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

“Who said anything about fighting fair?” I asked, tapping the crate in front of me holding the Lestrium. “I’m going in guns blazing. One of the mechanics back on Earth used to make a show of using this stuff as a flamethrower. I can fashion something with what we have here and that last blaster.”

Boss Creed actually began to buy into the plan. He nodded solemnly.

“He has a point.” Doctor Allbright shrugged. “I would volunteer to make the distraction, but Dean has more experience than all of us combined. If it comes down to someone fighting their way out, it’s Dean, hands down.”

“I’ll let him do it,” Tom said, trying not to sound too eager.

We all stopped to stare at him for a moment.

“What?” Tom withered under our gazes. “He said he wanted to.”

“We can create a distraction for them by blowing most of the Lestrium canisters. I’ll use the rest for the flamethrower,” I said. “When I get on the beach and start laying into them with the flamethrower, they’ll be confused and disoriented. You all swim around the opposite side of the Orion. Once you get to the beach, start running for the crawler. I’ll meet you there.”

At this point, I could tell by their body language only Stacy and maybe Elon were the ones set against my plan.

“I can do this,” I said, looking at Stacy. “Let me do this, please.”

Stacy didn’t say anything.

David, on the other hand, stepped up and began removing his armor. “It’s lightweight, and you should be able to run pretty well in it. It saved me a few times in the jungle. Maybe it’ll do the same for you.”

“Thanks,” I said, still holding Stacy’s gaze.

“All right, but if you don’t make it to the crawler, we’re coming back for you,” Elon said as if this was the only way he was going to let me do it. “We’re not leaving you behind.”

“I don’t intend to get left behind,” I said.

We jumped into action with everyone pitching in. Hope was something on the verge of the abyss when I came up with my plan. Now that everyone had something to do, they went about their work excitedly.

Truth be told, I really didn’t know if I was going to make it out of the crazy plan alive. Odds were there were so many of the infected, I’d run out of Lestrium cooking them all, and they’d still get to me. I just knew this was something I was the best suited for. To be honest, I meant what I told Captain Harold before. I was already dead. If this was my time to go and I could give others the chance to live, I knew Natalie would be proud.

I told Boss Creed how to create the flamethrower out of our last blaster using the Lestrium. He, Lou, and Elon went to work creating the weapon as well as tweaking the Lestrium canisters. The plan was to get them to explode on impact when we threw them at the horde on the beach.

Stacy and Doctor Allbright kept watch while David removed his armor. He and Tom helped me get strapped into the new armor. David was right. The armor was really light. The red and grey suit made me feel like I was some kind of soldier in a futuristic militia. I guess we were living in the future, and I was a kind of soldier now.

“I really admire what you’re doing here,” Tom said as he strapped in my right shoulder. “I—I don’t know if I’d ever have the courage to do something like this.”

“You do,” I told him, not really trying to be nice to the guy after he lied to us, but rather matter of fact. “You can if you choose to. You just haven’t yet. But it’s there.”

I’m not sure what Tom expected me to say to him, but it wasn’t this. He just nodded and continued strapping me in.

 “When was the last time you had a haircut or shave?” David asked as he worked my chest plate into place. “You trying to be trendy or something?”

“Nothing like that,” I said as I brushed back my hair for the hundredth time that day. “Until recently, I guess I was trying to hide my past. Be someone else.”

“Well, if the old you can get us out of this mess with his skills, I say we go back to that,” Hannah said, appearing from our left.

The woman had been quiet since the death of her husband and understandably so. I didn’t know how many others here could understand what she had gone through, what she was going through, but I sure as hell did. It felt like someone tore you open then hollowed out your insides with a spork. You were numb, angry, sad, and empty all at once.

She handed me a knife, handle first. “I think it’s time for a haircut.”

I accepted the blade, thinking she wasn’t half wrong. The last thing I needed during the fight with the infected was my hair getting in my eyes, or worse, catching on fire.

“I’m not really big into grooming myself with a knife,” I said to her with a grin. “But thanks. Maybe once we get back to base.”

“Here, let me,” Tom said, opening his hands for the blade. “It’s not exactly what I would use back home at my shop, but I’m well-versed with a straight razor.”

I exchanged looks with David and Hannah. “You were a barber back home?”

“Yep,” Tom said as I handed him the blade. “I know—I know, a far cry from a survivalist expert, I have to admit, but I know my way around a head of hair.”

“If you say so,” I said.

David and Hannah finished suiting me up while Tom worked his magic cutting off my hair and trimming my beard. I had to admit it was strange releasing that part of me.

I had been hiding who I was for so long, I wasn’t even sure if I’d