The Reaper: No Mercy by Sean Liebling Page A

wouldn't be alive. In the right circumstances I can see it working."
    "Seriously?"
    "Yeah!"
    "Okay, we'll see what happens then.”
    Janet walked up to them at that moment. It was obvious she had changed clothing and cleaned up. Scott hadn't wanted to mention it to her, but the bits of what looked like brain fragments stuck to her forehead and neck had been a bit disconcerting. She crouched behind them as they gazed through the doorway into the vacant room, and remained silent for several minutes before speaking.
    "So what do you think?" she asked.
    "About what?" both men responded. Neither looked at the other, as it was a logical question, but both turned and looked at Janet briefly before turning back to their guard duties.
    "About what the Reaper said?" she ground out while looking at both of them.
    This time Scott and Ralph did look at each other, grinning. Scott took a moment before responding.
    "Ralph and I talked. What he says has possibilities, but only that. Wait and see, Janet."
    "They’re raping and killing us!" she exclaimed passionately.
    "Not our group," Scott responded.
    "Fucking men," she muttered under her breath as she rose to her feet and walked away. Scott and Ralph glanced at each other again and shrugged before turning their attention back to the windows.
     
    *****

Chapter 8
     
    Dodging between buildings, the Reaper crouched behind a dumpster as a truck loaded with gun-toting marauders drove past down the street he had been travelling. He was almost to the last location, and between the buildings, he could see a large industrial complex in the distance. Only a few hundred yards to go, but the marauders were out in force.
    The Reaper rose as the engine sounds died in the distance, and headed south up the narrow corridor, away from the city. He was in another commercial district, and buildings loomed tall on both sides, along with assorted trash containers and debris of every sort scattered across the concrete. With a watchful eye, he kept a lookout for any of Hell's minions as he rounded a corner.
    There they were, and too close to draw his machete. The Reaper backpedaled as he brought the fiberglass stock of his service weapon around in a butt stroke, taking the first zombie across the face. Then he stepped into the space provided, swiveled while crouching slightly to avoid the second undead, and whipped his rifle upward, connected with the chin and watching as it fell backward. The Reaper did not want to fire a shot this close to the last group, so as the second zombie fell, he fell with it, his knee coming down on its chest and the Remington 700 raised overhead, only to drive it downward in a powerful stroke of ultimate death as the skull splintered beneath it.
    One down, one to go . He was already diving over the truly dead thing as the first came at him again. Jason didn't hesitate as his leg swiped sideways to knock its feet out from under it. Then he rolled over again, cradling the rifle as he did so, before raising it and with another hard thrust ending the undead life under him. Quickly he rose to his feet, barely winded. Satan's spawn really were not that hard to kill if you knew what you were doing. With detachment, he gazed down at the bodies. Both appeared to be middle-aged, of similar builds, obviously man and woman, and the Reaper wondered if they had once been man and wife. Shrugging at the irrelevancy of the thought, he continued towards the warehouses.
    As he neared, he slowed and kept to cover, then stopped beside a truck and peered across the vast expanse of asphalt at the buildings a hundred yards distant. Figures were moving around the buildings, and quickly lifting his binoculars he dialed in and observed the activity.
    Interesting , he thought, as he slowly panned the premises; he saw more soldiers, some civilians, and even a few children who ran out of a door before being herded back in by a female chaperone. The Reaper witnessed it all and grinned. This scene did indeed look