A Cold Black Wave Read Free Page B

mother’s face turned towards his, the darkness of the shadows replacing her eyes.  A macabre final image of his mother that would haunt his nights thereafter.
     
    Josh had given up his resistance.  He was walking but not willingly, his mind blank as Marshall and Harman led him towards the shuttles like a lobotomized patient.  The Academy had already taken everything that he was and now the last connection he had with the world was gone.  There was no thing or person worth thinking of or caring for, and death called out to him for true escape.
     
    As Harm an led the way, gunfire erupted ahead of them and Harman threw Josh to the ground as they all took cover.
     
    “I thought Meyer was holding them off?”  Harman yelled between shots.
     
    “I guess not!”
     
    More ion rifles discharged from across the hallway and burned into the metal walls around them.  Iron and steel sloughed off the walls and choking smoke filled the corridor.  Issa’s men had already made it to the shuttles.  Marshall fired at them but a stream of ion bullets came flying back.  Holes were now appearing in their cover as it melted to the floor in pools of smoldering metal.
     
    Then a round hit Harman in the lower arm as he tried to adjust his position, exposing himself only for a second and long enough for the ion round to burn straight through, leaving a gaping hole and strings of flesh and muscle.  He immediately collapsed and screamed in agonizing pain.  Marshall dropped beside him and produced a stim needle from his belt and jammed it into his leg.  Harman’s eyes flashed open as he came to, his heart pounding with adrenaline as pain-killing endorphins rapidly diffused throughout his body.
     
    Harman went back to the firing position, raised his rifle with his good arm, and let out a rapid stream of gunfire, killing two attackers.  Marshall leapt up, aimed and killed the last rebel as Harman tried reloading, but his left arm wouldn’t respond.  Marshall helped him and they all took off down the corridor again.  Just then, the floor and walls shook as a nearby explosion rocked the ship.
     
    Marshall shoved Harman from behind to move faster, “Go, go!”
     
    “We need the girl too Marshall , we need the goddamn girl!”
     
    “We don’t have time, just go!”
     
    Once they reached the shuttle bay, the main doors at the entrance had already been blown wide open and bodies were strewn everywhere.  Two guards lay mortally wounded and crawled along the ground screaming in pain as blood pumped onto the white floors.  A wounded rebel lay ten feet away, and Marshall nonchalantly fired a single round into his chest as they passed.
     
    Blood from Harman’s wound spattered to the floor as he pushed forward through the hole of smoke and twisted metal beams to enter the shuttle bay with Josh in tow.
     
    As they cleared the smoke the vast hangar revealed itself.  It was situated at the top of the massive UNC Westbound, with a high domed ceiling and which held the six specialized shuttles that were ringed in a half circle around the outer edges of the circular hangar bay.  Shuttle #2 disengaged from its compression locks and the engine roared, carrying the occupants into the coldness of space.
     
    In fact, all of the shuttles were gone already except for one.  Issa’s rebels had succeeded in reaching the shuttles and selfishly left for their own survival.  If they weren’t immune they would all die anyway, and they had risked the fate of the human race in doing so.  In a way it didn’t much matter now as the only Academy student capable of getting onto a shuttle and immune, was Josh.
     
    “Keep going, we’re almost there!”  Marshall yelled as they ran towards an empty shuttle.  A long ramp stretched towards the docking bay for each shuttle, and Marshall passed the slowing Harman as they ran.  At the foot of the shuttle door, two bodies lay next to each other, their death so recent the skin was warm to the