Free AZU-1: Lifehack by Joseph Picard Page B

half a block away she saw a building that
looked like it would have a clear shot at the General’s position.
She entered it carefully, mindful of her blind corners and any
little sounds that might be waiting threats.
    This small, three story office building
had no lights, its power cut off. Only the setting sun’s dusky
light lit the way through the various windows. It was a gloomier,
tighter space than she’d been forced into before.
    Along the stairs, there were minor
signs of blood. Of course these days, ‘minor’ meant less than a
body’s worth. Debris littered the stairs as well. Paper scattered,
trampled and stained. An office chair with a bent leg. There had
been struggles here. Desperation still hung in the stale air. Regan
almost wanted to scream, just to shatter the oppressive
silence.
    Regan made it to the roof, once again
in an open space with no hiding spots for ambushes. But it provided
no relief from the stairwell experiences.
    The roof itself looked like it had been
a final stand for some poor souls. The stench of drying blood was
enough to choke on. Handprints along the ledge in one corner told
the story of someone pinned down, grabbing desperately for any
help. Regan’s imagination put herself there, under a few zombies.
Smearing her own blood, trying to scream while her throat was
ripped out.
    Yeah. Nothing like an active
imagination to eradicate your confidence.
    She closed her eyes for as long as she
dared, and tried to relax with a deep breath. The stench of the
blood wasn’t so horrible after you got used to it. So why was she
shaking?
    She gripped her new toy.
    FOCUS.
    She tuned out the rest of the world and
efficiently set up her sniping position. Her brother was alive and
there wasn’t time to let other theories get in the way.
    She hooked her visor up to the mass
accelerator gun and zoomed in on the Autar Labs grounds. Yup, the
General was there, pretty much as she left him; surrounded by an
organized barrier of guards.
    There was another activity going on
though. There was a small group of zombies walking away from the
building, one of them carrying a computer case. What the heck? Were
the zombies looting?
    The small group was let past the guard
lineup and Regan just watched as they disappeared down a nearby
street. Regan tried to figure out the relevance of this, but there
were no further answers being supplied here.
    Another similar group was coming out of
the building. Whatever.
    Regan took aim at the General and
checked the slugs in the accelerator. Using the ledge to steady her
aim, she lined up her shot to where she had tried to penetrate with
the P90 before.
    The world faded away until there was
only Regan’s breathing, her finger, the trigger, and the
target.
    She pulled back on the trigger until
that sound erupted from the accelerator again. This time she was
ready for the recoil with her foot planted hard against the floor
behind her. It still pushed her back from the ledge a
bit.
    She looked back to the General. The
front glass of the building had shattered behind him and the
General had a sizeable hole in his abdomen which was gushing blood
and slowly sealing.
    He was looking at her and so were about
thirty of his guards, who were approaching Regan’s perch. She
remembered the blood smears in the corner. No no no, No thank
you.
    She took aim again, this time in a
different area on his torso.
    That sharp yet dull sound rang out
again and again. More glass shattered and tile flooring inside was
fragmented as slugs that wreaked their havoc on the General just
kept going. He already looked pretty mangled but it was the one
shot that could not pass though him that ended him.
    Regan’s final wild shot hit him just
below the neck, making a dull metallic sound as it hit. The zombies
approaching her stopped suddenly, as if stunned by the
sound.
    The General seemed to melt as if he had
lost the will to hold his body together. The gruesome bits of him
slid apart onto the ground, and he