Black Stars - The Mors Mortis Trilogy Book 1

Chapter 36 - The Beehive Casement

Seth leant down, the smell making his eyes water. "Leah what, Danny?"

"Help her," Danny ground out, "Sydney Harbour. Cliffs."

Seth's heart thudded. "Leah's alive?"

"Yes. Go."

Seth was already nodding, his hand shaking with adrenaline. "Is that all?"

Danny nodded and closed his eyes.

Seth aimed the gun at his brother's head, his hand locking in place. There was so much he'd wanted to say to Danny, so many times he'd sworn he'd give up everything to have another hour with him.

"Goodbye," he whispered.

And then he pulled the trigger.

...

The moment Leah's consciousness slammed back into her body, she felt it. Something inside her clicked, righting itself in a way that was as indefinable as it was undeniable. She kept her eyes closed, her chest rising and falling quickly as she accepted what had seemed almost impossible.

She'd made it back. She was in the live world.

She lay very still, allowing herself to become accustomed to this new way of being. She could already feel the difference, the air was thinner and cleaner here, and the needle sticking into her arm sent sharper, more insistent warnings through her system than she'd ever felt before. Her blood was like fire trapped by veins.

Very slowly, she kinked an eye open, taking in her surroundings. It was the room from her dreams; sparse, dark and centred around the table she lay on and the IV drip beside her. And thankfully, she was alone.

With a sigh of relief, Leah looked down at her body. All four of her limbs were tied down, but dust coated the fabric, and the strip holding her right arm was fraying.

Mustering her strength, Leah wrenched her right arm upwards and heard a faint rip. It took her three more tries to get her right arm free, and a couple seconds more to untie her other limbs and remove the IV drip.

She dropped to the ground and grabbed at her waist for her gun, but found nothing. She looked down and realised with dismay that she was in different clothes to what she'd left the world of the dead in. Her gun was gone, even her hair-tie was missing. The only thing that seemed to have survived the transition was the sailors damned necklace.

She cursed under her breath and quickly removed the needle from the IV, eyeing the liquid that filled the drip-bag with distaste. It was dark-red in colour, clotted and congealed in a way that made bile rise in her throat.

She shivered and turned away, clasping the needle firmly in her hand as a make-shift weapon and moved to the door.

She took a deep breath, jerked the door open and came face to face with a surprised guard. He didn't have time to react before she lunged, stabbing the needle into his neck and slamming her hand over his mouth to muffle his cries. He slumped to the ground quickly and Leah grabbed the shotgun at his waist, eyeing her surroundings.

She stood in the middle a long, dimly-lit sandstone corridor that smelt of mould and sea spray. She hesitated a moment, unsure which way to go, but then a scream of alarms and running feet erupted off to her right.

That decided it.

She spun and sprinted off to the left, ducking as a barrage of bullets shot down the corridor.

She careened around a corner, only to find another long passageway stretching into the distance. There wasn't enough cover here to get away unharmed. So, she pressed back against the wall and melted into the shadows, listening.

There were at least three pairs of feet thudding towards her, quickly growing closer, and she aimed the shotgun at the corner, waiting.

The moment the guards rounded the corner she fired. There was a deafening bang and Leah's hand kicked back. The guard furthest from her yelled and dropped instantly.

The man nearest spun to attack, but Leah was faster. She kicked out, knocking the gun from his hand, before grabbing his head and smashing her knee into his face. She just managed to pull his body up in front of hers before the third guard fired.

She felt her shield convulse as the bullet hit him and then she reached around and shot the remaining guard in the head.

She waited until he fell and then dropped her human-shield to the floor.

Blood had splattered her face and she wiped it off while listening to the corridors. No one else was approaching. Yet.

Leah looked down at the three men and allowed herself a second of guilt before moving.

She doubted the guards had been further inside the tunnels than where she was being kept, so she grabbed a second gun and crept back in the direction they'd come from, shooting out the security camera above her room as she went.

The alarms were still echoing through the halls and Leah felt exposed without the ability to hear easily.

She slowed as the corridor narrowed and ended in a set of uneven stairs carved into the stone. Experimentally, she lowered one foot onto the first step. When no bullets came whizzing towards her, she made her way down quickly.

There was a chamber at the bottom and another passage leading off to the left. The walls were curved with small sniper windows, and Leah rushed to them, looking out. The fortification was on a cliff that jutted out into the ocean. There was a smoothed platform a story below her, but the windows were too small to even attempt to drop from here.

With a huff, she turned back and moved into the passage, following it until she found another set of uneven and slippery stairs. She made her way down slowly, her paranoia rising when she found this chamber was empty as well.

The lack of resistance was unsettling, and Leah was just beginning to doubt that she was heading in the right direction when the alarms suddenly switched off and the fort flooded with silence.

She crouched down, listening intently.

There was a rumble. A deep roar crescendoing and echoing around the walls, and then yells erupted off to her left. Leah spun around, expecting a mass of approaching guards. But instead, she faced a long, empty passage, that ended in an opening — an exit onto the platform she'd spotted earlier.

People were running around, yelling in panic. There was a brief moment when no one obscured her view, and she realised the cause of it.

There were hordes of jet skis approaching the platform, the riders clad in black ballistic vests and armed with guns.

The S.I.S.

Leah let out a whoop of relief and started running, sprinting down the corridor towards the platform.

She'd almost reached the entrance, completely lost in her relief, when a body barreled into her, knocking her to the ground.

Leah cried out as her gun was knocked from her hand and sent skidding across the concrete.

She twisted around, grabbing for it, but she was wrenched back and held down, forced to look up at her attacker. The moment she saw who it was, she froze.

Jared's lip was curled in a savage grin, his eyes hard and vengeful. As Leah stared at him in horror, he brought a knife up to her neck, pressing down.

"J-Jared?" she gasped, certain she was imagining things.

His eyes glinted. "Surprise."