The Azrael: The Reckoning Read Online Free PDF Page B

okay.  The Azrael leapt onto him the moment he opened the door and bit into his left arm that he used to shield himself. 
    “Holy Shit!  Why is this in…?”  Jim screamed as his back hit the ground knocking the wind out of him.  The massive zombie was on top of him biting into his arm infecting him with the virus.  The virus took quickly and Jim’s body began to thrash violently.  The Azrael stood and searched the office for more bodies to infect.  The screams of a nearby woman drew him into the hallway near the vending machines.  Dr. Barnett slowly pulled herself up and rubbed at the knot that was throbbing on her forehead.
    “I can’t believe this.  What have I done?” 
    Moments later she heard movements from the back room.  Her vision was blurry but a figure began to move towards her.  It was Josh.  She pulled away and her back struck the side of her desk.  A large container of Azrael blood extracted earlier that day tipped over and spilled on top of the desk, cascaded across and dripped over covering her head with infected blood causing her to close her eyes.  A few seconds and a few feet away she heard sniffing and grunting.  Her face was coated with virus contaminated blood and it slowly soaked into her clothes and ran down her arms and legs.  She wiped it away from her eyes and focused.  Josh was gone.  She immediately shut her door and locked it.
    A cadence of screams and raspy howls provided ambiance beyond her door and she leaned her back against it, slowly slid down and pulled her knees to her chest when her butt hit the floor.  There were hundreds that worked in this facility not just including the scientists.  All were unprepared for the massacre and mass infection that quickly spread throughout the once revered Field Museum. 
    She stared at Josh’s glasses that sat within blood that pooled beside the table where the Azrael once laid.  The straps on the table that held its arms and legs down were stretched out drastically and laid limp hanging off the side of the table still looped.  It learned how to escape.  It could break the chest strap but the several leather bindings on its arms and legs needed to be stretched in order to pull its limbs out.  These things are resourceful. 
    Dr. Barnett’s gaze relocated to the three handed clock that ticked above the doorway to the other room.  The red hand clicked as it jolted to the next second.  The noise began to intensify as she focused.  Suddenly the power switched off and the room was only lit by faint emergency lights.  She could still make out the clock as the dim lights reflected off of the glass covering it.  The ticking grew louder as the battery operated clock continued to function.  She closed her eyes and finally surrendered to a deep sleep.

Chapter 4
The Chicago Lab Outbreak
     
    Dr. Harris was late in to work as usual.  He showed up listening to his iPod and brought donuts for the security crew that worked the front gate of the Field Museum.  The guards that manned internal communications and the internal monitors took a union break.  It was usually taken when Dr. Harris arrived with assorted pastries from the local bakery along with a new story about some lucky young lady that he plowed through the night before.  Being a doctor at the museum had its perks which involved high end living arrangements and more rations than any one person could eat in a lifetime paid monthly.  He was the only trained doctor of medicine for the facility where most of the staff were scientists who worked awful hours and barely got to use their rations or their living arrangements.  Since more and more information discovered became classified and privately owned, their personal lives were severely scrutinized and kept to a minimum. 
    Most of the security staff was ex-police or any person claiming to have killed an Azrael.  They often exchanged stories of their heroism at the donut gatherings to add status with Dr. Harris.