Colony by Benjamin Cross (ready player one ebook .TXT) 📗

a second flicker caught Voronkov’s eye. With a sinking sense, he saw that several more had now emerged on the side of the slope. All looked the same. All moved the same. All were heading in the same direction.

He knocked the safety off his rifle and brought his finger to the trigger.

“What the hell’s going on?” Zyryonov demanded.

Voronkov turned to him. “They’re coming.”

“Coming? What’s coming? The dragons?”

“No, the strippers I ordered.”

“For fuck’s sake, talk to me, Corporal!”

Voronkov resolved not to talk to him anymore. He was in no mood to hold another man’s hand. If Zyryonov pulled himself together and did what he was told, he’d be okay. Otherwise… He brought his eye back to the rifle sight and blocked out the private’s continued protests.

The first of the blurs was now within thirty metres of Gergiev. It had slowed down and was approaching him cautiously, stalking him from the north. Voronkov took a deep breath. Any second and it would pass by one of the perimeter barrels. He brought the crosshair over it and exhaled.

Light her up, Koikov had said.

“With pleasure,” Voronkov whispered.

Then he squeezed the trigger.

* * *

Gergiev’s immense biceps pumped as he extended the arm of the mechanical excavator and placed the last of the barrels onto the ground. He had been so caught up in his task of reinforcing the outer perimeter that he had completely ignored the closing mist. The world outside the cabin was now a murky swirl, but he had simply stuck his LVV on and continued.

Now that he had full control of the machine, he felt safe. Mist or not, any of those things tried to mess with him and they were going to regret it. All the same, he tried not to think about them; his memory of their last encounter was still fresh in his mind, his helplessness as they’d dragged Orlov screaming from beside him and torn him limb from limb.

He dug the teeth of the bucket under the last barrel and raised it upright. It was incredible how tender you could be with such a powerful machine—

At that moment there was an explosion. Gergiev ducked as a ball of flame erupted up into the air a short distance away. The effect was like a flame tornado, the intense blast seeming to incinerate a funnel of mist at least twenty metres across. Everywhere, grey became orange as ribbons of flame sprayed out and burnt on across the barren rock.

There was little doubt what had happened. Some asshole had sniped one of the perimeter barrels. But why the fuck didn’t they wait for him to get clear?

As if in answer, something came racing out of the blast epicentre. He watched open-mouthed as one of the dragons raced past the front of his machine. Its entire body was on fire. Its feathers had been incinerated, revealing its full musculature, charred black and streaked with flame. It sprinted around wildly, screeching in torment before disappearing into the mist.

“Gergiev, come in.”

Gergiev’s muscles had tensed with shock, clamping his arms painfully against his chest and crushing his hands around the machine controls. He rolled his shoulders, loosened his grip and cracked his knuckles, watching in a daze as the blood flowed back into his fingers.

“Gergiev!”

“Here, Starshyna.”

“Are you hurt?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Then get back to the bunker now, you hear me? They’re coming.”

They’re coming.

Gergiev panned around. He couldn’t see any other creatures, but there was something. To his amazement, fifty metres east of his location, were two definite outlines. Human outlines. But who did they belong to? Everybody else was supposed to be back at the compound.

The two people stood up out of their crouched positions and looked around. They couldn’t be Department V, but Harmsworth was uninhabited, and as far as Gergiev was aware no civilians had made it off the Albanov.

Was he making it up? He scrunched his eyes closed and then reopened them.

The two outlines remained.

* * *

Darya clung to Callum’s arm. “What was that?”

The shock of the sudden explosion had stopped them in their tracks. “Just keep moving!” he shouted. He had no idea what had caused the explosion, or where exactly they were moving to. All he knew was that they had descended onto the coastal plain and had been making good time towards the compound when the mist had smothered them. Lungkaju and Ava were lost. The world had turned grey again and now all hell was breaking loose.

Another explosion went off nearby. He flung his arms around Darya once again, protecting her as best he could. The rattle of automatic gunfire rang out in the distance. “They must be attacking the compound.”

“Do we still head there?”

“It’ll still be safer than being out here.”

As if to confirm his suspicion, a screech tore through the air behind them, and they spun around.

“Can you see it?”

Rifle shouldered, Callum squinted into the mist. It broke over them in waves. Visibility was only a metre or two at most. “I can’t see anything. Nothing at all.”

“I cannot see it either,” she whispered.

At that moment, a shadow bolted past, and Callum fired off a round.

“Did you hit?”

His legs wanted to buckle beneath him. “I don’t know.”

Another screech sounded off to the right. He turned and fired again.

“They are all around,” Darya screamed.

“Just stay behind me,” he ordered, fumbling to reload the rifle. But before he’d had time, the scene around them seemed to still. A strange clicking noise echoed out, and one of the creatures emerged from the mist.

The creature was only metres away. Callum’s breath froze in his chest. Behind him, Darya was silent, completely still. The creature was also still. Only its head moved slightly as it looked from his face down to the rifle in his quivering hands. It knows, he thought. It knows the rifle is no good like this. It knows that we’re defenceless.

Their eyes locked. Jets of breath tore from the creature’s nostrils. Its eyes bored into his. Then, to Callum’s surprise, it removed its gaze and bowed its