The Immortal Coil Read Online Free PDF Page A

I followed orders anyway.
    The handcuffed man was snarling and thrashing on the ground.
    “Stop right there. I don’t want to shoot you, but I will if I have to, sir.” He was aiming his gun at the second mutant now.
    “Look at their faces. They won’t listen. They’re not even people anymore,” I explained. Sure enough, it dashed right at him. He took a shot and hit it in the leg at close range, but the infected man wasn’t slowed down at all. The officer fired another shot at its leg, but didn’t do anything to stop the mutant from advancing. There was another loud crash upstairs, followed by the sound of running, like when my door broke off its hinges.
    “Get up.” The officer retreated toward me. He remained focused on the man in front of us as we backed away. “I don’t want to have to fire another shot, sir, but you’re leaving me no choice.”
    After the mutant ignored his warning, the officer fired two more shots into its chest, still to no effect.
    “There’s no way,” I heard the officer whisper to himself. He took a final shot between the mutant’s eyes and laid it out right alongside the one in handcuffs. There wasn’t much time to rejoice. The mutant with the broken hand was down on our floor now and coming after us just like the last.
    As if things weren’t bad enough, the one in handcuffs also managed to break free. “There’s an open apartment behind us we can hide in,” I pointed out.
    The cop fired another shot at one mutant’s head, but it did little more than stagger. The mutant we thought was dead was getting back up now too. “How is that even possible?” the cop exclaimed. “Get to the open apartment, but stay close.”
    We flew down the corridor with all three mutants in pursuit. It took both of us to push the door closed with them trying to get in. “I can’t call for help,” he said. “That thing broke my radio, but other officers should be here soon.”
    “I know it looks bad, but I swear I don’t have anything to do with this,” I said, pleading my innocence again.
    “What are you doing here anyway?” he asked. “This building was under investigation to be quarantined.”
    “I live here. Well, upstairs. I came back to get my stuff after I heard my landlord was coming to do the same. I didn’t think it was anything like this.”
    “Neither did I. I was on my way home when I heard over the radio that we lost contact with the CDC crew. They were supposed to do a sweep of the building and check in every hour unless they found something. I should have never come in without backup, but I was already in the area and it sounded more like a lazy crew than anything.”
    “I’m glad you came when you did. I would probably be dead by now if you hadn’t, or turned into one of those things.” I switched the lights on and looked around the room, hoping for a phone or something to defend ourselves with when the door inevitably got broken down. “What was the CDC expecting to find, anyway? What the hell causes that?”
    “All I know is that neighbor of yours they took out of here was said to have looked suspicious. I didn’t get to see her myself, but I heard it wasn’t pretty.” The cop joined me in scoping out the room. “No fire escape. Great. We’re not even facing the street to call for help. Nobody would hear us from here.”
    “We should barricade the door.” I let him know all about my encounter with the infected workers while we moved furniture. He was doing a decent job remaining calm during all of this.
    I wasn’t sure what kind of training the NYPD went through, but if he was just a rookie then we should be in good shape when the others got there.
    “Hey, whoever lives here must collect swords.” I pointed out two medieval swords mounted on the wall. “We can use them to protect ourselves.”
    “They’re just decorations.” He looked over from the window. “I’ll check the kitchen for something better, but I’d rather we didn’t get that