Designated (Book 1): Designated Infected Read Online Free PDF Page B

closer
and still above it all was the rhythmic, eternal, drumbeat of his
life moving him ever onward.
    His gun spat as he fired on the move, dropping rounds
with precision into the heads of anything that came his way.
Dropping to a knee, he slid for several feet before coming to a stop
at the corner of an intersecting corridor.
    'So, which way, boss?'
    When no one answered, nothing replied, he glanced about
him scanning in every direction. It was then and only then that his
bravado and courage slipped. A cool snaking whisper of fear began to
worm its way through his mind as he realised finally just how alone
he had become.

4

    Baker sprinted after Jenkins his mind boiling with the
anger he felt for the young Lance Corporal, his teeth ground down as
he muttered to himself.
    'Damned whelp, just fucks off and leaves me in a room
full of Infected. I'll rip his fucking bollocks off if I find the git
in one piece.'
    Shouldering the door out the way, he sprinted for the
stair case. As his right foot left the floor, his left flew from
under him. Turning in the air, he stared down into the face of
someone who by all rights should have been very much dead.
    Their cold lifeless hand clasped tightly round his ankle
as he aimed his rifle into what remained of the poor soul's face.
Pulling the trigger, Baker watched as its face burst in a spray of
crimson gore that spattered the wall and floor behind them. Wrenching
his foot free, Baker rolled over and pushed himself upwards. Running
up the staircase once more, he ignored the growing pain in his lower
back and the ominous crackling click of what he didn't doubt was
cracked cartilage in his knee.
    The pain was pushing him to his limits as he continued
upwards, the growing throb in his knee and lower leg akin to a
thousand red hot needles being slowly pushed into his tender flesh.
Grinding his teeth together, he felt one chip under the pressure as
he pushed onwards, heading further up the staircase, he didn't bother
to ruminate on what lay ahead.

    ****

    Jenkins snapped his head to the left as the slapping of
bare feet drew his attention. Dragging his rifle to the left, he
managed a few poorly aimed shots before he found himself tumbling
backwards as the soft, malleable, flesh coated slab of anger slammed
into him and smashed his stunned form into the unyielding concrete
wall. His breath left him just as quickly as any semblance of his
training with the sudden jolt, his lungs paled under the sudden
impact.
    Spittle hung from his chin as he struggled to breathe;
his juddering strangled gasps lost in the tumult of rage filled
screams issuing forth from the thing railing against him. The form
flailed against him as it attempted to rend him limb from limb.
Driving his fist down into the base of its neck, Jenkins sent its
stunned form face first into the floor and took off running blindly
as his eyes welled up, his breath struggling to enter his still
shocked lungs. Stumbling and groping blindly, he ran for all he was
worth, trying to put as much distance as he could between himself and
his assailant. He fled deeper into the clear, welcoming arms of the
corridor heading in as straight a line as he could manage.
    Then his world inverted. His eyes widened as his brain
registered that he was falling, his body tumbling forwards into the
non-existent arms of the hot, dry noon day air. The first Jenkins
knew of his fall was also the last as he attempted to scream.
    Opening his mouth he managed no more than a parting cry
of alarm before he collided with the unyielding floor below. He was
luckier than some with the swiftness of his end; as his body collided
with the dark russet coloured floor his neck snapped like a dry
autumn twig ending his life in an instant. Jenkins' life's blood
flowed freely from his shattered body as he lay crumpled at the foot
of the building, his head twisted into an unimaginably impossible
angle, the vertebrae crushed to dust under the weight of his own
body.

    Baker stormed