Read The Dying of the Light: Interval for Free Online

activating the speaker beside the door before I even realized I’d moved across the room. “Go for Blake.”
    The tech from the operations center was calm and collected. “Sir, we have an incoming ground force, estimated at forty to fifty hostiles, mounted, mostly in trucks. ETA at the barrier is five minutes, mark.”
    As the commander of Bunker One’s military forces, Kim’s input was naturally more important than mine, so I let her take the lead. “Barnes here,” she said. “Sound General Quarters. Activate Alpha Team and move Bravo to standby. I’m on my way up.”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    As the connection closed, Kim turned to find me holding her Bluetooth earpiece out to her, along with her sidearm and uniform jacket. She smiled and quirked an eyebrow at my quick-change skills. “Does that uniform come off as fast as it goes on, soldier?”
    I grinned. “Yes, ma’am, it does.”
    “Well, we’ll just have to test that theory later then, won’t we?”
    “Hell yes.”
    She laughed as we left our quarters, the door automatically locking behind us. People were moving all around us as we made our way to the main elevator bank, but it was a disciplined madness, an ordered chaos, if such a thing existed. Everyone knew where they were supposed to be and what they were supposed to be doing. For most, it was remaining in their quarters. For some, like us, it was taking the express elevator all the way to the top, to Operations, from where we could see exactly what was going on and direct our response to the attack.
    “David, I want you at the gate observation post,” Kim said.
    Surprised, I nodded. “Yes, ma’am.” I squeezed her hand and headed off to a different elevator, one that would take me to the main gate.
    Set about forty feet above the gate itself and buried behind layers of protective barriers, the observation post would give me a clear view of the entire approach to the bunker. It was the same spot I’d been in when Tom Reynolds had brought in the remnants of 8th Team.
    Kim was still giving orders as she entered the express elevator. “Gaines, get up top. I need your eyes. Johnny, you and Tom take the entrance. Everyone else, you know what to do. Let’s go, people.”
    I hit the button on my elevator and the doors started to close, and I wondered if someone new had found us, or if it was Tom’s old pal from a year ago, back up to his old tricks. Maybe this time we’ll get a shot at him and we can end this once and for all .
    As it turned out, none of us were that lucky.

     
    Bunker One’s Operations was a large room, lined with banks of computers and monitors from the hundreds of cameras placed around the exterior and interior of the base. Without knowing exactly what you were looking for, you could easily get lost trying to analyze so much input. So Kim didn’t even try.
    “What have we got?” Kim asked.
    “Looks like the same as before, ma’am,” said Captain Marcus Potter, in charge of the Operations Room for this shift. His gruff voice went well with his stout physique, and his dark skin contrasted with the grey at his temples. He pointed to one of the monitors, which showed the ragtag group of vehicles moving slowly up the bunker’s approach path. Potter turned to one of his technicians. “Get me a better look at that last truck.”
    The view of the last truck in the line abruptly clarified, thanks to the high-definition clarity of the camera lenses, and it was clear that it was the same guy that had attacked the bunker before. Kim sighed.
    “Wait just a second, Colonel,” said Gunnery Sergeant (ret) Milford Rains. He was just in Ops as an observer, since his Bunker Security forces were only used for internal matters. He was a valued asset and one hell of a soldier. “Can you push in a bit closer, Captain?”
    “Sure, Gunny,” said Captain Potter, enhancing the visual.
    “I’ll be dipped in shit,” said the old Marine, turning to Kim. “That’s the bastard that tried to