05/04/2023 Snippet, GHOSTS ON AN ALIEN WIND.

We are getting there!

“[Spoilers]?” I shouted as I shoved against the door. “[SPOILERS]!” I think a part of me knew I shouldn’t have bothered, but it’s like that cat, right? You don’t know if it’s dead of cyanide poisoning until you go and look. Maybe he was okay. Maybe he wasn’t okay, but was hanging on until I got there. Maybe… maybe the hinges on the door finally gave, letting me half-stagger into the room.

I didn’t fall, thank God. There was a lot of blood on the floor, and the walls, and on the windows — and not enough in [spoilers]. It wasn’t all his, not by a long-shot; there were two other corpses in that office, and they hadn’t died any easier than [spoilers] had. One was clutching herself, her guts spilling out over her claw-hooked hands, while the other lay flat on his back, the hilt of a dagger protruding from one eye. There was a terrible satisfaction in that scene; [spoilers] had given as good as he had got.

He was still dead and slumped on his floor, though, with one hand still reaching for his fallen, cracked phon. I wanted to check him, but I didn’t dare. There were a half-dozen awful rents on his body still weeping blood, even though he was clearly dead. Something had kept all the gore in here from coagulating, and I didn’t want it touching me.