Designated (Book 1): Designated Infected by Ricky Cooper Page B

his hand and the door frame as he covered Kingsley's
back. His weapon danced from head to head as he fired, his optical
sight turning the world a hazy mix of greens as he stared through the
scope of his rifle.
    'Running out of ammo here!' Bolton slid a magazine
across the floor to Rawlings' feet as he continued to fire. For
seventeen minutes they held off the tide of Infected, bodies falling
amidst a swirling rain of blood and gore. The harsh and heady mix of
blood and cordite filled the air as they began to slowly back down
the body strewn hallway.
    'Come on, fucking move it. Andrey,
get them out of here. Kingsley, give me that gimpy and get the hell
out of here, I'll hold them off.' Kingsley glanced at Baker a
cursive filled retort bubbling its way up only to be stomped back
down by a single glance from Baker. ' Now,
soldier! '
    Slowly, and with a heavy heart, Kingsley lifted the
machine gun's sling from around his shoulder and handed the weapon to
him. Shifting the sling so that the weapon sat braced against his
upper arm, Baker stepped into the middle of the corridor and squeezed
the triggers of both weapons.
    Somewhere in the back of his mind, the professional
soldier was throwing himself against the walls of Derek's mind,
screaming at him in disgust as he threw aside any semblance of
training and drenched the hall way in a mire of barely aimed lead.
    The report almost deafened him as he unleashed a wall of
death, the first seventeen Infected dropped as their heads simply
disappearing in a glimmering haze of red. The cases cascaded around
his feet in a dancing shimmer of hot brass as they bounced off the
floor.
    Andrey skidded to a halt. 'Down there and turn left.
Watch your footing the floor is covered in shit. Take the ladder down
to the lower levels and head for the control centre.'
    Rawlings looked at Andrey and nodded, 'What about you?'
Andrey grinned, his missing front teeth leaving his smile slightly
twisted.
    'I am going to go have some fun. Can't let your boss
have it all, can I?'
    Rawlings shook his head as he turned down the corridor,
'You're fucking nuts, mate. A good shot, but bat shit-crazy.'
    Andrey shrugged as he moved off. 'Blame my mother.' With
that the Russian squad commander vanished round the corner and was
gone.

    ****

    Rawlings sagged down against the wall of the control
centre as he turned a bullet end over end. Lifting it to the bright
strip lights, he stared at it, the smooth polished casing reflecting
his gaze as he rotated it through his fingers. 'You know, King, they
say there is a bullet out there with your name on it. I wonder who
has mine.'
    Kingsley shrugged. 'Don't know, mate, but I know who has
mine.' Rawlings' interest was piqued as he sat up slightly looking at
his team mate.
    'Who would that be?'
    Kingsley grinned and reached inside his tunic pulling
out a glittering gold chain. Set into a small hoop at the end was a
single nine-millimetre round.
    'Me!'
    Rawlings grinned as he stared at the bullet for a moment
before sliding his knife from the sheath and raising the tip to the
round he held. 'Think I'll join you there.'
    For over an hour they waited in that small room two
hundred feet below the surface. The seconds seemed to stretch forever
as they waited for the smallest sign of Baker or Andrey. They sat
there staring ahead of them as the time slowly slid away; dripping
into a void so deep that not even the hand of God could reach it;
but, for the men and woman trapped in the darkness God was the last
person they would look to for help.
    Fadei had arrived twenty minutes after their arrival,
with Anastasia, her lap filled with the discs and papers she had
managed to scavenge from her work station before Fadei had carried
out one of his directives and liquidated the room.
    As they all sat in a brooding silence, the door hissed
and slid open. A beleaguered Andrey entered, his hand clutched to his
side, as blood slowly seeped between his fingers. He cast a cocky
grin around the room