Earthfall Read Online Free PDF Page A

her shoulder, knocking her off her feet and sending her flying. Sam stopped his headlong dash towards the Underground entrance and ran back towards Rachel as, her face contorted in pain, she forced herself up on to her hands and knees. The tentacle whipped back through the air towards her and mercilessly slammed down on her back flattening her to the ground again before snaking round her ankle and starting to reel her in. Rachel clawed at the road surface, trying to find something to grab on to as Sam sprinted towards her.
    ‘Don’t be stupid! Get out of here!’ she screamed at him.
    ‘I told you, I’ve had enough of running,’ Sam hissed through gritted teeth. Rachel gasped in pain as the mechanical tendril tightened its grip on her leg.
    ‘There’s no point in that thing getting both of us,’ she snapped. ‘Just go!’
    Sam ignored her and pulled the pistol from the waistband of his jeans. He took careful aim at the thick, black tentacle and fired. The bullet pierced the glistening segmented skin, sending gouts of thick, dark green ichor splashing across the tarmac. The Grendel gave a deafening enraged roar and yanked its arm back, dragging Rachel to within just a few metres of its feet. The creature took a single step towards Sam and Rachel, towering over them, raising its free arm high above its head, claws extended for a killing blow. Sam closed his eyes.
    There was a whooshing sound from somewhere behind him and then an incredibly loud explosion. Sam felt a wave of intense heat as he was lifted from the ground and sent flying backwards through the air before slamming down hard, flat on his back, all the wind knocked out of him. For a few seconds he lay stunned before slowly opening his eyes. He forced himself to his feet and surveyed the scene before him. The Grendel was trying to get up, hindered by the fact that the mangled, smouldering remains of the arm that had been dragging them in for the kill lay severed and twitching on the ground, several metres away. Thick oily liquid spurted from the jagged remnants of the wounded creature’s shoulder. Rachel was lying face down on the road. She wasn’t moving. Sam staggered over and gently rolled her on to her back. She was bleeding from a cut just below her hairline and as he tried to lift her up her eyes fluttered open, her brow furrowing into a pained frown.
    ‘What happened?’ she groaned.
    ‘I did,’ a voice said from behind Sam. Walking towards them was a tall, muscular boy wearing combat trousers and a white vest. His hair was a mass of dreadlocks, held back from his face by a black headband covered in tiny white peace symbols. He pulled a short tubular object from his backpack and pulled on each end, extending it and locking the two halves in place, before raising it to his shoulder. A similar object lay discarded on the ground a few metres behind him.
    ‘Jay, your timing is, as usual, perfect,’ Rachel said as Sam helped her to her feet.
    The Grendel had finally regained its balance and now took a single faltering step towards the three of them.
    ‘You might want to get behind me,’ the boy called Jay said as he squinted through the sights mounted on the top of the rocket launcher. ‘I’m gonna put this thing down for good.’
    Sam and Rachel moved out of the way as Jay waited two seconds for the gentle bleeping from the launcher to change to a continuous tone, indicating a positive lock on his target. He took a deep breath and pressed the firing button on top of the launcher. The rocket streaked across the thirty-metre gap that separated them from the wounded Grendel and struck the creature squarely in the centre of the chest. The explosion tore it to shreds, smouldering chunks of its armoured, black shell scattering in all directions.
    ‘So much for tall, dark and ugly,’ Jay said, a broad grin spreading across his face as he discarded the spent launcher. ‘Now, I reckon we should get off the street before any of his friends show up,