Read Mortal Kombat: Annihilation for Free Online

stack of papers in a desk drawer, scooping them out by the handful. Zip, zilch, nada. Then something caught her eye. Over to her left. A file cabinet with alphabetized tabs on the drawers. She sprang over to it, pulled open the drawer for the letters A-G, flipped through the manila folders it contained... and found one labeled “Briggs, Jackson.” Inside was an admission form with the room number he’d been assigned.
    Room 34, Sublevel 1.
    “Bingo,” she murmured, and went flying down the corridor.
    There were two engraved metal plates on the door to Room 34. One said BIOTECH LAB . The other had a circle with a diagonal line going through it over the words AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY . Sonya pushed on through.
    Jax, a tall, muscular African-American with skin the color of strong Ethiopian coffee, lay unconscious on a chrome operating table under muted fluorescent tubes. He was bare-chested above the waistband of his green uniform pants, revealing lightweight cybernetic sheaths around his arms from wrist to shoulder. Banks of sophisticated computer consoles lined the walls, their flat-screen displays flashing through preprogrammed numeric sequences.
    Sonya moved quickly into the room and began working at his constraints.
    He stirred, and opened a bleary eye.
    “Sonya,” he said groggily, moistening his lips. “Would... would you believe I was just dreamin’ about you?”
    “I’m not sure I want to hear about it,” she said, and nodded toward his metal-encased arms. “What the hell have you done to yourself this time?”
    “Cybernetic strength enhancers,” Jax said, his eyes slowly clearing. “Takes what you got and quadruples the muscle capacity.”
    Sonya frowned. “You’ve got a real confidence problem, you know that?”
    He let that ride. “What’s going on? What are you doing here?”
    “The whole facility’s been trashed by an Extermination Squad. They’ll be here any second.”
    “Extermination Squad?”
    “All you need to know is they’re trying to kill me. And you.”
    “Me? What the hell’ve I done? And where have you been, anyway?”
    This time it was Sonya’s turn to ignore his comment. His questions could wait, the important thing now was to get on the move. Yet no matter how hard she strained against his metal bonds, they weren’t budging.
    “Dammit! I can’t get you free, Jax!”
    “Okay, stand back,” he said. “Let’s see what I’m made of...”
    She stepped away from the table and watched the strength-amplifying sleeves ripple and flex almost like natural skin, their microthin circuitry interactive with Jax’s own muscles and creating tremendous ergonomic gain.
    A moment later, the restraints burst apart before her unbelieving eyes.
    Jax sat up and grinned, striking a hammy Charles Atlas pose. “Wish I had these in high school.”
    Sonya didn’t smile back. Instead, her mind flashed on what had happened to the sergeant down the hall.
    “Let’s go,” she said.
    Jax slid off the examining table and they ran for the door, but halted suddenly when they heard the sound of an explosion out in the corridor. Sonya motioned for Jax to hang back and peered around the entry wall.
    She instantly cursed herself for leaving Jax’s file on the nurse’s station.
    That same manila folder in hand, the cyborg was striding toward her along the hallway, trailed by a substantial contingent of Exterminators. As it advanced, dozens of round, golfball-sized seeker bomblets dropped from its abdominal launch cavity, rolled across the smooth linoleum floor to the doors on either side, and detonated on contact, their plastique charges blowing in the doors with powerful, concentrated explosions. With each penetration, several of the Outworld warriors went rushing through the doorway in tight search formation.
    Sonya ducked her head back inside the lab.
    “Look for another way out!” she said, her eyes ranging around the room. “That thing–”
    “Death is the only exit,” a synthetic voice