Demon Venom: Sometimes, humans are worse than demons (Beneath the Flesh Book 2)
Page 10
“What?”
“I need to hide, or something,” she told him.
“Yes, my office –” Richard stopped mid-sentence and looked at the containers she was holding “What's that?”
“They killed Dr Patel!” Jess told him. She didn't need to try and sound distraught; it was right there anyway.
“Really? Shit,” said Richard. And there is was: The fake surprise, coming just a moment too soon.
Of course: Mike knew about the parasite. Luke wouldn't have told him. Patel had just been killed for it. That left Richard.
He must've seen her expression, because on warmth on his face vanished. He grabbed her shoulders. “Too bad,” he whispered at her. “It was nice knowing you, Jess.” Then started shouting: “She's here! Jessica Monet! I have her!”
She pulled once, twice. He was too strong. She heard someone call back, and footsteps approaching at a run.
She stopped struggling and looked Richard in the eye. The she brought her head down as hard as she could on the bridge of his nose.
Something went crack, and he let go. She pushed away as hard as she could, and he stumbled back, blood streaming from his nose. With his hand stemming the bleeding he looked up at her, glaring, and shouted again: “She's getting away!”
Jess began to run. She came to the out edge of the compound. The truck was waiting just over twenty metres away. Behind her, another voice: “Stop!”
She didn't stop. She glanced behind her for a moment to see Mike appearing on the scene. She ran in a curve, and gunshots rang out and hit the floor.
Another shot came just as she ran behind the truck. She could hear them chasing her – they thought she was trapped.
From inside, Luke pushed open the door on her side. She climbed up inside, into the passenger seat, and locked it behind her. Luke turned the ignition on. Through the armoured windshield, she saw her pursuers, including Mike but not Richard, running in front of them.
For a second they didn't realise – then they stared up through the windshield, looking at Jess and Luke.
Mike raised his pistol.
Luke slammed the accelerator down, and the truck moved forward. Mike and the others barely managed to get out of the way.
“Wish you'd managed to run the fucker down,” muttered Jess. Gunfire rattled uselessly against the truck's armour.
Luke looked sharply at her. “Where's Patel?”
“They killed her.”
They drove at a medium pace along the outer wall. More people were coming out from between the buildings. Some of them had guns.
“I don't think they're gonna let us out the front gate,” said Luke. He swerved the truck towards someone raising a gun.
“No,” said Jess.
And now it was coming up – the place where the truck had come through originally. The new section of wall was a temporary, hastily-assembled thing. Luke swung the van about towards it, then reversed.
This was it, then.
Jess felt, just for a moment, how selfish it was to open the hole in the wall again. It might let the demons in, it might kill everyone.
But they'd handled it before, with an army of demons coming to attack And they'd forced her hand.
Luke hit the accelerator. The engine roared. The van hurtled forward, up towards the wall. We're gonna crash part of her mind screamed.
They were slammed forward as they hit the wall. The tyres scratched at the ground. Then came the crunch of squeal of metal giving way., and the barrier broke away in front of them. Luke manoeuvred around the chunks of it lying on the ground outside, then turned and accelerated.
They were outside.
They were free.
Jess wanted to look back the way they'd come, but she couldn't. So instead she just kept her eyes on the landscape ahead, as Luke drove round to Paradise Compound and onto the road that led through Bridgham.
For a while, as they approached it, they said nothing. No-one seemed to follow them. No demons appeared on the streets. The buildings in the distance rose up, cold and empty.
Onwards to Goat's Head. If they'd accepted Jess's letter, anyway. If they hadn't, that was it – she was out of ideas.
She looked over at Luke. The only member of their little conspiracy left. He'd dropped everything to come with her, to escape.
And if they got to Goat's Head, then what?
He still wanted to get the parasite out of her. She still wanted to save the world. Neither seemed very likely, but she still knew which one she'd rather fight a losing battle for. And even now, if she had to choose, she knew which one she'd go for.
Outside, they passed a herd a demons, like skeletal, hunchbacked humans with oversized arms and head that seemed full of mouths.
The presence in Jess's mind moved once, then settled.
Other books by Alex Kings
Beneath the Flesh Series
Beneath the Flesh
Demon Venom (This book)
Goat's Head (Coming soon!)
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