Chapter 10

  Broken gss ched underfoot as he picked his way through the devastated main hall of what had once been an office building. The buttstoug against his shoulder, Jake slowly moved across the room, leading with his shotgun and sing the space with his eyes.

  Everywhere he looked, he saw piles of debris. Off to his right, he spotted aor. The door was missing, and through the opening could be seen the empty shaft. On the side of the hall opposite the entrance were the stairs leading up—at least, what was left of them. Most of the steps had long since disied into crumbs, making the stairs unusable. As far as Jake could tell, there wasn’t any way to get to the upper floors. However, there were several doorways brang off to other ses of the first floor.

  Except for the gss shards g under his boots, the hall remained eerily quiet. He carefully surveyed his surroundings, searg for enemies, but couldn’t find any. The mutants he’d e here to kill must be lurking somewhere iher rooms on the first floor. Jake headed for one of the doorways, and when he was halfway across the hall, he thought he caught a faint unfamiliar sound. He immediately froze, gripping his on tighter and looking around. The sound came again somewhere from his right. He ghat way and saw there was a rge hole in the ceiling. Pieces of crete and rebar y uhe ragged hole. Wet, smag sounds kept ing from behind the pile of debris.

  Heart thumping i, he began to circle the mound of rubble, pointing his shotgun at what might be hiding behind it. He moved in a slow and careful way so as not to warn whatever was making those wet, uling sounds about his approach. Finally, the creature came into view. It was another ex-human walker. Fag away from him, the mutant was sitting on the ground, holding something in its cwed hands and mung on it. As Jake took aep to the walker, he gagged when he realized what it was eating. Before the walker in a pool of blood y the body of another survivor, and the mutant was gnawing on a lower arm torn from the body.

  Jake fought back the urge to retch as he leveled his on on the vile creature. His index finger curled around the trigger and squeezed it. The bst of the shotgun struck the mutant in the back, hurling the creature forward. Since Jake stood only a few yards from the mutant, all the pellets hit their target, killing the walker instantly.

  Rag another shell into the chamber, Jake spun around, sing the hall for more ehe ceiling had caved in in several pces, creating mounds of rubble underh the holes. More mutants could be hidden from view behind the debris. Jake’s gaze darted between the piles of rubble, not sure where the mutant could pop up from . As it turned out, the danger came from an altogether different dire. He heard a screeg scream behind him and spun around in time to see another walker appear from one of the doorways. A sed ter, another scream came from a corridor off to his left. Then he heard yet another creature yell, and then another, and another. More and more mutants were verging on the hall from other ses of the first floor.

  Jake turo face the mutant that was the closest to him, trag its movements with the muzzle of his on. He lined his iron sights on the creature as it moved toward him on all fours like a rabid dog. Pausing briefly, it bent its limbs at the knees before propelling itself forward with the explosive force of a coiled spring. Jake pointed his on at the mutant sailing through the air toward him and pulled the trigger. The bst of the shotgun caught the mutant in midair, hurling it backward with great force.

  Two mutants down, thirteen more to go. At least, Jake hoped there wouldn’t be any additional creatures in the building. The evil creatures closed in on him from various dires, ing out of different doorways and corridors. The only way that was free of them y behind him, so Jake began to back up, moving toward the entrahe mutants came after him, some of them moving like humans while others scurried on all fours like dogs. The tter moved faster than walkers, and their anatomy seemed to be altered as well, which led Jake to believe they were a different breed of ex-human mutants. Their backs were hunched, and both their hind legs and fs looked almost the same, ending in long curved cws. Those creatures seemed to be uo walk on two legs like humans.

  However, at the moment, he didn’t have time to take out his PDA and s these new mutants for further information about them.

  Jake shot another fged mutant that was about to jump at him. While he tried to keep his cool, Jake was getting nervous, which spoiled his aim. Some of the pellets hit the mutant, but the rest missed their target pletely. He pumped his shotgun and fihe wounded creature with a sed shot. He had only two shells in his on now. He fired at another fged monster, killing this oh a single shot. These creatures on all fours moved faster and were mile than regur walkers. Luckily, there seemed to be only two of them left, and they both currently gged behind the walkers. The tter moved pretty fast but didly run, moving in a clumsy, stumbling way as if there was something wrong with their legs.

  Jake used this opportunity to top off his shotgun, taking shells out of his jacket pockets and shoving them into the loading port. By the time he fihe st two fged mutants had gotten in front of the walkers. Before he could aim at them, the two of them simultaneously leaped forward. Jake hastily squeezed a shot, slightly injuring one of them. The wounded creature brushed against his side, causing him to lose his band fall to the floor. The two creatures nded behind him at the entrao the building, effectively cutting off his escape route. Jake didn’t know if this was their pn all along or not, but he sure as hell hoped they weren’t that smart. If they could strategize how best to take down their prey, they would prove to be way more dangerous oppos than he’d initially thought.

  It wasn’t the right time to pohe matter, though. Two of the walkers had already reached him. He blew a huge hole in the chest of one of them, but when he shifted his aim to the seutant, it shed out at his hands holding the on. Jake yelped in paihe sharp cws raked his flesh. The mutants ripped the shotgun from his grip. Weakened by the injury he sustained, Jake was uo prevent his on from being wrestled away from him.

  Seeing that he no longer had the powerful shotgun in his bleeding hands, the rest of the mutants appeared to sehe advahey quied their pace, closing in on Jake from all dires.