Breath burned in Brendan\u2019s lungs and his vision blurred.\u00a0 It was a long way from base down to the shore\u2014a few kilometers, a long way for someone to be running full-tilt, especially someone who had barely recovered from major trauma and a following series of surgeries.<\/p>\n
The sirens were still going, but they wailed at a city that was all but empty of bystanders; its population had sought safety only a few minutes after the first blast of sound.\u00a0 In a city with as many psychics as Nova Spexi, it was somehow easy to know the difference between a drill and a situation where the danger was very, very real.<\/p>\n
Fighters screamed overhead, arcing upward through the atmosphere, toward the approaching ships that Brendan knew were heading for orbit.\u00a0 He hoped that they\u2019d avoid some kind of orbital bombardment, but the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach that might have been his and might have been hers<\/i> told him different.<\/p>\n
Things were about to get very, very messy.<\/p>\n
Very, very quickly.<\/p>\n
He wanted to throw up but there wasn\u2019t time for that.<\/p>\n
His feet hit the last stretch of ground between the main road and the shore.\u00a0 Bile burned his throat and the world was quiet\u2014for now.\u00a0 All he could hear was the sound of his heart thundering in his ears.\u00a0 His vision was starting to double as he skidded to a halt on the gravel that marked the boundary between grass and sandy shore.<\/p>\n
No one here.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t pass them on the way.\u00a0 Where the hell did they go?<\/i><\/p>\n
He cleared his throat and spat to one side, catching his breath as he looked up and down the beach.<\/p>\n
They couldn\u2019t have gone that far, could they?\u00a0 Frederick couldn\u2019t have, not very quickly.<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cHell,\u201d he breathed, shaking his head.\u00a0 Gabe\u2019s.\u00a0 They would have headed for Gabe\u2019s.\u00a0 It\u2019s the nearest shelter.<\/i><\/p>\n
Brendan sucked in another breath, pivoted, then resumed his run, heading toward the vineyard, though is legs felt like they\u2019d turned to lead somewhere between the shore and the grass.<\/p>\n
The first bombs began to fall twenty yards later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Breath burned in Brendan\u2019s lungs and his vision blurred.\u00a0 It was a long way from base down to the shore\u2014a few kilometers, a long way for someone to be running full-tilt, especially someone who had barely recovered from major trauma … Continue reading