The Mortis Desolation (Book 1): Mortis Read Free

when everything changed forever.
    It was a Xenomortis. A creature I thought to be extinct, but there it came, charging at the wall of cars with the force of a freight train.
    I trained my gun at its head, and pulled the trigger. The others on The Wall did the same, and a flurry of bullets hit the alien creature. It had little to no effect. The hard, lizard-like skin of the alien zombie acted like the world’s best bullet-proof vest. Bullets ricocheted off it, hitting the human zombies around it.
    The Xenomortis hit the cars and sent them and some zombies flying. I unleashed another volley of bullets into it, and they began to make a difference. The Xenomortis stumbled, but stayed upright. Its vacant lizard eyes were fixed on one thing: destroying The Wall.
    It was almost to the pit when I got my idea. “Aim for the feet!” I shouted. Before anyone could ask why, I told them. “The bullets will ricochet up!”
    Everybody knew what I was talking about. The quickest way to kill a Xenomortis is by shooting up underneath its head, into its soft spot underneath the jaw.
    A relentless wall of bullets shot toward the Xenomortis’s feet. It stumbled, almost falling, but then someone’s shot hit just right, and the head of the Xenomortis exploded.
    I shouted for joy, but my celebration was too early. The now dead Xenomortis was just a few feet from The Wall, and still had a lot of forward momentum. The Xenomortis slammed into The Wall beneath me, causing the section I was standing on to collapse. I flailed in the air, trying to grab on to something, but it was futile. I slammed onto a piece of wood, knocking myself out.

Chapter Three
    M y eyes opened , and all I could see was white. I rubbed them, and they began to adjust to the light. I touched my forehead, and could feel some blood seeping through the gauze wrapped around it.
    I tried sitting up, but saw black spots and almost passed out. I lay back down, and that’s when Rachel appeared by my side.
    “How’re you feeling, Miles?” she asked with a faint smile. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and bags were under her eyes from a lack of sleep. “And if you say ‘like part of The Wall fell down on me,’ I will seriously punch you.”
    I tried to laugh, but it was painful. “Well then, I’ll just let you guess how I feel.”
    Rachel smiled again and motioned for me to sit up. “Come on, try sitting up slowly. I’ve got some food for you to eat, then we need to change that bandage.”
    I tried, and while I still felt lightheaded, I was able to sit up. Rachel reached down beside my bed, and pulled a lever that raised the back of the bed, allowing me to lean back against it while still sitting.
    “So what happened?” I asked her as she turned to grab some food off a table.
    “The Xenomortis caused the part of The Wall that you and Andrew were standing on to collapse. You lost consciousness when you hit, as did Andrew. He’s fine, before you ask. Just a little beat up.”
    I breathed a sigh of relief. Rachel sat the tray that held a bowl of oatmeal and a glass of water on my lap, and I began eating it. “What about all the zombies? None of them got in, did they?”
    Rachel slowly nodded as she looked away. “They did. I’m not sure what all happened, but Pike was out there and he saw what-all happened. He’ll explain everything to you.”
    My stomach twisted and I wasn’t very hungry anymore. “Is everyone okay?”
    Rachel nodded again. “No one died, but they did a lot of damage, and the zombies are still coming. They’re killing a handful every hour.”
    For us, that was a lot. Our camp was in a relatively small town that had been pretty much cleared out by the time the virus was unleashed, so there weren’t that many zombies around. We had to kill maybe five or six a day, but a handful an hour? That was unheard of.
    “Hurry up and eat,” Rachel said. “I’m not letting anyone in here until you do.”
    I wolfed down the oatmeal and gulped