Twenty-Five Percent (Book 2): Downfall Read Free

it?” Micah said.
    Alex shrugged, staring down at the bodies littering the floor in front of them. The choking stench of flambéed eater was making it difficult for even his enhanced olfactory senses to smell anything else, but he was getting something.
    “I think these are all the original Meir’s strain eaters,” he said.
    “I thought there weren’t any of those left.”
    Alex stared into the blackness ahead of them, remembering their first visit here and the room of cells built to hold the eaters the Omnav-paid scientists used for their experiments. “Only a few.”
    Micah followed his gaze. “The ones they were experimenting on here. But didn’t you say they had both originals and new strain?”
    Alex nodded, still staring into the dark. The extent of their illumination was closing in as the flaming eater in the lab died down and, thanks to his enhanced night vision being hampered by the light, he couldn’t see much beyond it. Had he heard something?
    Micah raised his spikers. “Well come on,” he shouted. “We haven’t got all day.”
    The patch of light contracted further. Alex could now only see seven or eight feet in front of them.
    Micah glanced at him. “If this doesn’t happen soon we’re not...”
    They came all at once.
    Six eaters, spanning the corridor side by side, more visible behind them. Silent.
    As the cloying pheromone fragrance wafted into the air, they attacked.
    While still relatively slow, their reflexes dulled by the disease that drove their hunger for human flesh, these eaters were far more coordinated than Alex was used to. He chose the biggest as his first target, aiming a kick at its knee and plunging the spiker into its head as it fell. The eater next to it grabbed his right arm, pulling it towards its mouth. He twisted from its grip and slammed a heavy kick into its stomach, sending it tumbling into two more behind it.
    From the corner of his eye, he saw Micah take down two in quick succession then dance back from the grasping hands of a third. While he didn’t have Alex’s Survivor strength, he made up for it with speed and dexterity.
    Two more eaters lunged at Alex, forcing him to back up to give him room to manoeuvre. Ignoring their hands grasping his jacket, he drove a spiker into both foreheads at the same time. Their grip loosened as they fell. The last eater on his side of the corridor tripped over their bodies and he bent to finish it off before it could get back up.
    Micah was further along the hallway, backed against the wall, the remaining three eaters almost on him. Alex started in his direction, stopping when Micah leaped into the air and caught hold of one of the service pipes running along the ceiling above him. Swinging forwards, he drove each foot into the chests of two of his attackers, knocking them to the floor as he let go, twisted in midair and landed beyond them. Spinning round, he drove a spiker into the side of the head of the eater still standing before it could turn, then dropped to one knee and stabbed both eaters on the floor at once.
    Alex’s jaw dropped.
    Micah stood up and grinned. “Who needs super strength?”
    “Show off,” Alex said, rolling his eyes to hide how impressed he was.
    They waited for another minute for any stragglers. Alex searched the faces of those they had killed, but none looked familiar. That meant there was a chance Hannah, Carla, and the other doctors were alive.
    There was still hope.

2
     
     
     
     
    When no more eaters appeared, they returned to the lab where the fire was running out of eater to burn.
    Alex cast a glance at the gruesome sight and looked away. Thanks to everything in the room being made of metal or plastic, the flames hadn’t spread. But they were losing light fast.
    “We need to find something that will burn,” Micah said.
    They spent a few minutes rummaging through cupboards and drawers before Micah exclaimed, “Yes!”
    He pulled something from a drawer and tossed it to Alex. It was an LED