Page 200 (1/1)
A shout caht!"
"She’s a viral!"
"Shoot her!"
The first bullet speared Alicia’s right thigh, shattering her fe The horse’s front legs folded, sending her pitching forward over its neck The first pops becae Dust kicked up around her as she crawled behind the fallen ani Bullets were finding their mark Alicia experienced them like a fusillade of punches Her left palht pelvis, shrapnelized like an exploding grenade Two more to the chest, the second of which ricocheted off her fourth rib, plunged diagonally through her thoracic cavity, and cracked her second lumbar vertebrae She did her best to shove herself beneath the fallen horse Blood splashed froht, as a curtain of darkness fell Everything is lost
--
The ed inside the city at four points: the central square, the southeast corner of the i area inside the h the pocketed earth to ehout the city The floors of houses; abandoned lots, weedy and untended, where children had once played; the streets of densely packed neighborhoods They dug and crawled They traced the sewage and water lines They were clever; they sought the weakest points For ical and man-made fissures beneath the city like an infestation of ants
Go now, their master ordered Fulfill your purpose Do that which I’ve co to consider Alicia’s words of warning Aripped by the frenzy of aupon the dopeys as well--the structure lurched under hirate beneath his feet were a carpet that had been lifted and shaken at one end The sensation shot to his stomach, a swirl of nausea, like seasickness He looked side to side, searching for the source of thisscreams A second lurch and the structure jolted doard His balance failed; knocked backward, he fell to the floor of the catwalk Guns were blasting, voices yelling Bullets whizzed over his face The gate, soate! Shoot the an to tip away from the wall
He was rolling toward the edge
He had no way to stop hirab Bodies tu into the dark As he rolled over the lip, one hand seized slickaround it like a pendulum He would not be able to hold on; he had merely paused Beneath hiunfire
"Take ed hie The catwalk had paused at a forty-five-degree angle to the ground
"Grab on!"
A series of pops: the last bolts were yanking free of the wall Jock’s fingertips, inches fro in two streams There was one, of noise and haste and violent action, and a second, coincidental with the first, in which Peter and everything around hi His other hand flailed uselessly, trying to grasp Jock’s
"Pull yourself up!"
Peter tore away
"I’ve got you!"
Jock was gripping hiar As the ht hiether they hauled hian to fall
--
The slaughter had co, the virals poured over the city They swar round and rooftops like a glowing fireworks display They burst through the floors of hardboxes to butcher the occupants and exploded through the floors of buildings to haul the hiding inhabitants froate, which, although forned to repel an attack from within; all that was required to open the city to invasion was to tear the crossbars froed near the ied with a specific hout the day, their delicate sensoriureat number of people, all headed in the same direction They had heard the roar of vehicles and the barks of bullhorns They had heard the word "dam" They had heard the word "shelter" They had heard the word "tubes" Those that sought a direct entry to the dam were confounded As Chase had predicted, there was no way in Others, like an elite assault force, houarded by a sent of soldiers, who died swiftly and badly Jaws snapping, fingers trilling, eyes restlessly roa, the virals took measure of the interior The room was full of pipes Pipes ht of stairs descended