STAR FALL PEOPLE Chapter 40

Sley: San Francisco

(Previous chapter, or start at the beginning.)

He had never bled like this. The stub of his arm wasn’t quieting. It was raging. My hand. My hand…

Fear was no stranger to his life. But this panic—this was—

As Sley clambered to his feet in the hallway, all he saw was his blood and the ugly horror of his wound. He tried to run but just fell down. He was peeing himself. He got up, the sting of urine in his nostrils, and squeezed his buttocks but it was too late. His roiling body was ejecting everything.

The hallway swam but he had to keep going. Tell the others. Someone else could stop Mang. Had to stop Mang. Because it wasn’t going to be Sley. And it wasn’t going to be his daughter. The ancient Duke, last but one of the clan Kong, was dying.

“Sofia,” he sobbed.

He had rounded the corner when the lab exploded. He hadn’t made much further progress when they found him. Handlebar, gun in hand, with one of the scientists in tow, the Italian, Francesca.

“Where’s Mang?” Handlebar asked.

Francesca knelt. “Can’t you see this man is badly injured?”

“Ain’t my concern.”

Her hands were like icicles as she turned him over. The look in her eyes confirmed what Sley already knew.

“He needs a hospital,” she shouted after the gunman. “There are ambulances outside.” Handlebar didn’t respond. Francesca asked, “Can you stand? Can you walk?”

He must have nodded or grunted or something because she was pulling him up. Her image blurred. The fires from the explosion were nothing compared to those burning his flesh, demon pitchforks prodding his heart to race faster and faster.

She maneuvered beneath this good arm and shoulder and led him. His feet felt like they belonged to someone else. “You’re radiating fever,” she said.

He bent over and vomited. His body still had a way to go before it had turned itself inside out.

“Dio mio,” she said, gathering him once more.

“The vaccine,” Sley gasped, “it worked.”

“What?”

“The vaccine worked.”

She stopped moving him. “I can’t understand you.”

“Kill Mang.”

That got through. She nodded. “Kill Mang.”