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    #6 Shades of Gray: Dawn of the Twilight- Outbreak
    #6 Shades of Gray: Dawn of the Twilight- Outbreak
    #6 Shades of Gray: Dawn of the Twilight- Outbreak
    Ebook394 pages6 hours

    #6 Shades of Gray: Dawn of the Twilight- Outbreak

    By Kristie Lynn Higgins

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    The Shades Of Gray Series follows the adventures of Kat, a woman with no memory of her past who is called the Pandora Project by those who hunt her, and Kim, a woman leading the life of a legal assassin called a Life Closer. The world they live in is plagued by clouds that prevent the sun from shining down on the land called Dry Clouds, making all who live in Noir forced to live in endless night.

    Kat searches for clues to her past while androids called Un-Men and human bounty hunters try to kill her, and Kim searches for who murdered her mother. The two women's paths collide, and they form a shaky partnership to unravel the mysteries that haunt their lives and they try to protect one another from those who do not wish for them to discover the truth.

    Everyone's soul is marked by a color. Which shade of gray will they hold to?

    #6 Shades of Gray: Dawn Of The Twilight- Outbreak:

    An unstoppable infection...
    An incurable plague...

    The Chimera Strain ran rabid through the Sphinx Corporation Third Branch Office. A few nighttime workers had survived the contagion. Could they escape before the building's auto lock down trapped them in with the zombies?

    An unstoppable army of undead...
    An incurable fear...

    One bite and one was infected. With time running out, could the survivors make it to their only escape route without losing anymore to the Chimera Strain? Or would the minions of Anubis, the Jackal of Death bite their way to victory?

    **Shades of Gray Series**

    (STARTING POINT QUADRILOGY)
    #1 Shades of Gray: Noir, City Shrouded By Darkness
    #2 Shades of Gray: From Moscow, With Love
    #3 Shades of Gray: Cerberus Versus Pandora
    #4 Shades of Gray: Sisters

    (ZOMBIE TWILIGHT QUADRILOGY)
    #5 Shades of Gray: Night Of The Twilight- The Chimera Strain
    #6 Shades of Gray: Dawn Of The Twilight- Outbreak
    #7 Shades of Gray: Day Of The Twilight- Patient Zero
    #8 Shades of Gray: Land Of The Twilight- Closing of Days

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherKristie Lynn Higgins
    Release dateDec 19, 2011
    ISBN9781465868886
    #6 Shades of Gray: Dawn of the Twilight- Outbreak
    Author

    Kristie Lynn Higgins

    You can also check out my author page on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/author/kristielynnhiggins

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      Book preview

      #6 Shades of Gray - Kristie Lynn Higgins

      cover-image, SW-SOG6-12232019

      Shades of Gray

      #6

      Dawn of the Twilight- Outbreak

      Kristie Lynn Higgins

      SHADES OF GRAY: Dawn of the Twilight- Outbreak

      Text Copyright © 2010, 2019 by Kristie Lynn Higgins

      Cover Art Copyright © 2014

      Smashwords Edition

      122319

      www.KristieLynnHiggins.com

      No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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      What happens when we let darkness seep into our hearts?

      When we let our love grow cold?

      When we seek the destruction and pain of others?

      Only sadness and heartache will come of it.

      But is the knowledge (of this),

      enough to stop our evil intents?

      Translated from the Assembled Works

      Ginn L. Irynkissgthie 525 B.D.C.

      A witness will arise,

      one of lowly status.

      He will bear witness to the Herald,

      the one who calls forth the Twilight,

      an outbreak of death and destruction.

      Translated from the Assembled Works

      Ginn L. Irynkissgthie 525 B.D.C.

      Chapter One

      Dawn of the Twilight

      Deputy Mayfield Security Brief:

      The year 32 A.D.C...

      October 32...

      UnDay...

      2:34 A.M…

      A group of people appeared on Level 284 several hours ago.  They are infected with a contagion called the Chimera Strain, and they are actively infecting other people.  The disease is transmitted by blood, so at this time, we don’t believe it’s airborne.  I have no other information on the plague.  Their leader is named Anubis the Jackal of Death.  He appears to be the first infected, patient zero.

      All the Sentry Posts on Level 284 have been compromised.  I have ordered all sentries on Levels 281-289 to take up a defensive position on either Level 280 or Level 290.  The infected, whom Anubis calls xombions, have spread to half of Level 284 and an eighth of Level 285.  I’m still waiting for reports from Level 283.  I have received permission from the Head of Security to evacuate employees from Levels 280-290.  I’m about to announce the evacuations of those levels.  I’m waiting for key personnel to arrive at their designated areas before I do so.

      End of Brief.

      Hellenistic Sector, Business Vicinage...

      Sphinx Corporation Third Branch Office...

      Level 284...

      I have to get out of here.

      The distant sounds of gunfire, screams, moans, and people running filled the level.  All was in chaos as an injured man walked into the hallway out of a lab and approached Sentry Post 12.  He was alone for the moment, and he muttered again, I have to get out of here.

      Unlucky for him, he was a lab tech working night shift.  He wore a white lab coat splattered by what remained of his co-worker, and he also wore a light blue dress shirt with claw marks and dark blue pants stained by the purple blood of a hybrid-xombion.

      I have to, he spoke as his left hand hurt.  This is madness...  What’s going on?

      An office across the way burned within.  The man, whose last name was Painsworth, saw flames through the door’s small window.  The glass had been broken and what looked like reddish-blue hemoglobin covered the jagged edges.  He felt the heat as he walked by and heard an alarm .  The sprinkler system kicked in, spraying a specialized foam within.  Many other offices had their doors busted in as slasher-scarlet swill marked some of their frames, and gnawed on body parts littered the passage.  His hand throbbed, and it hurt a lot as he searched for a guard, but he couldn’t find one at least one that was still alive.  Feeling sick, Painsworth passed the devastated Sentry Post 12, and 9 mm shells littered the floor like brass candy from a busted piñata.  He kicked one as he walked, and the metal casing rang as it rolled across the tile until the empty shell hit the wall with a soft thud.  A body of a sentry hung over backward on the protective wall that encased the Post, and the sentry’s intestines laid in a jumble below his body like a heaping bloody pile of dog doo-doo.  The sentry’s face remained frozen in a death scream.  Bile filled Painsworth’s mouth, and he almost vomited, but he choked it down, knowing he had to get out of there.

      His head pounded and his vision blurred as he turned a corner.  He didn’t know where he was going only that he had to escape the madness and after a few minutes, he turned another corner and heard something.  It had to be people.  Someone had come to save him, so he quickened his pace and turned the third corner.  His sense of direction felt like it had been thrown into a blender, and for all he knew, he was walking back to his office.  His head hurt even more.  He searched again but found no one.  He stopped and rubbed his eyes, hoping it would relieve the blurriness, and it helped a little.  He searched once more and there they were.  Painsworth stared across the hallway at a group of seven people soaked in human-tomato juice as they mulled around in a circle and appeared to be as lost and confused as him.  They slowly came his way.  Maybe it wasn’t right.  Maybe they weren’t confused but... but...  They might be afraid.  No, it was something different.  They might be infected.  Fear ran through his mind and a need to flee, so Painsworth turned, finding the other direction empty.  His heart thumped like a panicked rabbit as he turned back.  Sweat and chunky red biped-soup speckled his face.  They saw him, so he should run.  His hand burned, and he tried to rub it, but it hurt too much.  They stampeded his way.  He glanced at his wrist where a creature had bitten him, and plasma trickled from the wound to his black loafers.  A hideous snake-face man had attacked him with a fang-filled mouth.  Painsworth remembered how horrified he was when the infected man came at him.  The man had jittered his independently moving split jaw and snapped at him.  He escaped, but the xombion nicked his hand.

      Painsworth looked at the group of seven who were halfway to him.  They...  He wasn’t sure what he should call them.  Maybe infected was the word he was looking for.  Whatever their name was, they were coming right for him, so Painsworth turned and searched the other direction once again.  He should be running, but something...  There was something else he should be doing.  A noise distracted him, and he searched for the source of the Zeus awful noise.  It was faint.  He rubbed his temple with his good hand.  The sound...  It was giving him a headache, actually... it caused his whole body to hurt.  Whatever it was, it was coming from the intercoms.  Painsworth tried to focus through the pain so he could turn and face the group closing in on him.  Those...  Those people were almost there.  He could hear their rapid breathing.  He knew there was a name he was supposed to call them.  He couldn’t remember it, so he turned back and faced the horde and there was that sound again, and it was awful.  Painsworth put his good hand over his eyes.  He couldn’t get the sound out of his head.  He removed his hand as blood filled the whites of his eyes, and his irises turned reaper-black.  The group of people ran, shrieking past him as three xombions lumbered after them.  Painsworth grabbed one of the screaming men who was a janitor, and at that moment, Painsworth knew as he examined the man fighting to flee that they were called pre-hosts.

      His thoughts became focused.  Must bite them.  Must taste.  He lunged, sunk his teeth into the man’s neck, and tasty-mortal fluid spurted into his mouth.  The janitor screamed, punched, and kicked, but Painsworth wouldn’t let go, not until he had more of the pre-host liquor.  His infected essence mixed with the janitor’s, and soon the tainted blood was no longer to his liking.  Painsworth threw the janitor to the side, turned, and trudged after the three xombions, joining the pursuit of the remaining six pre-hosts.  His master...  He heard voice.  Infect...  Bring Outbreak.  Infect...  Bite...  Blood...  Outbreak.  His thoughts faded as his mind died along with the man he once was, and Painsworth joined the ranks of the xombions as his body succumbed to the Chimera Strain.

      The frantic group of people and the drooling xombions, who pursued them, cleared the hallway, and quiet fell on the area.  Even the distant shrieks and blood-curdling laments faded as seconds passed.  A shuffling sound and the popping of metal broke the quiet, and then a vent in the side of the wall that was six feet from the floor slammed down and banged against the side.  A man poked his head out and scanned the area, then he fell out of the air ducts, followed by two more men, and they landed hard in a pile on the floor next to the janitor.

      Nick was the first one to his feet.  The man with brown eyes and hair aimed his Manurhin MR73 at the open vent, to the janitor, and back to the vent.  Nick wore the sentry uniform as did the other two men with him.  The uniform consisted of a white button-up work shirt and dark blue pants.

      Nick asked, How is he?

      Sentry Four looked over the third man of their group as he replied, I don’t know.  He’s covered in goo.

      Since they were a long way from his Sentry Post, Nick felt vulnerable and that at any moment he could become one of the mindless gore-slobbering undead or even worse, he might become one of those mutated beastly hybrid-xombions.  He searched the hallway for the monsters.  It had been only hours since the madness began.  Three of them had manned Sentry Post 24, and he really liked his job and even the guys, though Bob played practical jokes on him.  Nick glanced at the injured man on the floor and moved to the janitor.  They had lost their third member to the first xombion attack and now it was only him and Bob.  He checked for a pulse, and the janitor had none.  Nick glanced at Sentry Four.  He didn’t know his name.  After the first attack, he and Bob ran to Sentry Post 25 and there they were supposed to be safe and supposed to have backup but none arrived.  Only Anubis and his blood hungry mutants came.  Nick stepped back from the janitor and leveled his gun on him.  They and those from Sentry Post 25 ran, looking for help, but they only found a group of snake-face men.  They attacked them and only the three of them survived.  The janitor’s hand twitched as Nick considered at least he was better off than Sentry Four.  He still had Bob.

      Nick ordered, See if he was bitten.  Sentry Four looked over Bob and didn’t say anything, so Nick snapped, Was he?

      I don’t know.  He’s bleeding but there are no teeth marks only these two holes on the bottom of his neck like a giant wasp stung him, Sentry Four stated, then searched one more time, and found nothing else.  Now that I think of it, those hybrid-xombions we encountered in the ducts had no teeth.  Maybe he is infected.  He stood and panicked as he cursed, Puck!  If Bob is, what are we going to do?

      I don’t know, Nick said as he turned, facing Sentry Four.  We’ll worry about that later.  Right now...

      Unseen by the men, the janitor opened his eyes and stared at the floor with his grave-hole dark irises.

      Nick knelt to Bob’s side and spoke, Right now we need to move up to Level 280 and join the other sentries gathering there.  Do you have any idea which way we should–

      The janitor lunged for him before Nick knew what was going on, and he fell back, caught off guard.  He fired three shots.  Two bullets struck the infected in the cheekbone, and the other one hit him in the head, killing the janitor.  Red liquid trickled from the three holes.

      That guy was dead and came back to life! Nick shouted and cursed, Fafnir!  What’s happening?  What kind of contagion is this?

      I don’t know, Sentry Four answered.  I’m hoping this is only a nightmare and that I’ll wake soon and find I passed out drunk on my couch.  You know, too much whiskey.  Hey!  He got excited as he motioned to their third member and said, Bob’s coming to.

      Oh... Bob, who was older than the other two guys, uttered as he grabbed his head.  Feels like I was hit by a Street Sanitizer.  Confused about where he was, he looked around and asked, What happened?  Bob said, The last thing I remember I was scurrying through the ducts.

      He was relieved his friend was okay, and Nick told him, Some excuse for making Sentry Four drag your fat asp through the ducts.  Nick cautiously moved to the corner, glanced around it, and saw no danger as he said, You were probably faking you had passed out.

      I passed out? Bob repeated as he scratched his head.  I don’t remember.  Tell me what happened.  Bob rubbed the back of his neck and felt two sore bumps as he asked, What happened with those things we encountered?

      Nick took up position so that he could watch for xombions, and then he recounted, After we encountered the hybrid-xombion in the ducts, we fled until we were near exhaustion.  We stopped to see if we were still pursued and as far as we could tell, we weren’t.  He motioned to Sentry Four and ordered him, Go down to the other corner and keep watch.  The man nodded and went and stood guard as Nick continued, After some discussion on what to do next, Sentry Four started to leave but couldn’t.  You see, he discovered one of those things at the end of the duct in our way.  We decided to go the other direction but when we turned, we saw you peering up.  We wondered what you were doing, but then we saw it.  One of those frog-like creatures hung upside down, clinging to the top of the duct only a few feet from your face.  It slowly moved into the beam of your flashlight and...

      In the retelling...

      Inside the ducts minutes before...

      Scared out of his pucking mind, Bob’s hand shook and so did the flashlight he held.  He along with the other two men were trapped in a square metal tunnel five by five feet.  The jiggling light cast grotesque and misshapen shadows across the large duct.  Bob couldn’t move.  He heard the other men shouting behind him, but he didn’t react to their calls.  If he had been in the hallway and not this cramped space, he might have fled from the thing but there in the metal coffin, the thing was too close.  If he turned his back on it, Bob knew he was dead.  He nearly wet his pants as fear seized his chest.  The thing in front of him was one ugly pucker.

      The Frogga-mutation had smooth clammy pale-white skin with dark blueish-red patterns on its ventral region, and it was the size of a man.  Unlike the other hybrid-xombions, this mutation showed no signs it had ever been human.  It even shed its clothes after the transformation and telling gender was out of the question.  Because of its apparition-like appearance, the Frogga-mutation looked like a ghostly specter amphibian.  Frogga-mutation was the name that would later be given to these hybrid-xombions by the author of the Chimera Strain Report.  It slid its hand forward across the top of the duct as clear gooey slime smeared across the metal.  It slid the other hand forward, and it made a squeaking-rubbing sound like a hot car brake.  The long and slender amphibian-like appendages had well-developed discs on its fingertips.  It pulled its body forward until its head was right in front of Bob, and then the Frogga-mutation examined the pre-host with its grapefruit-sized eyes.  Each orb had one solid gray circle that consisted of the iris and the pupil.  It licked a dark green tongue across its large amphibian-like mouth that made up a third of its body.  The Frogga-mutation had large ears like a fox bat, but they were hairless and pale-white like the rest of its body.  The hybrid-xombion slowly opened its toothless mouth, and glop dripped from its orifice and landed on Bob’s shoulder.  The ice-cold slime made him shiver in fright.  Nick and Sentry Four yelled instructions to each other, and then each of them aimed at a different Frogga-mutation.  Nick locked on to the one in front of Bob, and Sentry Four locked on to the one that blocked the other direction.  Bob stared at the upside down nightmare toad, expecting the thing to chomp on his head but instead, the Frogga-mutation shrieked a high pitch croak.  The shrill nearly busted his eardrums.  Bob screamed, but he couldn’t hear his own cry and after a few seconds, his hearing returned.  Bob heard Sentry Four and Nick firing their weapons.  Muzzle flashes lit up the dark ducts, his terrified face, and the body of the Frogga-mutation as its skin rippled with the bullet impacts.

      Some distance from the three men...

      Slime covered the ducts where ten Frogga-mutations congregated.  They heard the loud bangs and tilted their heads curious of the noise.  These creatures had once been lab techs, security, or office workers, but now they were sexless infecting machines.  They looked like a frog down to their large muscular legs.  The deca-group recognized the deafening bangs and what they meant.  Pre-hosts were near and in one accord, they leaped through the ducts, hopping like rapid toads, and they rushed for the blood feast.

      In the area with the three men...

      The Frogga-mutation near Bob fell head first to the bottom, landing with a loud thud.  Bob scurried back from the hybrid-xombion as putrid-plum gunk seeped from several bullet holes in its body.  The abomination kicked at the air and wildly whipped its tongue out.  Bob scampered back six feet and believed Nick had done it.  Nick had saved him, and the thing was dying.  The pucker was dying.  He turned, seeing Sentry Four had shot the other one, and it laid dead with a hole in its head as mutated blue-red blood oozed out.  Bob turned back to the one in front of him, and it stopped thrashing and closed its eyes.

      This one’s dead.  Let’s get out of here, Bob shouted.  I want to–

      The Frogga-mutation’s humongous eyes popped opened and stared at Bob with alabaster death-spheres, and the fierce globes seemed to burn ghostly-white with hunger in the darkness of the air ducts.  Bob gasped as it sluggishly rolled over, got back to its clammy appendages, opened its slobber dripping mouth, aimed, and lashed out its tongue.  The tip of the dark green organ missed its target, struck the wall next to Bob, and embedded itself, creating a metal crimping ring.  Bob slowly turned, looked at the tongue, and realized why it made such an unexpected noise.  At its very tip was a large stinger.  The Frogga-mutation unhinged the spear-like organic instrument from the duct and passed it by Bob’s face.  The stinger dripped with toxic-lilac fluid, the poison of infection.  The lethal plasma covered the duct, Bob’s hand, and the floor.  It pulled the tongue back in its mouth and aimed a second time.

      Get out of there! Nick yelled as he lifted his gun.  This way!  Hurry this way!

      He and Sentry Four aimed at the remaining Frogga-mutation and fired and as bullets whizzed by, Bob dropped to his belly and crawled toward the two men.  When Bob turned his back on it, the hybrid-xombion lobbed its stinger-tongue and struck Bob twice in the neck.  He grunted in pain, but he managed to keep moving as a fiery spasm zapped through his spine like blazing electricity.  The Frogga-mutation ignored the slugs shredding its body, and it pursued, hopping after the pre-host.  The booming of altered hands and feet as they landed and leaped, alerted Bob to the pursuit, and he feared it had him.  He turned to face the monstrosity as a round struck it in the forehead.  It dropped dead, slid, and stopped in a jumbled heap in front of his shoes as blueish-red blood trickled from the wound.

      Hades!  Let’s get out of here! Bob yelled as he turned and crawled away from the thing.

      You go ahead, Nick ordered Sentry Four.  I’ll wait and come up behind Bob.

      Sentry Four let his flashlight lead the way as he crawled into the blackness.  Bob scampered past Nick, and then Nick scanned the back area one more time with his electric torch and followed the two men.  The sound of them crawling thundered through the ducts and after some time, the three men saw a green radiance ahead.

      Sentry Four stopped, turned to the other two, and asked, What is it?

      Maybe a way out, Bob replied as he heaved from the escape, and then he rubbed the back of his neck as the hot stings continued to bother him.

      Tired himself from the endless fleeing, Nick shined his beam ahead, flashed it behind himself, checked for xombions, and faced his comrades as he said, We won’t know until we go see.

      Still a little winded, Sentry Four nodded and crawled toward the neon glow and once they got closer, they no longer needed their flashlights and turned them off to conserve their batteries.  The duct turned right, and the men entered an area covered with glimmering jade goo.  Sentry Four stopped at the entrance.  Bob continued in and was followed by Nick.  The men almost vomited as a diarrhea stench hit them.

      Ahh...  This stuff reeks! Nick uttered as he covered his nose with his left hand, scanned the area, and noticed ripped clothes, shredded shoes, and personal items embedded in the clear green glop.  Nick asked, What are these?

      The author of the Chimera Strain Report would later discover that dozens of infected people, who were either infected by Anubis or a first generation Frogga-mutation, were drawn by an instinct created by the Chimera Strain and had entered the area and transformed.  They left behind what made them individuals and what made them human.  They were part of a collective.  Who and what they were died with their old self, so they no longer needed cell phones, combs, pens, H.H.Cs., hair ties, clothing, etc.

      Still covering his nose, Nick saw the jet-black uniform of a Third Branch Office S.C.M. and the soldier’s side pack as he said, This explains things.  These must have belonged to a member of our backup.  No wonder no one showed up.  He uttered, Poor soldier.

      Sentry Four pulled his work shirt over his nose, touched the translucent slime, and recoiled his hand as he said, I don’t want to crawl through this foul-smelling goo.  I think we should turn back.

      I’m all for that, Nick said as he saw no reason to wade through the mess.  They could find another way out.  They could find a way that didn’t involve slopping through stinking gunk.  What do you think Bob?  He didn’t respond, so Nick asked again, What do you think Bob?

      What do I think? Bob repeated as he dropped his hand from his neck.  I don’t feel so good, he replied as he swayed back and forth, and then he fell face first into the glop.

      Bob! Nick exclaimed as he rushed to his side and shook him.  Bob!  He looked at Sentry Four and informed him, He won’t wake up.  We need to get out of these ducts and find him a doctor!

      Let’s go back the way we came in.  I thought I–  Sentry Four froze mid-sentence as an ear-piercing croak blasted through the ducts.

      Asgard! Nick cursed, crawled to the corner, and searched the darkness.  He didn’t see anything, but he heard the loud bounding of several Frogga-mutations.  He fumbled for his flashlight and turned the torch on as nearly a dozen tail-less leviathans hopped his way, and he cursed again, Hel!  Daughter of Loki!  Nick turned, waved his hand for Sentry Four to run, and shouted, Go!  Go!  Go!

      Sentry Four started to leave, turned to their injured comrade, and questioned, What about Bob?

      Grab his arms and drag him out of here, Nick commanded him as he removed his gun.

      But those creatures will catch up to us before we get out, Sentry Four argued.  We won’t make it if we have to drag him.

      Nick remembered the backpack he had seen earlier, crawled back in, reached into the foul-smelling goo, and removed it.  He unzipped the backpack and found a Skorpion M61 and several spare magazines, and then he said, I’ll hold them off as long as I can.  Nick ejected the magazine from the small submachine gun and found it full.  Go!  He reinserted the magazine, set the lever for automatic fire, and unset the safety.  I’ll follow after a couple of minutes.

      Sentry Four readied his flashlight, grabbed Bob’s arm, and easily dragged him through the slime.  They left the glowing chamber.  Nick moved after them, stopped halfway through, and aimed where the Frogga-mutations would enter and seconds later, the first one leaped in.  Nick made sure to aim for its head and opened fire.  Tat-tat-tat-  The Skorpion blasted off rounds, the hybrid-xombion dropped, two more entered, then Nick fired again, tat-tat-tat-, and nailed one.  Three more entered as the one still hopping neared him.  He opened up again, tat-tat-tat-, and fell the third one.  Four, five, and six of the deca-group approached as Nick pressed the trigger and nothing happened.

      Fafnir!  Need a new mag!

      He ejected the spent one and reached inside the backpack for a second as the rest of the deca-group entered the chamber, leaving seven hybrid-xombions for him to face.  Nick felt something metal in the pack and removed it as the Frogga-mutations moved in on him.

      Asgard!  This isn’t a mag!  Nick panicked at first, but then he grinned as he pulled the pin and shouted, Eat this!

      In another area of the ducts...

      Sentry Four dragged Bob’s goo covered body, hearing the sounds of automatic fire in the distance and after a few minutes, the gunshots ceased.  Sentry Four paused and looked behind them, and the glow of the chamber was no longer visible to him.  He didn’t know what was taking Nick so long, and he began to wonder what he should do if he didn’t come back.  Sentry Four looked at Bob and thought about abandoning him.  He didn’t have to decide just yet.  He had to find a way out, so he kept crawling and dragging Bob, and then a few seconds passed and a loud explosion resonated through the metal ducts.

      What the puck? Sentry Four uttered.

      He saw light ahead, dragged Bob toward it, and saw a vent cover and as they neared, Sentry Four heard something coming through the ducts behind them.  He let go of Bob, removed his gun, aimed it and the flashlight, and then saw Nick come into view.

      Sentry Four sighed in relief as he lowered his weapon, and then he told him, I was beginning to think those creatures had eaten you.

      They almost did, Nick said as he sucked in needed air, glanced at the sub-machine gun, and loaded it.  But I found a grenade in the pack.  I nearly blew myself up, but I think I got all of them.  Nick looked ahead as he said, You found a way out.  He put the Skorpion in the pack and removed the Manurhin from his holster.  He would save the machine gun in case they encountered another large group, and then Nick said, I’ll go first and check it out.

      The present...

      And that’s what happened, Nick explained to Bob.  He stood at the corner and looked across the hallway at Sentry Four, who guarded the other corner, and then Nick turned back to Bob and said, Now that you’re back on your feet, let’s get going.

      Sounds like a plan, Bob stated.

      A chit-chit sound grabbed the two men’s attention as Sentry Four ran to them and once he sprinted to them, he told them, There’s a group coming this way.  We got to move!

      Four Adder-mutations and six Common Xombions lumbered around the corner he had been guarding.  Common Xombions was the name later given to the original form of the infected by the author of the Chimera Strain Report.

      We’ve got to go! Sentry Four repeated.

      Which way? Bob questioned.

      To the ramp/stairs.  Come on! Nick shouted as he started off and

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