Bzrk Apocalypse Read Free

sighed. “It’s always something with you. Undress me. Make
    love to me. Feed me lobster. You are so demanding.” He stood up, and
    she saw that half his hard, lean behind was coated with sand. She lay
    back, head resting on one hand, enjoying that particular sight, and
    the view beyond. They were in a secluded lagoon on the western edge
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    MICHAEL GRANT
    of the island, facing the much larger island of Madagascar, which was
    a blur of green ten miles off.
    A quarter mile to both north and south, armed men—fashionably
    attired in white Tommy Bahama shirts and automatic rifles—watched
    for any threat to their privacy. Just out of sight behind a rocky point, a
    yacht crewed by ex-soldiers rolled in the gentle swell and kept a radar
    lookout over the area.
    Noah brought her pieces of lobster on a small china plate.
    “We’re out of wine,” he said.
    “Good. Time to sober up, anyway.”
    “Is it?” he asked. “Why?”
    She sat up and reached for her T-shirt. He interrupted her with a
    kiss and gently stroked her breasts as if saying good-bye to them. “I
    quite like these,” he said.
    “I guessed that. Can I put on my shirt now?”
    “I suppose.” He started to dress as well, shorts, a T-shirt, sandals.
    He reached down and pulled her to her feet.
    “I’ll call for our cab,” Sadie said. She pressed the talk button on a
    handheld radio—there was no cell-phone reception this far up-island.
    Five minutes later, as they packed up the picnic, a glittering white
    cabin cruiser appeared around the point.
    The captain gave a little toot-toot on the horn, and the boat blew
    up.
    It took a few seconds for the flat CRUMP! of the explosion to
    reach them. It took a bit longer for the debris to splash into the water.
    And just like that Sadie and Noah were Plath and Keats once
    again, running now, food and blanket forgotten. McLure security
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    BZRK APOCALYPSE
    men were tearing along the beach from north and south, assault rifles
    in their hands, yelling, “Get under cover, get under cover!”
    The boat burned for a while—there was no possibility of anyone
    having survived—and then it slipped beneath gentle waves that were
    a very similar color to Noah’s eyes. The pillar of black smoke was
    smothered. A black smudge rose until it was caught by a breeze and
    blown away over the island.
    Vacation was over. The war for the human race was back on.
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    THREE
    The roll that had begun was accelerating. The ship’s ballast had shifted
    decisively. It rolled onto its side, sending the flames shooting hundreds
    of feet into the air.
    The inside of Benjaminia was a slaughterhouse — dead Marines, many more dead residents hung from bloody catwalks. The sphere
    turned on its axis, and floors became walls. Bodies fell through the
    air.
    Like the turning drum of a dryer, the sphere rolled on, and now
    people clinging to desperate handholds fell screaming and crashed into
    the painted mural of the Great Souls.
    Water rushed in through the opened segments.
    The blowtorch submerged but burned on and turned the water to
    steam as the Doll Ship sank, and settled on the harbor floor.
    When the Doll Ship sank, the Armstrong Twins had found them-
    selves in Hong Kong’s Victoria harbor.
    They could not swim. With some effort, and if they felt in a coop-
    erative mood, they could manage to walk, dragging the useless third
    leg. But swim?
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    BZRK APOCALYPSE
    It was Ling who had saved their lives. Tiny, ancient, birdlike Ling.
    She had cupped her hand beneath their chin and churned the filthy
    water with her legs. She’d sunk beneath the waves repeatedly, rising
    each time to gasp in a single breath mixed with salt water, to cough
    and gag, and yet to keep her legs churning, until a fishing boat had
    come to the rescue.
    They would find a way to reward Ling. They vowed that. She had
    saved their lives and very nearly died herself.
    The Armstrong Twins had made their way from Victoria harbor
    to Vietnam, where they had financial