came up with nothing. Sighing, Allan stood and surveyed the infirmary. It didn't inspire confidence. Blood smeared the walls, there were bodies on most of the examination tables, which looked like they'd all taken a beating. Allan turned and walked over to the door he'd come in through. He poked his head out and looked around the corridor outside. Finding it empty, he pulled his head back in, closed and locked the door. After that, he walked across the room to the only other two doors in the area.
    The first led to a small office and storage area, largely untouched by the death and destruction. The second was an extremely bloodied shower area. A trio of corpses, all of whom looked like they'd had a free-for-all with nothing but their hands and determination, lay in a tangled heap on the ground. Allan stared at the violent scene, again wondering what the hell had gone wrong, and finally left and closed the door.
    Feeling possibly the most secure he had since coming onto the Stygian , Allan moved over to the examination table that the insane female medic had leaped over to get to him. He hit the access button and frowned when nothing happened. Hitting it again elicited a burst of blue-white sparks. Allan took a step back reflexively, then sighed. It was obvious that something had gone wrong with the table. He took a look around the infirmary. There were another nine examination tables, and none of them looked to be in good condition.
    He wasted a good ten minutes sorting through them all, trying to get them going. They were all broken. Some simply refused to turn on, others produced utterly random results. Reluctantly, he decided he was going to have to do this himself. Unfortunately, he had no idea how to tell if he had some kind of brain damage, a brain-bleed or cracked cranium or concussion. As far as he knew, there was no way to just eyeball it.
    Now came the very unhappy part.
    He needed to take off