Beyond Death: Origins, Book 1 Read Online Free PDF Page A

order of the injections. It has to be the clue. It’s a slight difference, but a difference nonetheless. The trick is to understand the why and the how. Tricky,” Lucas huffed.
    “Hey, do you hear that?” Chase asked sitting up.
    “What?” Lucas answered jumping up and taking a defensive position as some of his coffee spilled onto the floor.
    “Silence. That’s what. Where’d they go?”
    The breaking of glass had Chase on his feet too.  Bumping into each other as they flew to the door of the office, they stopped. At the far end of the lab, one of those students—or rather, things—climbed in the broken window. With shaky agility, it stuck the landing and ran toward them.
    “Get the mouse,” Chase instructed as he pushed Lucas toward the cages.
    Instinct had him grab for a weapon, but he had none on him. His khakis didn’t even contain a damned rubber bullet. No frontline, no time to think, but Chase moved. The thing resembling a fresh corpse stretched his hands toward Chase’s face. In a right hand to right hand move, he grabbed the boy. He bent the arm down and the wrist in. With his other hand, he pinched the nerve just above the elbow.
    The animalistic groan of the creature bristled the hairs on Chase’s neck. Tensing, feet placed hip-length apart, he forced the arm around the boy’s back. In a swift move, Chase used the subdued arm to bend him at the waist. His nerve-pinching hand slammed the kid’s head down onto the edge of the lab counter. The sound of the crack of his skull vibrated through Chase.
    No time to breath, he caught Lucas watching him. The boy stood frozen, mouse cage in hand.
    “Stay!” Chase yelled as another two student creatures stumbled quickly toward him.
    First in line, a girl lunged for him. Before he could think, his hands picked her up by the neck and threw her into the counter. With recognition dawning, a boy grabbed at his face. Hands still toward the counter in post-throw, he grabbed a large beaker. The glass shattered over the thing’s head.
    The girl got up again, moving the fallen boy with a gash in his head.
    “Impossible!” he shouted.
    “The surgical instruments in the drawer,” Lucas suggested, setting the cage down.
    “Don’t!” Chase yelled.
    As he pulled open the drawer, he kicked the girl. She stumbled, knocking down the bleeding boy getting back up. His blood looked too coagulated. Side-stepping the girl, he jumped on the boy. As they fell to the ground, he stabbed him in the head.  The two beside him got back up.
    The boy under him had stopped dead. With little time to process, he kicked aside the girl again, and bent the other boy back over the counter. He stabbed. The feeling of skin and bone verses metal registered in his bones. The blood on his clothes felt all too familiar.
    The girl, a student of his, jumped at him. Grabbing her hair, he pushed her to the blood-soaked counter. His hand froze above her.
    “Damn,” he yelled.
    With what he had at his immediate disposal—bandaging tape—he bound her arms together. When she dropped to the floor, he did the same with her feet. He watched her fight her binds.
    “Shit, Chase,” Lucas yelled. “Look”
    Following where the boy looked, he saw more of them moving up the stairs. Soon, more than he could fight at once would be in the hall. He ran to the window and leaped through.

Chapter Five
    Chase’s feet flew out from under him. With the hand he’s just sliced on the broken glass of the window, he pushed himself back up. He regained his balance as he broke into a run. It was an awesome feat for even him.  He analyzed his distance with their distance to the door.  A split second hypothesis told him they’d make it at the same time. He wouldn’t be able to shut the door on that many of them. He had to beat them to it.
    Bracing for the impact, he took a leap. His feet landed just through the doorway. He grabbed the door handle to stop his body’s momentum. Damned fire regulations , he thought