Orion Colony Complete Series Boxed Set J.N. Chaney (books for new readers .txt) 📖

I shoved my shoulder against the metal, sweat pouring into my eyes.

I had a brief moment to look at Maksim, who also fought to keep the barrier in place, his face bloodied and bruised, his hands soaked in blood. He had come into the hangar to try and close the doors behind us. He came back with the metal barrier in an attempt to help. Perhaps he was changing from the subversive assassin he had been to a team player. I felt for the first time that he might actually be on our side.

My feet slid across the hangar bay as I struggled to find a solid hold on the floor beneath us. It was difficult, as the floor was smoothly constructed in a material that was made for vehicles to move on, not for traction for the armored boots I was wearing.

The doors narrowed the entryway into the room to a six-foot gap, then five. It looked like we might actually make it. There were only seven of us left on our side of the hangar, but we were going to do it. Against all odds, we were going to hold them back.

The gap closed to four feet.

“Hold them!” I yelled, trying to encourage the few of us that had survived. My muscles burned from my arms to my back and legs. I could only imagine how the others felt with far more injuries than I had sustained.

John let out a roar, more than likely from the pressure on his shoulder wound. There were grunts up and down our meager line of defenders.

“Almost there!” I yelled again, trying to do my best to spur them on to make their bodies give more than they ever had before.

Tong slipped on the blood-soaked floor and went down hard. He struggled to gain purchase on the ridiculously slippery surface.

“Get up, get back up!” I yelled. The hangar bay doors closed further. There couldn’t be more than a slim two-foot gap in place.

Then the worst sound I’d heard in a long time echoed into the room. The rhythmic clanking the hangar bay doors made when they were closing stopped. The doors shuddered then halted their progress altogether.

There was still a two-foot gap between the hangar bay doors, enough for a body to slide through.

“They’ve jammed the doors somehow!” Dama said over the shrieking of the infected. “Hold them!”

Dama took off at a run toward the side of the door and the control panel.

There were six of us still holding the door: Tong, Sulk, Stacy, John, Maksim, and me. It wasn’t easy, but six people holding a two-foot gap was much more manageable than one that was spread over eight feet.

I pressed my back into the steel plate, my feet anchored into the ground. For the first time, I got a look into the armor room. The same blue lights shone in the walls, giving off an ethereal glow to the place but not much visibility. I couldn’t make out details or see the power armor.

What I could tell was that the room was a massive chamber that went on further into the dark. The ceiling had to reach two maybe even three stories tall.

“You thought I left you,” Maksim said to me on my left.

“I didn’t say that,” I grunted.

“But you thought it,” Maksim continued. “I told you. It’s us against Legion now. I will not let him get off this planet. I am on your side now, my brother.”

I saved my breath for breathing, not sure how to respond to him anyway. Sweat dripped down my face and my helmet was a heated, humid box. Back still pressed against the door, I pulled my helmet off. A cool, refreshing rush of wind greeted me.

“Dama!?” Stacy called out from the other side of the steel barrier where she stood between John and Tong. “What’s the holdup? Why won’t the door close?”

“There’s nothing wrong on this end,” Dama said frantically. “It’s Legion. Most likely, he was able to wedge something between the doors. I don’t know what. Weapons, steel. It doesn’t matter. The doors won’t close.”

I could see the defeat on the faces of those beside me. My mind raced for a plan. We couldn’t remain there, that was for sure. We had to do something and fast. We could hold them off for a few more minutes, but eventually Legion would outlast us and push through. We were so close to the armor, but with this one hurdle in our way, it was almost like we were back to square one.

“The power armor,” Sulk called out. “Dama, we need to get a power armor up and running.”

“Two,” Stacy corrected, looking over at Sulk. “You and Dama already know how they work. We’ll hold the door shut while you get the armor and hurry back.”

Sulk nodded then let go of his spot on the steel barrier. He and Dama disappeared into the darkness of the room a second later.

The five of us still on the steel sheet pressed even harder.

“I still don’t like you,” John said to Maksim, pressing his good shoulder and the side of his head against the steel sheet. “But you did good.”

Maksim blinked at him as if he weren’t sure how to accept the backhanded praise. He nodded once, as if acknowledging John’s comment but storing it away for later.

As if by magic, the shoving on the other side of the metal sheet stopped. One second, we were fighting to keep the steel piece in place, and the next there was complete quiet. There was utter stillness on the opposite side of the barrier.

I looked over at the others, who had taken their helmets off as well. They mirrored my confused expression.

“What is he up t—”

Stacy’s words were cut off as something large hit the opposite side of the metal barrier.

I was flung from the door, backward, and landed with a heavy thud. My helmetless head bounced off