The Crocodile's Jaws: An Alice in Deadland Adventure (Alice, No.7) Read Online Free PDF

but they will not know what hit them.'
    Two men had stumbled to the bushes to empty their bladders.
They staggered in, unarmed, only half conscious. They never came back. The
first was bitten by Bunny Ears and the other was taken down by two more Biters.
Neither so much as screamed, other than a brief muffled shout that their
comrades seemed not to notice.
    Alice was now just twenty meters away, hidden behind a rock,
studying the men through the scope on her rifle. One more injected his arm with
a needle and lay back, his eyes closed. Two men who had injected themselves
earlier were now shaking, as if suffering from convulsions. Another man raised
his shirt to inject himself just below the waist. She saw the same scaly skin
on all the men, and the scales converged around the points where they stuck
themselves with needles. Ten men. She reckoned she could put down at least five
before they responded, and then it would be a gunfight. One which would be
short, for they would then be swarmed from behind by Bunny Ears and his Biters.
It was a massacre, but after what they had done at Zohar's settlement, these
men deserved nothing better.
    The first shot, muffled by the suppressor on Alice's rifle,
took a man's head off. The man next to him sat up as his friend's head
exploded, looking around, trying to understand what had happened. He joined his
friend a second later as another shot took him in the neck. Alice was now
moving her rifle in a steady, deadly arc, left to right. Aim, pull the trigger,
watch for the spray of blood and move to the next target. She shot six men
before the first of them grabbed a gun and raised it to shoot at her, only to
be cut down by a burst from Alice that caught him in the stomach. Another shot
passed Alice's head and she swiveled to aim at the shooter and caught him in
the throat with a bullet. But then someone else was shooting, poorly aimed
shots that rang off the rocks and ground near the two remaining bandits.
    It was Zohar. He was running towards the two men, shouting
and firing from the ancient revolver he held. Alice groaned as he passed
between her and the men, robbing her of a clean shot, and she abandoned her
rifle and ran forward, handgun and knife in hand.
    Zohar had fired four bullets of the six his revolver held,
but he was hardly keeping count. He just wanted revenge upon the men who had
slaughtered his family, and he wanted to see them die up close, not have Alice
shoot them from far. He wanted to avenge his family with his own hands. His
father had taught him to shoot, but of course shooting practice when you're
standing still is very different from the adrenaline-charged rage that was
propelling him now. He realized all his shots had missed and forced himself to
slow down and take more careful aim.
    The two men were just a few feet from him, and one of them
was reaching for an ancient gun by his side. Zohar aimed as his father had
taught him, holding the revolver steady with both hands, and fired twice. The
man groaned as he was hit in the midsection and toppled over. Zohar turned his
gun to the remaining man and shouted, though later he would have no
recollection of what he said.
    The man looked at Zohar and smiled with crooked, yellowed
teeth.
    'Child, I will cut off your head and throw it away.'
    Zohar pulled the trigger and heard a click. He pulled it
again and realized with a sinking feeling that he was out of bullets. The man
took out a curved knife from his belt and ran towards Zohar.
    That was when Alice slammed into the man and he went down in
a heap. Alice twisted the man's wrist. Bones snapped and he dropped the knife,
screaming in agony. The man tried to say something but Alice hit him hard on
the back of his neck with the hilt of her knife and he slumped to the ground.
    Alice looked up to see Zohar sitting down, shaking slightly.
Then he bent and retched.
     
    ***
     
    'It's always easier to talk of vengeance than to kill a man
with your own hands.'
    Zohar was trying to