Sons of Abraham: Pawns of Terror by Joseph Ray Page A

have to drop him in a hurry if anyone else came around the corner. She wasn’t a medic, but she figured dropping his feet would cause much less damage than dropping him on his already concussed head. The large man groaned as the back of his head bounced over debris as the thin Corporal continued in her efforts to drag him out of harm’s way.
    The boots were dropped heavily upon the floor. Janys James turned and estimated how far she needed to drag the man before she could reach the next security door. Her best judgment told her that she would not be able to move the man the needed length, leaving her little options other than pulling him into one of the labs.
    She came to the first lab but opted to continue pulling the man down the slick floor. The lab was too close to the action for her liking. The thumping of boots on floor sent her heart racing as she summoned all of her strength and slid Bearden into the second lab. His shoulder caught on the doorway, filling her chest with panic as the oncoming boots were now crunching the debris from the grenade explosion. She dropped his feet, diving to the doorway to wrench his upper body free from the door’s frame. Bear tried to help her, pulling his shoulder upward while she grabbed his free arm to drag him away from the doorframe. As soon as he cleared, she took a deep breath and slid the assault rifle off her shoulder.
    Her mind went astray as she glanced at the weapon, pondering how old it was. The outer casing was metal though similar rifles would now be made of hardened plastics. The extra weight added little value to the weapon, other than make it nearly impossible to fire freehand. There was a rough spot on the underbelly, telling her that the gun was once mounted to a vehicle or stationary guard tower. The various guard towers of the Divinity Corporation facility came to mind, but none of them had ever held such a weapon. The airships had mounted guns by both doors, but they were chain guns that were fed by belts of bullets of a higher caliber.
    A boot crunched the floor around the corner, snapping her attention away from the origin of the gun in her hands. Deciding that the method had kept her alive thus far, she bent her knee to the ground and edged the butt of the assault rifle around the door’s frame. The sparks flying from the exposed wiring above the damaged area of the hall offered her a quick glimpse of the terror that headed her way as three distinct shadows were etched on the adjacent wall with each crackle.
    Taking her lesson from the first firing of the oversized weapon, she placed the butt of the gun against the strap of her harness, offering her a little more padding. She waited and watched as another muzzle edged around the corner. She inhaled deeply, then slowly exhaled. The man’s hand could be seen as the last of the breath left her lungs. She squeezed the trigger, aiming six inches below where she anticipated the man’s head to be a second later. The gun thundered the doorframe. The first bullet went low, but the rising muzzle sent the second shot to her intended target. The man in the gray pants and a black t-shirt was struck in the chest and head. His rifle fired wildly, spraying the hallway with an automatic fire that carved into the plastic wall in front of her. Unlike her shot earlier, the man’s smaller caliber rifle was unable to penetrate the wall, leaving the bullet encases in the exterior.
    A second attacker jumped over the fresh body, his rifle firing before his feet found the floor. Janys ducked behind the doorframe as bullets sprayed where her head had been a moment earlier. Her ducking prompted the two approaching men to burst down the hallway. Janys fell on her butt, shoving her feet into the floor and kicking off the back heels, one by one. She inched backward as she lifted the rifle. She pulled the trigger but was a moment too early as the two men had stopped short of the opening. The shots pierced the hallway opposite of the door,