The Immortal Coil Read Online Free PDF Page B

black and gray eyes staring down at me.
    “Don’t get up,” I told the cop, not that he was in any position to anyway. A whistling sound cut through the air as the swords flew from the wall. One of the blades plunged deep into the torso of a mutant attacking the officer. The second sword impaled both of the ones remaining and continued out the window with their bodies. “I can’t believe that worked.”
    “What the hell was that?” the cop said, staring at me in shock. He threw the last mutant to the floor, took the sword out of its body, and stabbed it through the forehead. Finally, the creature gave one last spasm before crumpling to the ground for good.
    My moment of elation came to an abrupt end. The officer recovered his knife and wielded it defensively in my direction.
    “What the hell are you? What did you just do?” he yelled.
    I was probably more afraid of him than he was of me. I should have known something like this was going to happen, but I thought saving our lives was a good enough reason to reveal my secret. After how heroic the cop had just been I wanted to believe he’d be more open-minded, but he was acting like I was one of them.
    “I, I saved us —” I stammered. “I’m a person, not like them! Please, I can explain.”
    He kept his eyes on me with a look of distrust, but put the knife in his back pocket. His expression hurt me more than the lingering pain in my ankle. This is exactly what I was afraid of. One day my secret was going to come out and whoever it was would disregard everything else they knew about me and only see my inner demons.
    “Let’s get out of here,” he said right in time. The mutant skewered to the floor was beginning to come back to life.
    I shut the door behind us and ran down the hall toward the sound of voices coming from downstairs. On the floor below were three police officers, who promptly raised their firearms at the sight of us.
    “I’m NYPD. Officer Turner, 23rd Precinct.” The cop I was with held up his badge to identify himself.
    The three turned their attention to me next.
    “It’s fine, he’s with me.” I was relieved Officer Turner vouched for me after how he acted. I expected him to turn me in and treat me like I was one of those creatures.
    “Sergeant O’Donnell.” One of them stepped forward. “What is a civilian doing in a quarantine zone, officer? And why are both of your clothes torn and bloody?”
    I let Officer Turner do the talking, since it would sound a lot better coming from him.
    “He lives here, it’s a long story. We have to get out of here, Sergeant. This is going to sound crazy, but something mutated whoever was working here into … well, into monsters, sir.”
    The three cops looked at each other.
    “Officer, we’ve been through every inch of the first couple of floors. The only thing suspicious here is the two of you soaked in blood and the absence of the CDC. Tell me why you didn’t call for help and how that’s supposed to look from my perspective.”
    “My radio broke while engaging them. We trapped one in an apartment upstairs,” Officer Turner told the others. “I’ll take you to it, but call in backup. We have no idea how many more there are.”
    Going back upstairs was a death sentence, even with guns, but they weren’t going to listen. After everything we had gone through, I’m sure Officer Turner wasn’t looking forward to going.
    One of the other officers spoke up. “You trapped a CDC employee in an apartment?”
    “He’s more of a nightmare than an employee.” I felt bad listening to him try to explain, but I didn’t want to get involved any more than I already was.
    “I’m going to have to ask you to hand over your gun and the knife,” Sergeant O’Donnell said. Officer Turner complied without protest and allowed the sergeant to check his gun. “The clip is empty.”
    “Yes, sir. I had to defend myself and the unarmed civilian.” Officer Turner stood his ground even though this