The Push Chronicles (Book 3): Incorruptible Read Free

was.  "Got your first round of meds too so chin up."  Twister's voice was perked up a bit from yesterday.  He didn't even bother to remind me to take the prescribed position, though to be fair, I took it anyways.  Sheer force of habit.
    As the pressurized door let out its familiar hiss, I licked my lips.  A new flush of fever filled my head, trying to cloud out rational thought.  I should just sit here, take the medicine, and eat the food.  Just one day more of recovery wouldn't hurt, would it?  It would take off enough of the edge to bust out of here feeling so much better tomorrow, right?
    I wasn't sure where the defiance came from.  Maybe it never had left because that iron-willed core had saved me from the Whiteout and certainly this bit of hardship couldn't quell it either.  Fever be damned and temptation be shunned, there wouldn't be one more day of this.  As my mind centered, I felt that familiar singing in my veins as endorphins and adrenaline rushed through me.
    The door's mechanical slide slowed to a crawl as my mind and body accelerated.  It was just like old times except for all the alarms in my head.  My body screamed, weakened by fever, inactivity, and detox.  I ignored all of the protests.  There wasn't time to acknowledge them; it just added another layer of urgency to my mission as I pushed myself up and forward.
    I was so slow compared to what I had been capable of, even accounting for the weight of the shackles on my ankles.  There was no time to unlock them now, but I had enough speed to eat the distance from cot to door as it finished its slow slide.  Twister had a look of shock on his face, even though he was certainly getting a radio feed into the earpiece I saw.  At least my reflexes weren't completely shot.  Dr. Aziz looked even more surprised that the Crusader was; it was doubtful he had ever seen someone he thought was 'normal' move so quickly, even if he was an agent sent by Brooks and Choi.
    The temptation to use the chains on my wrists as a weapon against the people who had put me here was great but I avoided it.  The thing about the Pushed is the physical empowerment everyone else saw, the outer shell of the superhuman, to me was just as unreal as anything else created by the Whiteout.  Inside Twister's rugged exterior that could have been pulled from a Western film, was the much older, but no less rugged, mortal man inside.  A heavy chain might have hurt the superhuman shell, but it probably wouldn't have taken him out.
    My two fists, however, ducked past Twister's guard and landed solidly into his chin, pushing through the phantasmal second skin like it was air.  To my surprise, despite the crack I heard from his jaw and the busted lips, the lawman didn't fall.  God, how sick was I?
    "Guards, she's loose!"  Leave it to the Pushed to give unnecessary exposition.  Twister raised his hands as he staggered back, swirling winds instantly conjured up at his command around his body.  To anyone else, they were an unbreachable barrier of tornado force gusts.  Even at several feet away, the force was enough to hurl Aziz away.  To me, it was just a mild breeze.  I could have easily broken through and finished off the Crusader.
    I didn't, though.  The doctor, blown back by Twister's winds, was tumbling straight for the side of the airlock-style chamber right beyond my cell.  More specifically, the hard, reinforced steel corner of the cell gate.  He was a complete innocent in this and that impact, I knew, would be likely lethal.  I had no choice as I abruptly stopped myself and shifted my weight, throwing myself to intercept the normal before his neck snapped.
    Maybe I was only a shadow of my usual self but that was fortunately enough to snatch the doctor before impact.  We turned during the fall, our landing cushioned by my own body.  Aziz grunted in pain but seemed quite intact as I rolled though, clumsily coming up to my knees.  As I tried to reorient and find