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

didn’t think about my moves. I just reacted. Spinning this way and that, I used my body as a weapon. The club in my hands was just an extension of me. My hair flew wildly all around me as I struck out, crushing the infected.

Before Natalie’s death, I wasn’t an angry person. Even when I got into the pit, I didn’t hate my opponent. They were just an obstacle, a day at the office at a job I loved.

I wasn’t angry then, but I did channel anger to use as a driving force. Flash forward years later on the beach of an alien planet, and I was angry. I channeled that anger in my blows and used it as fuel for my actions.

I thought about Natalie, Mr. Dell, the thugs who killed her. I fed off my anger and my frustration. I thought about Stacy nearly dying, Maksim loose on the island somewhere, of Ira dying for no other reason than the planet was filled with horrific creatures.

Over and over again, I cracked skulls, broke bones, and put these maniacs down for good.

“Dean! Get back to the Orion!” Stacy yelled.

By the tone of her voice, I knew she had been yelling at me for a while now. My arms felt like they had lead in them instead of blood. My lungs burned almost as bad as when I was drowning in the water.

I looked back for a second to see that I was the only one on the beach. The rest of the team had retreated, still shooting from the water. They were waist deep and about to ascend the platform to get into the Orion.

Stacy had her knife out, impaling one of the infected through the eye. Boss Creed, Hannah, and Mark fired rounds into the enemy like red hail falling from a particularly deadly storm.

My look back cost me. A hand grabbed me around my right arm, which held my club, and another infected tackled me to the ground. The air was knocked out of me as I fell backward.

You knew better than that, I told myself. Never take your eyes off the opponent.

I released my hold on my club, deciding to deal with the one on top of me first. An older woman clawed at my throat trying to find a solid hold before squeezing the life out of me.

A white and grey blur crashed into her, taking her own throat in his jaws and ripping outward. Mutt hit that infected bat like a bulldozer.

One moment she was on top of me trying to end my life, the next she was getting hers ended for her, courtesy of my four-legged friend.

I’ve really got to be nicer to him, I thought to myself as I regained my feet and fell back deeper into the water with the others. Get him a bone or something.

My eyes stayed on Mutt as he finished his kill. If the infected went for him next, I was prepared to throw myself back into the beach to get him out of there. As silly as it sounded, he was my friend now too. I wasn’t going to abandon him when he refused to do the same for me.

Strangely, the infected had no desire to go after Mutt despite the fact that he was tearing through them like a buzzsaw. Not only that, their eyes didn’t even stray to him. It was like he was of so little interest, he didn’t even deserve a second look.

“Go, get up,” Mark was yelling to his wife and the others to ascend the side of the submerged section of the Orion. “I’ll cover you.”

David and Tom were first, followed by Boss Creed and Stacy.

“I’m out!” Boss Creed yelled as he assumed a firing stance on the second level of the Orion, where the cell block was located

“I got it,” Mark yelled to Hannah and me. “I’ll cover you! Go!”

Hannah gave him a fierce kiss and climbed the edge of the Orion. I was next. I’ll never forget the pause in the fight, the moment where Mark’s weapon clicked dry.

I looked down, preparing to go back. I saw a particularly large infected Transient grab Mark around the head and twist. Two others grabbed his arms, preventing him from fighting back.

He sank into the water, never to rise again.

“No!” Hannah’s scream was one I knew well. The sound of complete and utter heartbreak.

“Don’t!” Stacy and Lou were holding Hannah back as I reached the second level of the Orion. “Hannah, he’s gone. I know it’s hard, but he’s gone.”

Hannah wasn’t going to take no for an answer. I didn’t blame her. I wouldn’t have either.

“Let me go. I’m going after him!” Hannah screamed, leveling the last working blaster at the rest of us.

I was the last to ascend the side of the ripped-open Orion. I looked behind me to see the first infected reach the edge of the Orion and begin to climb. There were still so many of them crowding the water and the beach.

“He’s gone,” Lou said as Hannah passed him on the way to edge. “Hannah, he’s gone. What would he want you to do right now?”

Hannah was beyond words. Tears streaked from her eyes as she reached me and the edge. I knew what she was going to do. She was going to do what I would have done. Go down swinging and take as many of the infected with her as she could.

I rested my arms at my side as unthreatening as I could be. I took a step back from her as if I were going to let her pass. As soon as she turned her eyes and the barrel of her weapon from me, I acted.

I snapped forward in a single motion, knocking her grip free of the blaster. I took a step behind her and placed as gentle a headlock on her as I could manage.

She was sobbing now. I pulled her back and sat down with her in my arms.

Boss Creed