Free Ragnarok Rising: The Crossing (The Ragnarok Rising Saga) by D.A. Roberts Page A

spine.
    Resealing the plastic, I slipped out into the hallway. My heart was racing in my chest and I felt like a trapped animal. Then I heard a sound that nearly made my thundering heart stop beating altogether. I could hear the scrabbling sounds as one or more of them climbed the wall and onto the roof. My mind flashed images behind my eyes. Something that had been bothering me since we saw the bullet holes in the walls of the bathrooms came sharply into focus.
    Some of the bullet holes were above head level. Some were all the way up near the top of the wall. That meant that whoever had been doing the shooting hadn’t been executing survivors. They had been shooting at Stalkers that climbed the walls to get away from them. That made them more than just a zombie. They had to be some kind of revenant. There was some kind of sinister intelligence at work behind those dead eyes. Suddenly, I felt more terrified than I had felt since this all began.
    Creeping into Southard’s room, I knelt beside his bed. He was deeply asleep with his sleeping bag zipped up over his face. I didn’t see his M-4 anywhere, so I knew it had to be inside the bag with him. I had to be careful how I woke him to avoid getting shot for my trouble.
    “Chuck,” I whispered. “Wake up.”
    “Mmm….,” he mumbled from inside the sleeping bag.
    “Chuck,” I whispered, more urgently, “we’ve got trouble.”
    I saw him tense up and then slowly unzip the bag. I could see his face emerge and his eyes were wide open. I’d just said the magic words. Chuck’s mental alarm bells were sounding and he came awake instantly, listening for danger.
    “What’s going on?” he mouthed.
    I held my finger up, motioning for him to be quiet. He nodded his understanding and I leaned close to his ear to avoid even whispering too loudly.
    “There are at least half a dozen Stalkers outside,” I said, softly. “Maybe more.”
    “So,” he replied. “They can’t get inside. Can they?”
    “They’re smarter than we thought,” I said through clenched teeth. “We may not be as safe as we think.”
    He just leaned back and looked at me questioningly.
    “They were creeping around the building, careful to not make noise,” I said. “They were also trying the doorknob.”
    “So,” said Southard. “That might just be a memory fragment. It doesn’t make them smart.”
    “They did the same thing to the Humvees,” I said. “Now they’re on the roof.”
    “What!?” he snapped, raising his voice slightly. “That’s impossible.”
    “Just listen,” I replied.
    We sat in silence for a few moments before he heard the soft footfalls on the roof. They were moving slowly and methodically. It seemed to me like they were looking for a way inside. Chuck must have had the same thought I did, because he unzipped his sleeping bag and brought out his rifle. Swinging his legs off of the bed, he reached down and grabbed his boots from beneath the bunk.
    Seconds later, he was zipping the sides and getting up. Together, we slipped back out into the hallway and down to the door. The doorknob was moving again, only this time I wasn’t the only one who saw it. Then I took him into the office and shut the door. We peaked out from opposite corners of the window and watched as more and more of them arrived. We could see them moving in the moonlight, searching for any sign of prey. They seemed to be drawn to this area. It was like they knew we were there, but just couldn’t find us.
    “How many of them do you think there are?” whispered Southard.
    “Too damned many,” I replied, wide-eyed.
    “If they’re out there when we try to leave,” he said, “we’re in for a hell of a fight.”
    “I think they’re sensitive to light,” I said. “We’ve ne ver seen one out in the day, and the ones we saw that killed Jensen never came out into the light.”
    “I hope you’re right,” he said, patting me on the shoulder. “Otherwise this trip is gonna get real