The Man From U.N.D.E.A.D.'s Christmas Carol Read Online Free PDF

into the bricks. The door ahead was suddenly torn out of the doorway, bringing part of the wall with it , and flew directly at me. I had no time to avoid it, so I went down on my arse and slid under it, some projecting steel reinforcing rods scraping my arm painfully.
    The creature screamed again in frustration, but now I was out of the armoury I turned to face it . The move momentarily disconcerted the being. Human beings running away in terror was something that it clearly understood, but human beings standing their ground with a triumphant look on their faces was something that was obviously new to her.
    “ Computer, initiate failsafe protocol, ” I ordered as her eyes started to blaze.
    There was a rush of air that nearly dragged me back into the room and a loud popping sound.
    Where the armoury had been a moment before was an empty space. The failsafe had transported the armoury and all its contents deep into the corona of the sun to be instantly vapo rised.
    “ Well , I ’ m not explaining this one to Mrs Freidriksen, ” Penny said behind me.
    I turned around and the ground exploded under me.
     
    People are not designed to fly without the aid of planes, helicopters or antigravity spells. I therefore travelled only a dozen feet or so through the air before I crashed heavily to the g round again. And this was real ground beneath me, not the carpet-tiled hallways of the Victor Von Frankenstein Tower. There were also no longer walls on either side of me.
    Well, that ’ s not quite true; there were walls around me, but none of them were intact and very few of them stood more than a couple of feet high. Buildings all around were shattered and collapsed in on themselves and more than a few of them were on fire. There were heavy thumps and crashes sounding all around me, deadened by the ringing in my ears that drowned out most of it.
    A figure stepped over me and across the glare of the sun so that all I could see was a silhouette. It was the silhouette of a soldier, complete with battle helmet, rifle and ill-fitting fatigues.
    “ I said are you hurt? ” the figure said dimly.
    I tried to shake my head and rise, but found that I wasn ’ t able to do either very well. The soldier reached down and hoisted me up onto feet that didn ’ t seem to want to face the same way. My legs trembled and threatened to spill me back onto the ground, but with the soldier ’ s help I was able to stay upright.
    “ We need to get out of here, ” my saviour muttered and pointed toward a group of walls that were slightly more complete than all the rest.
    I nodded and tried to move in that direction. The soldier supported me and we made slow progress between the shattered buildings, using whatever cover we could find until an Agency armoured vehicle was revealed ahead of us. It wasn ’ t one that I recognised, though the markings were familiar. For one thing, it didn ’ t seem to have any wheels , which I took to be a bit of a disadvantage in a personnel carrier. A door at the rear opened and more arms reached out to grab me and drag me inside, dumping me onto the hard metal floor of the vehicle. The soldier who had saved me jumped in and the vehicle sped off even before the door was closed again.
    “ What the hell a re you doing? ” someone asked. There were fewer explosions and the ringing in my ears had diminished slightly, so I could hear a little better. “ This place is going to be totalled any minute. ”
    “ I couldn ’ t leave him, ” another voice replied, presumably that of the soldier who had helped me. “ He ’ d have been killed … or worse. ”
    “ Better him than us, ” the first voice replied. “ Can ’ t you make this bloody thing go any faster? ”
    “ You ’ re welcome to get out and walk, ” another voice replied cheerfully.
    “ Take a look at his face, ” the man who helped me said, “ and then tell me that he wasn ’ t worth bringing along. ”
    Someone grabbed my hair and pulled my face