Earthfall Read Free Page B

the car park, dodging between the rows of dusty, abandoned vehicles as the Drone streaked across the reception area in pursuit, the low throbbing sound of earlier replaced by an angry-sounding whine.
    As the boy reached the street, his chest felt like it was on fire, his lungs fighting desperately to suck in enough air. Another green energy bolt sizzled through the air, missing the boy by inches as he frantically zigzagged down the street, trying to keep the creature from drawing a bead on him. He ran behind a bus and down the pavement, cutting left into the entrance of a shopping mall. The sound of the pursuing Drone was getting louder all the time and he knew with a horrible certainty that he was never going to be able to outrun it. He certainly couldn’t fight it; his only choice was to hide. He ran into the central atrium of the shopping centre. Escalators on both sides led up to the upper levels and the whole area was brightly lit by daylight pouring in through the glass dome roof high overhead.
    The boy was blown off his feet as a large map displaying the mall’s floor plan exploded right next to him. He tried desperately to force himself to his feet, still deafened by the ringing in his ears, but could do little more than roll over and crawl backwards, away from the hovering Drone. There was nowhere to run; he knew he was finished and he couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of relief that at least the nightmare he had been enduring for all this time was now, finally, over. As the Drone floated towards him, the boy closed his eyes, hoping that it would at least be quick.
    The rattling sound of automatic gunfire suddenly filled the air and the boy’s eyes flew open in shock as the Drone was struck by a hail of bullets that tore ragged holes in its metallic skin and sent oily dark green liquid spurting out. It floated backwards, screeching as another burst of fire struck it and knocked it out of the air.
    The boy watched in astonishment as a figure in black body armour and wearing a gas mask walked down one of the nearby escalators. The soldier raised an assault rifle and fired one last burst into the wounded creature, leaving it twitching on the ground in a pool of green fluid. Walking towards the boy, the soldier pulled off the gas mask. Beneath the mask was a girl who looked to be about the same age as him with long dark brown hair, pale skin and blue eyes. She offered him a hand and pulled him to his feet.
    ‘My name’s Rachel,’ the girl said in a soft Irish accent, a tiny smile tugging at one corner of her lips, ‘and we’ve been looking for you for a long time.’
    The boy just stood there, his mouth agape. It was the first time he’d heard another human voice in over eighteen months. The boy’s mouth moved silently, struck dumb as he tried to pick which question to ask out of the thousand that had just sprung into his head.
    ‘So, do you have a name?’ the girl asked.
    ‘Sam,’ the boy replied in a whisper, feeling a dizzying combination of overwhelming relief and utter bewilderment. ‘Sam Riley.’
    ‘Pleased to meet you, Sam,’ Rachel replied, rolling the dead Drone over with her boot. ‘Now tell me, can you run?’
    ‘I think so,’ Sam replied. His head was still ringing from the explosion that had knocked him off his feet and the wound on his chest still felt like it was on fire, but he knew they had to get out of here as quickly as possible. Where there was one Drone, there were bound to be others. A sudden roaring sound made them both look up at the glass dome as a huge triangular black object cruised past overhead.
    ‘Good, because we need to move fast or we’re both dead.’

3
    Sam ran after Rachel as she sprinted out of the mall and turned left, heading down the street outside.
    ‘Come on,’ she shouted over her shoulder. ‘We have to get out of here before that ship drops a Grendel on top of us.’
    ‘What’s a Grendel?’ Sam asked, struggling to maintain the same pace as