Free Quarantine (The Shadow Wars Book 7.5) by S. A. Lusher Page B

for a long time. What was there to say? Another among them was dead. Allan thought he'd feel something more, a burst of emotion, something . But he just felt a hollow, sad loneliness. Finally, he stirred.
    “Come on, we need to go,” he said.
    Duncan looked like he wanted to say something, but apparently nothing came to mind. In the end, he followed Allan silently out of the maintenance tunnel.
     
    * * * * *
     
    Hunter wasn't at the final security center.
    There was no sign of her anywhere around, and she still wasn't on the radio.
    Allan sat before a workstation, bathed in a soft green and white glow, and watched the final lockdown protocol lift, granting him and Duncan access to the bridge. After a moment, Allan slowly stood. He felt like shit. His head was pounding, his throat dry, his muscles aching and now, on top of everything, he felt hot.
    He turned up his air condition units in his suit another notch and turned to leave. “Come on, let's get this over with.”

Chapter 07
    – Contamination –
     
     
    The bridge.
    They were finally at the bridge. Allan thought it was a little strange. He'd gotten used to getting to his goal only after a ridiculous amount of sidestepping and new problems and fuck-ups. Now, as far as he knew, he only had to open up a comm link, make the call and wait. Of course, he also had to determine whether or not he and Duncan were infected with an unknown virus, survive any and all remaining insane crewmen, find Hunter and last long enough to get picked up. That was, of course, providing that nothing else went wrong.
    Allan decided to stop thinking about all this.
    He and Duncan stood before the door that led to the bridge. They'd downed another four dementia-riddled crewmen on the way there. Duncan had hardly said two words to him since releasing the final portion of the lockdown. Allan wasn't feeling in that good a mood, either.
    “You ready for this?” he asked, staring at the terminal that would grant them access to the bridge once and for all.
    Duncan shifted beside him. “As close as.”
    “Good. Let's go.”
    He still only had his machete and Duncan had grabbed a long, red wrench that made a particularly disgusting sound when it broke a human skull. Allan reached out and hit the access button. The door parted and split open. The bridge was revealed to them: a sparking, smoky wasteland of blood and death. A handful of crewmen waited for him: what remained of the bridge crew that presumably had been locked in when the lockdown activated. There were five of them, one of them wearing a black uniform trimmed with red.
    The captain, Allan realized after a moment.
    “Let's get this over with,” he said, raising his machete.
    Duncan grunted a reply and raised his wrench.
    Both parties rushed at each other simultaneously. Allan started off the party by bringing his machete around in a broad arc, burying the blade halfway into the nearest man's neck. The blade's edge was already getting dull, he noticed. In a spray of blood, he ripped the blade out, kicked the man back and turned his attention to the next psycho warrior headed his way. It turned out to be the captain. He was older, tall, with muscles that looked grafted on. He filled out his torn, bloodied uniform. Allan groaned internally, this wasn't going to be easy.
    In an attempt to repeat his previous victory, Allan brought the blade around again, hoping to sever a jugular, but the captain brought up one meaty arm and stopped the blade cold. The machete reverberated in his hand as hit bone and bounced off. With a roar, the captain leaped onto him, causing him to drop the machete. Allan quickly found himself on his back, powerful hands around his neck, squeezing, cutting off his circulation. Panic ignited within him. He needed to end this. Distantly, he could hear Duncan shouting something furiously.
    No time for that now. Allan reached up and grabbed the captain's neck, squeezing as well, but it didn't seem to matter to the man. On