Spawn of Man Read Online Free Page B

lunged upwards, thrusting his arm through the bars and slicing Daniel’s throat in one, swift blow. Daniel sank to his knees, his mouth still open in shock, and he faced the demented glare of his assailant. His larynx was ruptured now and his cry issued as a breathless, wet gurgling sound. A thin, red spray coated the bars in front of Daniel, the blood forced from the torn artery at high pressure through the gaping hole in his neck.
    Bartholomew’s face was coated by the discharge that was not intercepted by the bars and he grinned wildly as the thin jets covered him. Then he hacked the glass into the side of Daniel’s neck as Daniel toppled to the floor. Daniel’s vision blurred as he pushed himself away from the bars and he felt the warm liquid gushing from his neck in painful pulses. His ears rang as if a bell was being hammered close to the side of his head and he felt like there was a huge lump of stone forced into his throat, restricting his air supply. He scrambled through the open door a few feet away and into the room that held the chair. He felt weak and nauseous and red-hot jabs of pain burst in his temples as he slid and slipped in the blood spreading across the floor around him.
    Daniel’s keys had become unhooked from their loop on his belt during the assault and Bartholomew strained to reach them through the bars of his cell. The keys were agonizingly near to his clawing fingers and he giggled impishly as his nails brushed the metal ring that held them, like a thick white spider scurrying after its prey.
    As Bartholomew’s remaining index finger nudged the keys again, Mary’s slim hand dexterously plucked them from his grasp as she spat, ‘Imbecile! The doctor will be unable to complete his rounds now. I will have to continue his ministrations. You will be punished for your behavior, you see if you shan’t!’
    Mary ripped the electrodes from her head, small geysers of blood springing from the holes left behind. Mary unlocked her cell and strode purposefully to the small table that served Daniel as a stand for his washbowl and where the shaving mirror had rested until recently. Opening the little central drawer, she withdrew the revolver and checked that it was loaded. She turned and aimed the weapon down towards the prostrate figure of Bartholomew.
    He began to sob, ‘No, no, don’t kill me! I dare not go to their domain, I…’
    Before he could finish the sentence, Mary fired, the shell hitting him squarely between the eyes and exploding a clump of his brain out through the back of his skull.
    ‘There now, all better.’ She smiled as she emptied five more rounds into his head at close range.
    Daniel’s peripheral vision started to blur and he felt the walls of the small room edge closer to him, but with each effort he expended to gain the chair, the thing seemed to retreat further into the distance. The cables that cluttered the floor hindered him, but he managed to draw himself up into a kneeling position and swing onto the chair. He felt heavy now, as if his body had solidified, the muscles and ligaments denser and somewhat immobile. Then he seemed to be melting into the chair, his heartbeat like the pounding of artillery shells, each one finding its target in his chest. He tried to focus, but his mind was vague and it was with a supreme effort that he lifted a hand and threw the generator’s starting lever.
    The generator hissed like it was producing steam and static charges flared, localizing around the seated figure of Daniel, and then dancing down the lengths of cables that fed the generator. Blue-green bursts scampered along the bundles of wires, branching off to visit each of the six cells and climbing to the electrodes attached directly to the inmates’ brains. Screams filled the air as tissue was probed, stimulated, and burnt. Nerve endings were ruptured and blood filled the spaces created and brainwave activity was provoked and began to travel in the opposite direction.
    Inside the