Capital Falling | Book 4 | Sever Winkless, Lance (most popular ebook readers TXT) 📖

even Alpha’s bulk would be no match for the M4’s firepower. His head would split just as easily as the others.

No, I tell myself, bide your time and slip away quietly, do not draw any more unwanted attention. There is no way to know what other creatures are in the area, other packs of Rabids could be sizing us up right now. And who is to say that these five Rabids are the only members of Alpha’s pack? His lair is upon us and untold numbers could be poised inside, ready to steam out of the Lloyds building at the first sign of trouble.

My hand loosens slightly on the grip of the M4 as I decide to continue to play along. Alpha’s leg is already reaching for the first of the steps that leads up to the open doors of the building and I get ready to follow his lead and mount the steps myself.

Chapter 15

The smell of the now extinguished fire is almost overpowering as I reach the final few steps and then pass through the entrance and into the Lloyds building. As I enter the lobby, I am transported back to my childhood, to when my family and I returned home from a weekend away to find our house had caught fire in our absence. The difference here is that the smoke hasn’t cleared, it hangs in the air like a fog, clinging to everything.

Alpha doesn’t pause in the lobby, he aims for a jammed open door at the back of it, the smoke spiralling around his wide shoulders as he moves. I can only hope that wherever the door leads, the smoke will have dissipated, because my eyes are beginning to water, and my lungs are rasping.

The whole building opens out into a cavernous open space beyond the door. In front of me, sitting on an expansive white marble floor is a tall wooden pergola like structure with a clock mounted at its peak. Each side of the marble floor are rows and rows of workstations and desks, an open-plan office, and a trading floor the size of which I have never seen. Zigzagging up in the centre of the space are five sets of escalators and above them is nothing but a vast expanse… and smoke. The interior of the building is completely open, all the way up to its glass atrium roof that must be fourteen or fifteen floors above.

Thankfully, the smoke haze isn’t as dense in here, but it is there none the less. I cannot see any evidence of the fire that has burnt somewhere in the building, perhaps it took hold in another wing or on higher floors. Unfortunately, the thin layer of smoke does nothing to hide the carnage that ripped through the trading floor. Below my feet, the once pristine white marble is stricken with contrasting dark red bloodstains, from small splattering’s to large, congealed pools of body matter. A stomach-churning smell of rotting corpses is drawn into my lungs together with the smoke, a hideous cocktail that forces an uncontrollable retch out of my throat that I fail to hold down.

I quickly turn away from the pack, afraid that my watering eyes and red face, together with the sound of my retching will draw close scrutiny. They will finally see straight through my charade. I can barely see through the tears as my sickness grows deep inside me, and I take to breathing through my mouth to try and lessen the stink, desperately trying to regain control of my bodily functions.

I concentrate on controlling my stomach and gradually my nausea subsides, and my eyes begin to clear. The loud retch doesn’t seem to have riled the pack, and I remember the retching creature I had a close encounter with inside the Tower of London. Perhaps, stomach-churning retches are not unusual for these beasts.

My clearing vision brings into focus a petrified dead face opposite from me on the trading floor with massive bruising around its forehead. The body of the well-tailored corpse is spread across the floor on its back, its blood-stained shirt in tatters and its belly and guts missing, eaten away. My vision moves away from the torrid scene and out over the trading floor in front of me. Corpses are strewn in every direction, on the floor, across desks, some are weirdly still sat slumped in their office chairs. Not all the flesh has been feasted upon, not yet. The Lloyds building is a veritable larder of meat for the undead and now I understand why Alpha’s pack use it for their lair.

A screech rises, echoing into the cavernous space. The sound reverberates around me, reaching up to the atrium, before bouncing back down, until the call is suddenly cut off. In trepidation, I turn around to see Alpha bringing its head down and shutting its gaping mouth.

My confusion at what the call was for is short-lived. The area around the base of the escalators in the middle of the space begins to move, dark shadowy figures move out from around the bottom of the escalator and come towards Alpha. The Alpha creature’s pack is more than only five beasts, there are more, many more and they are coming my way.

I have my answer, this is where the undead are concentrated, at least in this part of the city. I would gamble that just like a pride of lions, Alpha and the other four undead creatures were out patrolling their part of the savannah when they came across me unconscious in the road. There will definitely be other Rabids wanting to feed when I get Karen and Jim and head back to the boat, loaners or smaller packs, but there is a good chance that this is the main concentration.

So, what do I do, my mind races as the Rabid horde gets closer? Do I back off and slip away? Get out of the building while Alpha’s concentration is