Degeneration Read Online Free PDF Page A

Mathis speaking. Have any of your environmental suits been compromised?” a voice asked from the emergency intercom under the controls.
    The soldiers jumped a little in s urprise and looked at Cpl. Andrews.
    Cpl. Andrews coughed, swayed side-to-side, and looked down.
    “Answer me, C orporal , or you and your team will be left down the re! Why are you bleeding?”
    The soldiers looked up at the dome camera centered in the lift’s ceiling.
    “It’s nothing, one of the do ctors nicked me,” Cpl. Andrews lied, coughing . Droplets of blood sprayed against the inside of his facemask with each cough .
    “You have to leave him. I’m sorry, but he can’t come up. H is suit has been compromised and he is highly contagious,” Col. Mathis ordered.
    One of the soldiers shoved Cpl. Andrews out of the elevator.
    Cpl. Andrews stu mbled forwards, panicking, coughing. He turned and aimed the ri fle at his men in the elevator while sticking his foot in the elevator’s doorway, preventing the door from shutting.
    “You’re going to leave me to die down here!?” Cpl. Andrews yelled, before erupting in a violent coughing spasm. “After everything we’ve been through, you’re just going to toss me out here?”
    “I’m sorry, sir,” one of the soldiers said.
    “He’s infected,” Col. Mathis said from the elevator speaker. “You have no other options, I’m sorry. You saw those people… what the virus did to them. It will do the same thing to him, eventually.”
    “Fuck him!” Cpl. Andrews yelled, waving his rifle towards his men. “What does he know?! He’s not a doctor! Just… just let me come up with you and try to get some help. That’s fair, right? At least give the scientists a chance to look me over!”
    Cpl. Andrews erupted into a violent coughing spasm.
    “If you don’t kill him, he’ll kill all of you,” Col. Mathis grimly announced from the speaker. “That bomb is going off any minute now. Don’t let sentiment seal your fates.”
    The soldiers looked at each other hesitantly.
    “Please move your foot, sir,” one of the soldiers said. “We don’t want to hurt you.”
    Cpl. Andrews started to sob.
    “Please…” Cpl. Andrews begged as he looked over at Lloyd, voice choked by tears. “I brought you in… remember? I’m the one who vouched for you! Don’t do this to me… don’t…”
    “I’m sorry… I really am,” Lloyd muttered, looking down. He pushed Cpl. Andrews’ foot away from the door with his boot.
    “Fuck you and your apologies!” Cpl. Andrews hysterically shouted. He doubled-over in a coughing fit.
    Before Cpl. Andrews could recover, t he elevator doors slid shut and the soldiers made their assent to the main lobby.
    Lloyd’s rifle shook in his hands as he stared down at the ground. It had to be done , he thought, this virus can’t be allowed to make it to the surface.
    The elevator reached the lobby and the door s open ed. A sealed plastic tunnel had been erected around the ed ge of the elevator doors and made a path towards the lobby exit. Showerheads ran along the center of the tunnel.
    “ Now, leave your weapons in the elevator and slowly walk along the tunnel with your arms above your head ,” Col. Mathis said.
    The soldiers looked at each other uneasily, but co mplied. They threw their M16s on the corpses in the elevator and stepped out into the plastic tunnel. As soon as the last soldier stepped out , the elevator doors slid shut and the lift lowered itself back down to the s ub-level floor .
    As the soldiers walked along the tunnel, the showerheads activated and pelted their hazmat suits with a f ine blue mist .
    Lloyd felt his arm get a little moist inside his suit. He lowered his arms and looked down at his right forearm ; he found a very sm all puncture in his suit which allowed the blue mist to seep through. H is mi nd went back to when hi s arm s truck against the jagged glass protruding from the frame of the shattered refrigerator door.
    Horror washed over him