Earthfall: Retribution Read Online Free PDF Page A

said. ‘Stay sharp.’
    ‘Will do.’
    Jack made his way over to a window, peering down on to the streets below. ‘I’ll set up here. I can cover this side of the building,’ he said, unslinging the massive rifle from his back and resting its long barrel on the back of a chair. He sat down on the bed and pressed his eye to the scope, scanning the empty street below.
    ‘We might as well get some rest for a couple of hours,’ Rachel said. ‘Until we have a better idea of what’s going on here, it’s too risky to travel any further into the city during the day.’
    ‘I suppose,’ Sam said, placing his assault rifle on the bed. ‘It really doesn’t look like anyone’s home, though. Remember what it was like in London before we took the Mothership? The Hunters were everywhere. From what we’ve seen so far there’s no sign they were ever even here.’
    ‘No sign of Sleepers either,’ Jack said, his eye still pressed to the scope. ‘Place is a ghost town.’
    ‘Maybe Stirling and the Servant got the calculations wrong on the source of that signal,’ Rachel said with a shrug.
    ‘Let’s just keep watch for a while and see,’ Sam said.
    ‘Starting to think we might be on a wild goose chase here,’ Jack said. ‘If there’s no Voidborn, then who exactly was whoever made that transmission fighting with?’
    ‘Too many questions, not enough answers,’ Rachel said with a sigh, removing her pack and sitting down in the armchair in the corner of the room.
    ‘No change there, then,’ Sam said.

    Sam dozed fitfully for the next couple of hours, until finally it was his turn on watch. He headed back down the stairs to the hotel lobby, where Jay sat in the shadows near the plate-glass windows that looked out on to the street beyond. It was starting to snow again.
    ‘My turn,’ Sam said as his friend stood up and stretched.
    ‘Nothing out there,’ Jay said with a slight frown.
    ‘That’s supposed to be a good thing,’ Sam replied. ‘So why do you look so worried?’
    ‘Because I mean there is literally nothing out there,’ Jay said, looking back towards the street outside. ‘No birds, no dogs, nothing. You know what it’s like in London with the strays.’
    Sam knew exactly what he meant; one of the consequences of the Voidborn attack had been huge numbers of abandoned pet dogs that soon formed large feral packs, a phenomenon that was just one of the reasons that they all still carried weapons when on patrol in London.
    ‘Could just be the weather,’ Sam said as the snowfall began to intensify outside. ‘They’re probably taking shelter somewhere and waiting for it to pass.’
    ‘I suppose,’ Jay said, ‘but I can’t shake the feeling that something about this just seems off. Gives me the creeps.’
    ‘Well, we’ll check the centre of town later and see what we can find,’ Sam said. ‘If it’s as dead there as it is here, we’ll head back to the pick-up point. Maybe Stirling and the Servant will have a better idea of where we should be looking by then. In the meantime, go and try to get a couple of hours’ sleep. We’ll head in as soon as it gets dark.’
    ‘OK, keep your eyes peeled,’ Jay said with a nod, picking up his pack and slinging his rifle over his shoulder. ‘You see anything you call, OK?’
    ‘Yes, Mother,’ Sam replied.
    ‘Hey, if my mum was here, the Voidborn would be the least of your worries,’ Jay replied with a crooked smile.
    Sam watched as Jay crossed the lobby, before turning his attention back to the street outside. After he had been watching for nearly half an hour, he started to feel some of the prickling unease that Jay had been talking about. The street outside was as quiet as the grave, a feeling enhanced by the gently falling snow that covered everything in its sound-deadening blanket. There was also this vague whisper at the back of his skull. It was nothing like the strange sensation that he felt when his implant reacted to the presence of the