Ace of Spades Chronicles : Book One Read Free

barricading the stairwell with furnishings, and the subsequent destruction of, and escape through the roof was far too tempting for the infected to ignore. From their rooftop vantage point, it would be easy enough to pick them off one by one, or lob a few grenades into their midst to thin down the masses; but they would soon be out of bullets and it would only serve to attract more. Pagan had learned within the first few minutes of being dropped, that unnecessary shooting only lured them out, suggesting that their senses were as acute now as they had been when they were...
    ... normal ... 
    Walker had made the best analogy, observing that the infected were like wasps. A lone wasp was easy to deal with; you either killed it, or ignored it. It would either sting you, or eventually go away and bug someone else. But killing a wasp was a bad idea, as they give off a powerful pheromone that sends a distress signal to all other wasps from their colony, which swarm around their fallen comrade and cannibalise the remains. Walker wasn't suggesting that the infected did this; they did not attack each other, but they had seen with their own eyes the way that one infected could almost summon another, just like wasps homing in on a picnic.
    "Well," said Zola, "as much as I would like to… we can't stay up here all day."
    "I don't know," Yates smiled, "We've got a great view. Throw in a couple of chairs, a few cushions; we could watch the whole world go to shit..." The Sergeant exhaled through his nose, huffed, and nodded forward.
    They progressed cautiously along the tiles in single file. Some roofs were easier than others, some were in better condition, and no two adjourning roofs were the same. They had to watch their step when traversing slate; it was baked and brittle under the sun and slippery in places. Others were newly clad with rough interlocking brick tiles which thankfully gave added grip. There were those that had not been maintained in years, with sections of tile broken at the corner or completely missing, exposing the battens beneath like the ribs of a rotting carcass. And there were obstacles to get around too, like TV aerials and chimney stacks. When they reached the end of the terrace, Zola held onto a wide brick stack of eight chimneys, three aerials, and a satellite dish. He peered over the edge of the three storey building for a few seconds before pushing his weight back until his footing was stable and he was able to lean against the solid brick work. Taking a deep breath, he said, "there's a stone courtyard; it's clear, but it's a long way down."
    Yates removed the mission pack from his leg pocket and flipped open the map. "Drop point is less than five hundred metres west of here. Open ground, looks like council allotments. I think we're going to have to make a racket if we're going to get there before the bird arrives."
    The young rifleman squeezed by the Corporal to join Zola against the chimney stack, and then warily looked down into the courtyard. "We'll never make that, but there was a velux window back there."
    "Good thinking," Zola said with an obvious tone of approval.
    ***
    They had a choice; go in through a dormer window at the rear of the property, or through the velux window at the front. A quick look through the velux revealed that the room below was small and should be easy to defend. It looked like a child’s playroom and was scattered with clothing and toys; the door was closed. Zola felt around the velux seal and grinned when he found that the window was open. He lifted it up with his finger tips and still grinning, said "shall we?"
    Once in the room, each member of Pagan switched to his Benelli semi-automatic shotgun for maximum damage and to save machine gun bullets. All except Xander, who took up position by the front facing window with his sniper rifle, where he would watch the street and wait for the others to clear this level.
    Yates went first, slipping quietly out onto the landing. There