Denver Overrun (Denver Burning Book 4) Read Online Free

building, already hearing the crackle of flames and taking in the alarming smell of a serious burn, so thick she could hardly get a breath and had to cough.
    Outside, the roar of the fire drowned out everything else, and one look up at the roof told her a fire extinguisher would do little good. The flames had grown across this half of the building and were reaching up six feet in some places.
    She hurried back inside and yelled at the others as she crossed the room again.
    "Change of plans, people. We have to evacuate! Everyone grab a body and get them outside. Just drag them, and go!"
    Cole whined as he struggled to his feet. "Sarge, we just got them in here!"
    "The whole station is going up, Cole. Whoever we don't get out will burn!"
    A few minutes later they were all outside again, clustering around the end of the building that wasn't on fire. One by one, the survivors of the massacre crept away through the streets to find what safety they could. Alicia watched them go, unable to offer a better alternative. Behind her the building burned, its column of smoke winding up through the sky to join others that were blowing from elsewhere in the city.
    Cole and the two female staffers spoke quickly in low tones, and then he turned to address Alicia. "I'm sorry, Sergeant Hendrickson. I've got to get out of here and find my family. I'm going to take Jackie and Helen as far as Colburn. Good luck!"
    Without waiting for further permission or advice, the three of them took off with Cole in the lead, pistol up and ready.
    That left Alicia and Officer Andrews standing several yards away from a burning building and a row of dead bodies, arranged on the grass with as much dignity as possible under the circumstances.
    There was no more shooting within earshot, but a crash signaled the collapse of part of their station's roof.
    "What's the plan, Sarge?" Andrews asked, pulling a pair of sunglasses from his uniform's breast pocket to ward off the glare of the sun that was now sinking toward the horizon, half obscured by smoke. “I hope we’re not going to stand around here while the rest of the city burns.”
    Alicia shook her head. “Of course not. Thanks for sticking with me, Andrews.” She considered the tall, graying officer for a moment. Her impression of him was as a capable, occasionally fierce, usually stand-offish policeman. He had been on the force for six years, coming over from a back-office risk analysis desk job at some big corporation. She had often wondered about his motivations for becoming a policeman, but whatever they were, he had graduated the academy with honors and had been an exemplary officer so far.  
    He wasn't much for banter and avoided all office politics. But the only complaint she’d ever heard about him was for gruffness with a citizen that wasn’t cooperating. That was common for most of the officers on the force-- people these days seemed to have an axe to grind against anyone in a uniform, and Alicia’s community outreach efforts hadn’t been terribly successful lately.
    All in all, she was glad to have Andrews with her on a day like this one. “We need to try to find some of our other officers,” she told him, “and link up with anyone else that’s battling this threat. Without radios, we’re blind until we band together. Where do you want to start looking?”
    Andrews finished loading a spare magazine he had retrieved from a fallen officer and shoved it into his belt. “Want to try Ellsworth? I know we had a man or two down that way this morning, before we went dark. And even if we don’t find them, I'm sure we’ll run into something worth investigating.”
    “Yeah, probably another firefight,” Alicia said with a sigh.
    “I wish we had more ammo for Simmins’ rifle,” Andrews lamented. “I kept telling HQ to stock more firepower in the district stations, but they just thought I was being overzealous and militaristic. Simmins only had an AR because he used to be on the rapid response