I don’t think so. Like most things, bad or good depends on the doer.
On the mind inside the doer. Or the brains…
Coffin after coffin after coffin.
The phone I have is unsullied by any other data, according to Rasmus, and should be able to send off what we find, except the internet down here is blocked or something. We expected this. I snap multiple photos of everything in sight, of every single body. The USB should have finished uploading and downloading by now.
Get in and get out.
Except Esau is kneeling before Niamh’s coffin with his forehead resting on its side. Her face is untouched. Like all in here she is naked, and the damage to her is extensive. Lacerations. What might have been bruising on her thighs and stomach. Torn neck tissue. A broken arm judging by the angle. And the other arm is gone at the elbow. If this was from Clay… I want to kill him twice over. Did he throw her over a cliff?
“Hey, man. You need to get up. Say one last farewell.”
He staggers to his feet, sucks in a breath. “I’m good. I’m ready to leave. When I kill Clay Skinner, it will be elsewhere, so I won’t involve others.”
“Jesus. We will talk later. For now, we will put our feet in front of each other, one by one, and walk.”
“Of course. I plan on surviving so I can fuck him up.” He goes around me and heads for the door aisle that’s two rows over.
I keep my pistol out and jog after the man. We skid around the end corner where Esau pauses to unplug the USB before we stride for the white door exit. A sound has me swinging my head toward the elevator. The doors have opened. Men are running along the floor and shadows flit across the small glasssection. Three men. Not enough, not when they only have pistols like us. Like I do.
I’m almost certain a bullet will go through me and leave me fully capable of doing what must be done—killing them.
“Stay there.” I signal Esau and run toward the white door. As it starts to swing open, I halt and put three shots into it. From the lack of cries, it’s bullet proof.
The first man through will get shot. Esau arrives and stands at my shoulder with his pistol raised.Fuck. I guess expecting him to obey me was stupid.
“Getting out of here might be tough,” I say.
“Doable. That code we injected subjects the elevator control to us only. No one else is coming.”
Fuck yeah.I chuckle. A leg shows in the door gap, but I wait for more. A bigger target, please. Snails, these men are.
The door flies fully open and no one is there in the gap. Above, something clicks three times.
I look up. The gantry claw swings down, rushing at us. It slams in and knocks me back several feet, swings me high. Two prongs have punched through my chest and exited out the back. I clutch at them. The pain tidal waves through me, and my knees fail but the metal holds me in place in mid-air as I spasm.
Someone else is screaming. No, it is me. And it’s Esau too.No. Please no.
Blood has burst over this white floor, splattered the red walls, and it spreads, pools over the floor. It pours out of Esau.
Not me. I seep blood, even where the two-inch thick prongs disappear into my chest and shirt.
In anguish, disbelieving, I watch him take two more strangled breaths then slump over the prong lodged inside his stomach,and then he dies. His arms hang before him, brushing the prongs. Blood drips off his fingers.
I’ve forgotten how to scream. I can only stare, confused and grieving over how this day has turned into an apocalypse.
Though I try to squirm and push, the prongs have been made jagged at the ends like fishhooks, made to not allow the fish to slide off and swim away.
“You did surprise us, Kail. You two were faster than expected. We were barely ready. Still, this was far too easy,” a man drawls, voice packed with a mix of triumph and amusement.
Vision blurring, I look up and sight a man in a neat suit strolling toward us…toward me, there is nousnow…from the direction of the white door. A guard carrying a pistol walks beside him.
“Shoot him now, please.”
The guard pulls the trigger, and a dart hits my chest. I stare at it. Really?
“If this fails to work, it will be tricky to restrain you, Kail Stone.” The suit man wobbles in the air and melts sideways.
