Extinction Read Online Free Page B

up the beautiful
weapon that hummed to life with his touch.
    The weapon fired a caseless, powderless
12mm projectile with or without an explosive tip that used jet fuel as a
propellant. This allowed the weapon to be fired in a complete vacuum or
underwater. It had a side mounted, electro-magnetic (EM) pulse laser that
disabled most personal electronics and even some of the more heavily shielded vehicle
electronics.  It had a grenade launcher under the main barrel, which he filled
to its six-shot capacity and then grabbed ten 12mm one hundred-round magazines,
stuffing nine into his pockets and slapping one home into the magazine well.
    He found antipersonnel and antitank
mines and decided that two small personnel mines would be enough for the fuel
depot while four antitank mines would surely destroy the command bunker.
    He heard a shuffle behind him and
whirled in a small arc while dropping to one knee and bringing his weapon to bear,
only to find his new friend softly cooing at him from the entrance of the
weapons locker. With a shaking finger, he gave the animal a cross look and
added, “Don’t ever sneak up on me again. You could have gotten yourself shot.”
    Gathering up his cache, he ventured out,
using his friend for cover. The grass near the door enticed the nine other
animals he brought along: they had just decided to stay for lunch and were now
seemingly very unhappy about Seth’s plan to move them once again. After a
little bit more nudging, they grudgingly headed towards the fuel dump.
    At the fuel depot, he deposited the
mines in such a way that hopefully the blasts would be omnidirectional, sending
everyone nearby for cover. Too many people were near the command tent and he
didn’t think that he would be able to sidle up next to it as easily as he had
the fuel depot.
    He decided that a small stampede near
the bunker would divert everyone’s attention just long enough to set the mines
and then blow them all. He was a dead man, anyway, so he might as well give it a
shot. It was his only hope. He set the mines to explode in sync with one another
and put a dead man’s switch between his teeth so if he went down, they would
all go off anyway.
    He aimed the small herd at the bunker
and then began whipping them on their rumps with a small metal rod he found by
the fuel canisters. They really didn’t like that and the nearest of the animals
reared on his four front legs and kicked Seth straight in the chest. He went
back, knocking over a small pile of fuel cans just as the ten animals started
to run into the camp.
    Someone heard the commotion and saw Seth
but before the soldier could yell a warning, he was knocked over by one pissed-off
six-legged deer. Soldiers went flying in all directions—some unconscious, some
just bleeding.
    As a xenobiologist would later record,
these pack animals didn’t stampede when frightened but instead spread out
almost an even five meters from one another and began kicking at anything that
was in their way.
    The rest of the herd saw the commotion
and decided that their family members needed help and all fifty or so other
animals came running and kicking to their aid. Winded and with two very painful
and bloody hoof marks on his chest, Seth made a mad dash for the bunker. He
could’ve walked or even crawled there, because no one was paying any attention
to anything except those flying hooves.
    He set the mines and almost forgot about
the dead man’s switch in his mouth. That was close to mistake number three of
the day. If that deer had a little bit higher or harder of a kick, KABOOM!! He
would have dropped the switch from his teeth and the charges would’ve detonated
right in his arms. Seth set the charges and ran for cover. Suddenly, he
remembered the mines at the fuel depot. He decided to blow the command bunker
first and use the fuel explosion as a secondary diversion to try to get the
hell out of there. With the deer attack in full swing, he just might be able to
get