Read Apex Cypher (Prequel to The Techxorcist series) for Free Online Page B

wet thud. He stumbled back, pain etched on his face in a fashion that pulled his lips back, exposing his rotting teeth and black gums. It reminded Gabe of Shelley. It was the dental hygiene of a cannibal.
    No one else moved. They just stared in shock, but Petal was one step ahead. She yanked back her left arm, removing the spike from Tatsu’s sternum, and thrust into his stomach with her right, sending her other spike up through his guts.
    As he danced and jerked on those spikes like a dying meat puppet, Petal spun, knocked the guns from the hands of the two girls, Yuri, and Yoki, in a wide, flashing arc. Gabe took advantage, quick-stepped into the girls, and punched them with a left-right jab. They didn’t even see his strikes.
    They hit the deck hard, their heads clanging against the wooden boards of the floor.
    The young girl with the bag looked up at them. With one hand she grabbed her bag of electronic items, and with the other she reached down and picked up one of the pistols. Without thinking, she put two rounds into the elder woman’s chest, sending her flying back.
    It was then that Miyoko screamed, and leaned over the still body of her partner.
    “You fucking whore!” The enraged woman thrashed out her hands; her fingers bent like claws. She raked them towards Petal’s face, but she was too slow. She only caught Petal with a slight scratch before Petal twisted on her heel, caught Miyoko’s flailing arm, and judo-threw the woman over her hip. She landed in a crumpled mess.
    The young girl, now moving towards Petal and Gabe, aimed and shot Miyoko in the neck before following up with a second shot to the heart.
    The on-looking crowd were stunned. They haunted the place like statues. They no longer howled at the thought of ravaging Petal’s body, or eating Gabe’s meaty flesh. Dressed in rags, sacks, and what looked like old furs, they eventually gathered their thoughts.
    And that thought was: kill.
    “I’m Holly, by the way,” the young girl said. “Follow me.”
    She grabbed Petal’s hand, and led them back away from the front entrance of the train station. Gabe picked up the shotgun and the remaining pistol, placing it in a holster inside his long jacket. The shotgun, Gabe noticed, was a late issue assault model: eighteen rounds to a magazine, and semi-automatic firing. A second magazine was taped to the stock. It felt hefty in his hands, a real confidence-giver.
    The ranks of the unwashed and the deranged lurched like zombies after them as Holly led them through a door way and into a small, disused office. “Up here.” She pointed to the low ceiling. A tile was slightly set back from the other. “Give me a boost. Quick.”
    Petal clasped her hands, knelt down, and boosted the young girl upwards. Holly pushed the tile away to reveal a dark entrance. At first Gabe thought she had left them there. Her footsteps up in the roof space clattered away from them.
    The sound of the angry mob was getting closer. Soon they would rush them, lost to their lust for sex and meat, and he and Petal wouldn’t be able to hold them all back. Gabe stepped towards the doorway, lifted the shotgun, and fired eight shots in controlled two-shot bursts.
    Three of them collapsed to the floor in a mist of blood. The others just stepped over them, not even caring. The look in their eyes told Gabe they would not reason. They were beyond any normal recognition.
    He fired a further two shots, taking down the two in the front. This bought him a bit more time as the pack tangled and collapsed in a heap. He guessed there to be about twenty or so left. They were only ten metres away now. He wouldn’t have time to take them all down.
    “We’ve gotta go,” Petal said.
    “Ya think? I’ll give ya a boost, and then hold these off,” Gabe said.
    “Like hell, you will. I ain’t leaving you behind.”
    Petal moved away from the hole in the ceiling to stand next to Gabe. She crouched, her forearm spikes held out and across each