Free Humanity Gone (Book 3): Rebirth by Derek Deremer Page B

the air from the tip of my barrel. Both guards go down.
    “Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine: et lux perpetua luceat eis,” I whisper lightly. These aren't the first people I've needed to kill since the plague, but I never enjoyed taking a life. I push the release on the revolver and open the chamber with a flick of the wrist. On instinct, I empty the two spent rounds and reload them.
    More men will be coming, and I will need every round ready. I turn to the two women, still standing there blindfolded. The one tilts her head up to try and determine what was going on through the small gap along the bottom of her blindfold.
    I quickly rush behind them while pulling out the long knife from my boot. With two upward thrusts, their hands are freed and they pull down their blindfolds. They are both lovely women, but this wasn’t anytime to gape.
    “Who the hell are you?” the pale red-head exclaims. I reach along my back, pull out my spare .38 pistol, and toss it to her.
    “Name’s Nichols. I'm on your side. No time for formalities; can you handle that?” She looks it every briefly and nods. The other dark skinned woman runs up to one of the dead soldiers and pulls the pistol from his holster. She slides the chamber back and gives me a nod.
    “Let’s get the hell outta here,” she says. “We have to rescue the others, too.”
    The three of us run out of the alleyway and head across the open sidewalk and back into the stadium. A small group of guards turns towards us as we rush into the stadium at a sprint.
    “Hey!” the one yells, fumbling to raise his weapon. The three of us fire several rounds before they can manage another word. The four guards drop. I reload my weapon, and we continue our jog down the concourse and up a broken escalator.
    “You two have any idea where they are?” I ask between heavy breaths at the top.
    “No,” the red head says, glancing quickly at me. Her eyes are a color you rarely see.
    BANG.
    A chunk of cement from the nearby wall shatters away. More gunshots continue and pepper the area around us. The black woman is the first to dive into the safety of a concession stand within the wall of the stadium. We follow right behind her. The menu above explodes from the gunfire, and pieces of plastic rain down on us. I fire a few blind shots over the top. We are trapped.
    Desperate times. I reach into my back belt and unclasp a black sphere with a pin. I pull the pin with my teeth, and continue to hold the clip down.
    “Is that?” the redhead asks.
    I nod. Desperate measures. I’ve been saving it for a rainy day. I hurl the grenade over the top of the counter and cover my ears.
     
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 11: Caitlyn
    The door slams shut and Carter thrashes his body against the steel. He needs to calm down, or he is going to get us both killed. I walk to the wall and press my face against it then lift up. The blindfold falls to my neck. A flickering fluorescent bulb above me illuminates the small space.
    “Carter,” I say in a low voice. He stops struggling and stands there panting. I walk in front of him and rise to my toes. My face is a fraction of an inch from his. I lift my chin, grab the blindfold with my teeth, and pull it down. His pupils focus on me.
    “Thanks,” he says. I nod. “We have to get out of here.”
    I look around the concrete room. It probably was once a closet, but now it is a makeshift jail cell, and a pretty good one at that.
    “There’s no way out,” he mumbles and takes a seat on the steel chair bolted to the floor along the back wall. His eyes soften in a way that tells me he may cry. There isn’t time for that.
    Besides, one time with Walter, we were in a much worse predicament.
    Walter. I haven’t thought of him in weeks. I do miss him sometimes. We went through so much together. Maybe I did love him... but now is not the time.
    I look to the door. There is no way for them to see inside here. This could give us all the advantage we