Jade: Earth's Last Hope Against the Undead Read Online Free PDF Page B

find Trent’s silhouette sitting up in his bed.
    “ Trent, we have to leave.”
    He didn’t answer. He sat unmoving, unwilling
to react to her presence.
    She moved closer. “Did you hear me? We have
to leave.”
    Still, Trent remained still, not even
turning to look at her when she spoke.
    What did they do to him?
    Jade moved in closer, calling to him.
“Trent?”
    Then she was right next to him, seeing the
thing they'd attached to his forehead. Trent’s eyes were wide,
unblinking. He sat, merely recharging like some sort of robot,
controlled by other forces.
    Jade tried to remove the thing, but it
wouldn't loosen. She traced the metal band around his head and
under his jaw, and found it secured by a miniscule lock.
    It’s some kind of mind controlling
harness.
    Her assumption was correct. She could see
that much. But she wondered how long he'd been this way. Could he
be brought back? She had to stay and try.
    Before she could try anything, the door was
thrown open, not so much startling her as warning her. Jade drew
her sword in hand with lightning speed, ready to fight.
    “ What a shame,” Kat said. “Now you’ll
have to be reprogrammed as well.”
    “ Is that what you do to us? Turn us
into subservient slaves?”
    “ Not me,” Kat assured Jade. “You don’t
serve my will one bit. Trust me. But there is someone,
yes.”
    “ Who?”
    Kat grinned. “No worries. You’ll meet them
in good time. But you won’t remember a thing about that meeting,
unfortunately.”
    Kat drew her own sword. Two others appeared
behind her as well as the doctor. All three fighters parted when
Jade attacked. Before her blade could fall, she saw the thing in
the doctor’s hands, and traced the path of the electric current
finding her.
    She felt her body explode with pain. Her
fingers seized as the electricity shot through them and then surged
out of her. Her eyes shook in her head, yet she managed to find
Trent’s face. He hadn’t even thrown her a glance of concern. Then
darkness found her.

    When she woke, she found herself strapped
down to a dentist's chair. The cruelty of it all was that
Trent was the one to finish securing her. The only free limb
was her right arm.
    As Trent finished his work on her right
foot, she quickly glanced about the room. The doctor sat at a desk,
thick magnifying glasses indicating he was engrossed in delicate
work. Smoke rose from a soldering iron he held in his hands,
manipulating a device much like the one Trent wore on his head.
    That’s for me. If I don’t get out of here
now, he’ll put that harness on me.
    She scanned the room and discovered her
sword. It was out of arm’s reach. The table it sat on, though, was
close enough to grab hold of one leg. But it looked heavy,
difficult to manage. Still, if she didn’t try—
    Trent moved to her right arm, showing no
signs of caring whether she was awake or not. She knew she'd need
to do something fast, but what? Then an idea surprised her from out
of nowhere, yet another piece of information they had programmed
into her.
    She thrust her fist up straight like an
arrow. Her hand struck Trent in the jaw, jarring him, but doing
nothing more than to cause him to stumble backwards. He leaped back
at her, committed to her fight. The commotion alerted the doctor
who went directly for the electric device he'd previously used to
stun her .
    Jade grabbed the leg of the table and
tugged. The table shook closer to her, but the sword only shifted a
few inches. She did it again, and again, and again, as Trent moved
close enough to grab her. And in the background, the doctor now had
his device and was taking aim.
    She stretched, finding the handle with her
fingertips. She rocked, jerked, and found the hilt. The electric
device fired.
    Jade swung her blade free of the scabbard.
Her thrust deflected the end of the device into the wall where
several sparks shot out of its end. She balled up her fist around
the handle of the sword and punched Trent again. This