Secret War: Warhammer 40,000 by Ben Agar (reading eggs books TXT) 📖

sliced through the thick lock and with one more kick, it flung open.

Breathing hard, I then began to descend the stairs into the darkness. The walls and floors juddered around and underneath me.

I was glad to get out of that cursed rain, but now I was in immense danger; the daemons could be anywhere just waiting to jump out and tear me to shreds.

That was their plan. To get me down here and ambush me or, failing at that, collapsing the entire building on me. Smart frigging, things.

Clenching my jaw in anger at my idiocy, I made it to the bottom of the stairway, seeing that the w rockcrete staircase continued down, circling to the ground floor. I hissed through clenched teeth, clutching at the handrail while moving as quickly and carefully as I could. My footfalls echoed through the stairwell, and my heart lodged in my throat.

When I reached the bottom of the first flight, I realised something that caused me to pause; what stopped them from just taking out the stairs? With a curse, I turned and kicked in the nearest door, slipping through with my sword ready.

Immediately the building abruptly swayed as more crashes echoed, and I was suddenly sent careening off my feet, slamming side-ward against the rotting carpet on the floor.

I cried out as pain coursed through me, and I rolled over, clutching at my side while gasping in agony.

It was then when two daemons burst straight through the floor, showering everything with shards and slivers of rockcrete.

I clambered quickly to my feet as they came at me from both sides. Even though my pulse pounded a mile a second and my hands shook like leaves, I didn't hesitate, and with four slashes of my activated power sword, I created a hole, a hole in the floor around my feet that collapsed a millisecond before they were on me.

The fall lasted for a good two metres, and I tried my hardest to land well, but to no avail, as my legs gave way with the impact, and I barely kept my face from smashing into the floor. I didn't have any time to writhe in pain again as the daemons' claws were immediately crashing through the ceiling straight at me.

I rolled along the floor, feeling their attacks brush past me a mere millimetre away, leapt to my feet and ran on, trying not to limp from the pain in my knees. Their arms kept smashing down in my wake, following me through the thin corridor.

I was rapidly running out of space as the window at the end of the corridor came closer and closer. So I stopped and spun into a sidekick that smashed open the door of a hab unit with such force it almost bounced back into me.

Sprinting into the small space, I barely made it before being crushed under their attacks, but for a scant second, I was free, and it was enough for me as I cut into the floor and jumped through the gap. I landed into a roll and was back up. Quickly, an idea came to me and Immediately I was slashing a long line through the length of the hab's floor, cut another hole. Dropped down into the next level below and repeated the process there.

I could hear the daemons as they bashed through the ceiling above, followed by a creaking then crashing as my weakened floor collapsed underneath them and watched as they fell through the debris, down two stories.

There was no time for me to celebrate the success of my ploy, not even a smile before the building began to suddenly shudder, taking me off balance, almost making me fall through the hole with the daemons.

The juddering didn't stop this time; it just kept going, and I could barely keep my feet. The entire thing was finally in full collapse.

Cursing, I opened the hab's, scrambled into the corridor and toward the window,

I was only on the third floor and didn't know how tall the next building was, but I had no choice. Once I stumbled to the end of the corridor, I smashed out the window and glanced outside, finding to my dismay that the next building was only one story high. Another crash made me flinch in fright and look over my shoulder to see the daemons had already recovered. They were cramped in the corridor and coming at me.

Swallowing my fear, I didn't hesitate; I dived out the small window into the crimson-lit cityscape and the raining blood outside.

It felt like I flew, and the roof of the next building rapidly approached. What happened next is still a complete blank or black. I'm pretty sure I didn't close my eyes; I don't think I lost consciousness, I don't even know how long I was like that, but when my vision finally came back, I was sprawled on my side facing back toward the building I'd jumped out. I was a good four metres across the rooftop, and I could feel a new pain in my hands and legs.

Slowly I looked and found both my hands had been skinned, ripped open. The gloves I wore now torn to shreds.

As I lay getting soaked in the blood rain, I hissed air through my teeth and tried to move, but my body refused, all my injuries protesting with more pain. But as far as I could tell, nothing was broken, and I began to laugh. A laugh which was very short-lived as the two daemons landed on the roof with great huge thuds! The rockcrete almost entirely giving away underneath them.

With a bone-jarringly deafening, groaning roar, the building began to fall, not collapse but fall, tipping straight toward us. The pain was gone, replaced by terror and adrenaline. I was abruptly up and sprinting.

I didn't dare look back but could hear and feel it fall—the hideous grinding and screaming like the roar of some dying monster. I could see its shadow grow and grow as it loomed over me. I jumped over a dividing wall and risked a glance back. The two daemons were barely keeping up with me. I was running with reckless abandon, not holding back, even though I knew I could slip over on the blood-soaked ground in any second, and the building was now frigging horizontal.

Clenching my teeth, I turned forward, trying to sprint even faster despite struggling for every breath, despite my legs wanting to fold up underneath me, my sickened stomach and lightheadedness. I jumped over another gap but slipped on the landing; my heart sank as I slid on my heel, crying out as I barely found my feet before smashing my face on the roof.

I stopped and stooped over, trying to regain my breath. The grinding and screaming of the falling building spurred me onward. I stumbled like a drunken idiot to the parapet and found a four-metre gap, much to my despair.

Then the deafening, grinding screaming disappeared, taken over by just complete silence, it was like time had stopped, and I turned.

I'd made it, I'd made it out the way of the falling building, much to my relief, but barely, then it hit me what was going to happen when it landed.

I leapt over the buttress into free fall, my arms waving ineffectually as the rockcrete street came closer. I was in mid-air when the building hit the ground; the sound was like nothing I'd ever heard before; the crash as the building crushed others under its weight was beyond deafening; the entire world seemed to rock and quake, even the very air. How my eardrums weren't destroyed, I had no idea.

I hit the ground, trying to roll with the horrific force of the fall, agony tore through my knees, making me scream and botch the roll, and I slid across the street through the blood. If it weren't for that, I would've come out a whole lot worse.

Barely in time, I managed to gasp in some air and close my eyes before the wall of thick dust hit me.

I waited for a few seconds before finally exhaling and opening my eyes. I was covered head to toe in thick grey, the blood-soaked me acting like glue for the dust. Around the walls and streets were the same, but the blood rain was already wearing it away. I could see grey intermingling with the pools of blood.

Coughing and groaning, I began to get to my feet, my body protesting with more pain.
Eventually, I found my feet and stumbled down the main street, leaning against the wall with my arm for support. I could see the church through the rain at the end of the road, but it was still a good four hundred metres away.

"Karmen!" I croaked. "Karmen!"

I got nothing.

"Karmen!" I roared.

+Yes, Attelus! What's wrong?+

"What will I find in there?"

+I don't know, Attelus. All that I can figure is that the daemons aren't directly coming from the church but are materialising in the general vicinity. I'm sorry, sorry, I can't be more helpful. Be careful.+

I smiled, "Karmen, I'm always careful, you should...know...that..."

I trailed off as I glanced over my shoulder and saw the full devastation; the huge hab block had crushed dozens of others under it, completely and utterly. It was like those buildings never existed. The roof I'd only stood on a minute or so ago loomed over me like a wall.

"By the Emperor," I stammered and slowed to a halt.

As if summoned by my words, the daemons suddenly burst from the ruined building, crashing onto the street and sprinting straight at me.

I still couldn't comprehend how they could move so damn fast with such short legs. Clenching my teeth with the pain, I began to half run, half limp away as they bared down on me. I couldn't go any faster; I was beyond exhausted, in agony. They'd got me; I was done. They'd won.

I stopped, stumbling to keep myself from collapsing and bent over, gasping like I'd never gasped before and fought back the urge to puke.

I closed my eyes and waited for the death blow.

So this is it? Said my voice in my mind. After all this struggle, and you're just giving up?

"I can't go any further, I can't," I gasped out loud. "It's too hard, too hard."

Really? Emperor, you're frigging pathetic! Everyone is counting on you; hell, this whole planet is counting on you if those things aren't stopped! Just four hundred meters to go! You've come this far; you can go a little further.

"But-!"

But nothing! Go now! Or you will die and then everyone else with you! Karmen! Castella! Torris! Garrakson! Everyone, they'd all go that extra mile for you, Attelus; hell, all you have to go is just another four hundred metres for them! People like you and care for you, Attelus; show them that you care for them too!

Slowly, shakily I forced myself to stand straight and opened my eyes, looking up at the crimson clouds, feeling the blood rain hit my face and soak my hair.

"This is for you, Karmen, for everyone," I said, then suddenly fell into a sprint, and I could feel the rush of air as what was to be the killing attack missed me by a hair's breadth.

I roared as I ran with wild abandon, I knew that one slight misstep, one slight slip, would send me smashing against the rockcrete and to my death, but I kept going, the entrance to the church coming closer and closer. I could feel the daemons behind me but never looked back. I didn't dare.

Many thoughts flew through my mind as I sprinted down that long street, wondering what exactly was behind those doors? What was this conduit? How was I going to destroy it? So much I didn't know, so many questions, yet here I was blindly running into this with no plan, nothing. Even if I made it into the church, I still had a long way to go.

Never had I done this before; I'd always have