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

The assault doesn’t last, and within seconds the cry of the helicopter begins to fade and move away from their position.

The soldiers stay low behind their rifles, their backs pinned against the car. Neither man is in any hurry to show themselves, waiting until the disturbance passes and things settle down again.

Their patience doesn’t pay off, however; the helicopter may have moved off but not far. The buzz of their engines still whines in the distance, and there is another noise that wasn’t present before, a disturbing noise that is getting louder.

“Do you hear that?” Tyrone asks from beside Jason.

“Yes, I fucking do, can you see anything?”

Tyrone doesn’t answer Jason’s question; his concentration is focused on the sights of his rifle, his eye squeezed against it. A vein pumps in the side of Tyrone’s neck, Jason notices as he glances back. Tyrone’s neck is pushing forwards with his rifle, hoping that those couple of extra centimetres will improve his view.

“They’re coming, straight down the road,” Tyrone announces, referring to the same road they have just crossed from.

“How many?” Jason asks quickly, almost tempted to move his sights away from his zone to see.

“A shit load, and they’re moving fast, so we need to go. Are you clear, because I’m not sure that’s where the noise is coming from?”

“Yes, clear, let’s move,” Jason responds, but he can only see a short distance in front before the road disappears around a bend. He can only tell his comrade what he can see, and the other road, the one they planned to take, which is on his left, is definitely clear.

Jason hurries forward and low, then left around the back of the parked car. He doesn’t take his eyes off the bend until it quickly leaves his line of sight as he steps onto the pavement of the road they had planned to take.

Tyrone follows Jason towards the back of the car, but just as he goes to turn left, he sees movement ahead coming around the bend in the road.

“Contact,” Tyrone announces, just loud enough for Jason to hear, whilst trying not to draw attention from the stream of the undead that is rounding the corner. With any luck, they won’t see me before I’m out of sight, Tyrone thinks desperately.

A wave of fear shudders through Jason when he hears Tyrone say the word ‘contact’. Even though the bend is now out of sight for him, he can’t help but look around at the road behind him. The mistake hits Jason like a hammer when his concentration returns to the area in front of him, where it shouldn’t have left, and his fear turns to terror.

A large male beast has appeared as if from nowhere on the pavement not more than ten feet in front of him. The shock makes Jason’s legs go weak and he almost falls over himself trying to stop himself from careering straight into the fearsome creature.

Jason is slow to react, his arms sluggish in positioning his rifle to aim at the zombie in front of him. Jason peers at the beast as he struggles to get his arms to work. His shock deepens from the evil eyes that stare back, which weakens the muscles in his arms further.

Slowly, he manages to get the rifle into some sort of firing position, and he centres his aim, but there is no hope of a headshot. Luckily, the beast is also surprised by its sudden encounter and its face is only now turning from that surprise and into fearful determination to attack. The vital short delay from the beast enables Jason to squeeze the trigger on the SA80 that his arms can barely hold steady, just as the creature moves to attack.

Jason’s rifle rings out as the bullet exits the muzzle, but his confidence that the bullet will hit its target is sorely missing. The creature’s arms raising towards its prey as its shadow shortens on the pavement towards Jason.

Dark black blood ejects out of the back right shoulder of the beast as it lurches forward, Jason’s bullet managing to at least hit its target. The impact of the shot forces the creature’s body to recoil sideways, a deathly scream escaping its hideous mouth.

Adrenaline finally enters Jason’s bloodstream, and he feels the strength the chemical brings to his flagging muscles. His newfound vigour doesn’t come a moment too soon, and all the bullet has done is increase the beast’s anger. It regains its momentum forward and reaches to take hold of its prey. Jason’s reflexes finally return, and the rifle pulls back snugly into his shoulder and he fires it again.

Jason sees the second bullet pierce through the grey matted skin of the beast’s forehead and instantaneously, the back of his attacker’s head erupts. The creature drops like a stone to the ground, its body thudding against the pavement that its ejected brains splatter across.

A figure flies past Jason’s right hand side almost in a blur. “Fucking run!” Tyrone screams at him, not slowing to assess Jason’s situation. A fresh dose of adrenaline courses through Jason’s veins, the tap now fully open. His legs react immediately to Tyrone’s scream and they fling him over the dead zombie’s body in front of him to chase after Tyrone.

Motoring after Tyrone, Jason has learnt his lesson and doesn’t risk looking back over his shoulder; he knows what is there. His legs swerve to follow his comrade as Tyrone breaks right, off the pavement and into the road to sprint down the middle of it where there are no obstructions. The turn gives Jason a glimpse of what they are running from and the horror fuels his legs to lift higher and stretch further.

Meters behind them, ploughing down the road after them, is an army of the undead. The fleeting look does not give Jason a chance to estimate how many creatures are coming for them, but it’s a darn sight more than they barely managed to escape from through the green door. That