The Loss (Zombie Ocean Book 4) Read Free

the next. Everything could end right here…
    "Do something!" she shouted at him. "Stop this bastard before he kills them all."
    The paraplegic didn't wait to find out; he rose to his feet, took two steps down the hall, then dropped his elbow into the back of the next secondary, as it knelt on the ground. It fell flat and in a second the paraplegic pulled its head off too.
    Hot fluids blew out. The paraplegic began to laugh, a horrible gasping bark.
    "Do something," Salle shouted at the primary, "put him down!"
    But the primary didn't turn, not as the paraplegic tore the head off the next, nor the next, nor as he crushed the head of the most recent against the wall with a single massive punch.
    "No," Salle called.
    He was almost as big as the primary now, and he charged, colliding against the primary's back with a huge THUNK. The primary lurched a few steps forward, heavier by far, but the paraplegic was braced and pulling now, and the primary was actually being dragged back down the hall toward the glass door. It didn't fight back; probably it didn't even know what was even happening, though it was struggling.
    The paraplegic forced one of its arms straight, then punched through the elbow joint with a gristly crunch. It roared and Salle yelped and others in the control room shouted in horror. Now it tried to fight, swinging a giant fist downward, but the paraplegic caught it, locked the arm punched through that elbow too.
    "Oh my God," Salle whispered.
    The primary howled and the paraplegic kicked and drove it like a heap of tumbleweed back into its glass cabinet.
    Salle watched transfixed. It was like something out of a movie, impossible in reality. It was the end of all her dreams. They'd be locked in their little can forever, pressurized like the contents of the primary's gut.
    Then a wave of calm came over her. She'd been here before. She'd done much worse.
    "Scramble the drones," she ordered, her voice coming out calm and controlled. "Bomb the shit out of him."
    "Yes sir!" one of the drone pilots replied, and two fresh infographics lit up on the screen's edge representing the last two operational drones they had. How many bombs left? She counted a full complement of fifteen on each, plus fifteen on the one in the air.
    45.
    They launched, as the paraplegic ran back down the hallway pulling apart the chains of her prisoners. The metal tore easily in his hands, and each one was a blow, each one meant they were trapped here another day, another month, another year.
    In minutes he broke all the chains and set them all free. Some fell on their faces and lay still, while the more recent ones ran back to help them.
    "Do not flee," Salle tried, calling over the system in a calming, authoritative tone. "Help is coming. Remain where you are for evacuation." But none of them listened. They'd heard her already, they'd listened to her talk to Julio for years, and now they were listening to the paraplegic.
    "Get them out!" he barked roughly, the words barely formed through his round hole of a mouth.
    He helped them get to the ladder leading up, where they set the agent's winch running to lift out the broken ones. Salle watched helplessly as the drones somewhere far overhead reached a safe bombing altitude. Her primary was pushing the door open now, his broken elbows repairing themselves from the precious load of cells in his belly, but it didn't look like he'd make it in time. They were mostly out now.
    "Go west!" the paraplegic barked as the last load went up in the winch basket. "Warn Amo."
    Warn Amo.
    Those words were the worst she could imagine. If this group warned Amo, his people could scatter and it would take far more than two years to round them all up again. They didn't have that kind of time.
    The primary broke out of the glass cupboard and ran down the hallway, ignoring the swaying figure of the paraplegic. Cheers broke out in the control room as it started up the ladder, though at the last moment the paraplegic snatched