Free Web NovelChapter 33: Home Sweet Home... For Now
-CRASH-!
Safety glass of the lobby exploded across the marble floor in a single wall of white fragments as the Cybertruck punched through the front entrance at full speed, the push bar doing exactly the job I had paid 7,400 credits for it to do.
Tikki’s claws went straight through my jacket and into my shoulder.
Kara braced herself against the dashboard.
And my foot stayed down.
Three infected near the reception desk turned toward the headlights and came at us the way fresh infected always did, and I happily introduced them to the push bar and then the wheels.
I drove straight across the lobby toward the far wall, toward the two elevator doors, and stopped three feet from them with the tires shrieking and skidding to a stop against the marble floors.
While behind us, the horde poured through the gap where the entrance used to be.
And I was already out of the truck before the first Infected got in.
The DDM4 came up with the newly bought suppressor seated, and I was firing before my boots had fully found the floor.
-Tish-!-Tish-!-Tish-!-Tish-!-Tish-!...
Center mass. Always center mass, and the front of the wave went down, the green tip bullets piercing through at least two of them, while the ranks behind tripped over them but kept coming anyway.
Every Infected I dropped bought another fraction of a second before the next one reached me, and fractions were the entire budget I was working with.
Kara was already at the fingerprint scanner beside the penthouse elevator, the assistant manager’s index finger pressed against the pad with a steadiness that told me she had decided somewhere in the last few hours to stop hesitating about things she couldn’t afford to hesitate about.
By the time the scanner accepted it and the doors opened, I already had a hand on the Cybertruck, shoving it into the Inventory in under two seconds into the slot I had already prepared.
The whole sequence had taken less than five seconds, but the horde was 10 meters out and moving fast.
I kept firing and kept stepping backward, one foot behind the other, each shot center mass, bullets ripping through the front of the wave systematically, because at this density, kills were not the point anymore.
Every infected I put down became an obstacle for the ones behind it, and obstacles were currently the most valuable thing in the lobby right alongside time and distance.
Ten meters became five while Kara held the elevator door from inside.
Five became three while I kept stepping back into the elevator without taking my eyes off the horde as I fired twice more, and felt the doors close against my back.
And almost immediately, the screeching and the snarls permeating my senses cut off replaced by the jolly little tune the elevator was playing.
We both stood there for about three seconds, panting worse than dogs while I ran my free hand along Tikki’s head.
And the boger bit my palm, which translated roughly to he was fine and wanted me to know he had found the entire experience excessive.
My eyes then fell on Kara.
She was already looking at me.
And we both started laughing at exactly the same time.
"That went suspiciously smooth," she managed, somewhere between a laugh and a wheeze.
"You had better not jinx it,"
The elevator went up without incident, which I chose to read as the universe acknowledging that we had earned one straightforward ride.
The doors opened onto the hallway, revealing dark wood paneling on both walls, warm recessed lighting, and a corridor that was basically designed to remind anyone walking through it that they’re not as rich as they think they are.
Halfway down the walk through it, on the left side, sat the emergency exit.
Heavy gauge steel with industrial hinges, built to open only outward toward the stairwell beyond. The small reinforced window in it showed a face pressing against the glass from the other side, and a second later, the face started screaming, and both hands came up against the metal.
But the door held completely still.
I turned toward the window, stuck my tongue out, and kept walking toward the double mahogany doors while Kara gave me the look.
The main hall beyond was high-ceilinged and wide, the full bar built into the left wall with shelves lit from behind, glass panels running the far end, and opening to the pool terrace beyond.
Even from the doors, I could see the city spread out underneath the orange-hazed sky in every direction.
Kara walked in behind me and stopped, standing still for a long moment, taking all of it in one piece at a time. After all, this was the first time she was here.
Then her eyes dropped to the floor by the bar.
The assistant manager was still exactly where I had left him. Face up, one arm extended, neck at weird angles.
"Ignore him," I said, walking in. "He had a rough day."
I was already crossing toward the space beside the bar, pulling the misc. chest from the Inventory to make space in there and set it on the floor before opening the purchased I had readied during our little walk down the hallway.
-Ding-!
{
Item: MinXray HF100H+ Veterinary Imaging Package
Package Contents: HF100H+ High Frequency X-Ray Generator, XRT300 Veterinary Radiography Table, 14×17 Wireless DR Flat Panel Detector, Veterinary Imaging Workstation, Positioning Sandbags, and Foam Wedges
Specifications: AC Powered 100 kVp Maximum Output Digital Radiography Compatible
Weight: Approx. 110 lbs
Cost: 18,000 Credits
----
Item: Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 5
Processor: Intel Core i3-1315U
RAM: 8GB DDR4
Storage: 256GB NVMe SSD
Display: 14-inch FHD IPS
Weight: 1.4 kg
Cost: 1,050 Credits
----
Packaging Chest: 100 Credits
Total: 19,050 Credits
----
Confirm Purchase?}
[Yep...]
A large blue chest appeared in the Inventory’s free slot, and I set it on the floor beside the bar before putting the misc. chest back into inventory and stepped away from the equipment.
"Alright, Kara. You’re up." I crouched beside the bar table and let Tikki step from my shoulder onto the surface without jumping, keeping the landing easy on the leg. "... I’m going to fix up my own shit... You handle Tikki."
Tikki settled onto the table, fixed Kara with a long, yellow-green stare, and accepted the situation with the bearing of a freedom fighter cooperating under a peaceful protest.
I left them to it and found the master bedroom.
It was down a short corridor off the main hall, and the room was exactly as I remembered.
King-size bed with a headboard reaching the ceiling, floor-to-ceiling windows looking out over the city below.
And then, a memory surfaced to rub salt on wounds that no longer existed.
Bella’s birthday party I threw here...
I had rented this penthouse for the night and organized the entire thing myself, didn’t even invite Kara in case Bella got the wrong idea, and then spent most of the party standing on the terrace outside with a single beer because nobody inside was interested in talking to me.
I very distinctly remembered Bella and Alex going into this bedroom around eleven o’clock.
[Yep. I was an idiot back then... No arguments there at all...]
I shook my head and walked into the bathroom.
Marble countertop, large mirror, a rain shower the size of a reasonable office cubicle. More money per square foot than I had seen in my life.
[This’d be a pretty fun temp. base...] I chuckled and started pulling gear off.
The blood-soaked jacket first, then the plate carrier, and the shirt beneath it, and then finally came the blood-soaked bandaging around my torso.
The bandage came off dark, and the sink ran red for longer than I preferred once I turned the water on.
And for the first time, I got a visual on the wound on the chest.
A large patch of deep purple ran from the center of my sternum outward across the left side of my ribcage, with swelling at the edges that the painkillers had been suppressing for hours.
That 7.62x51 round hit my Level IV plate at under ten meters. So I wasn’t expecting pink skin there anyway. freewёbnoνel.com
Breathing was possible. Not entirely comfortable, but fully possible. But I knew from experience the pain’s gonna be biblical by morning.
The waist wound took longer to deal with.
I cleaned it under running water, which took time and hurt like hell the entire way, as though centipedes were biting inside the wound.
The graze was still close to an inch deep along the oblique, the edges of it unhappy from a full night of being asked to tolerate sprinting all over on top of the initial injury.
Pulling out the misc. chest, I reached in for the first aid kit and went to work.
Combat gauze, packed in sections, hemostatic dressing pressed into contact with the tissue, pressure held, sterile dressing, bandage wrap tight and secured, and done.
And yes, I cried from the pain.
Buying a plain black shirt from the System and a replacement Level IV plate, I put both on and got the bloody jacket over that.
After taking two painkillers from the first aid kit, I put everything else back into the misc. chest, and sent it back into inventory.
And finally, I stood over the sink with both hands on the counter and took a proper look at myself.
There was blood on my face, which I had missed cleaning, my blue eyes were looking at me, reddened, and begging to close, even if for a moment.
But Nora and Leo were still at the university. And I won’t stop until they’re right beside me.
"I’m sleeping straight for a week after this..."
