Lord of the Inferno - Chapter Eight

This week’s episode features a chapter from Lord of the Inferno, Volume Two of War of the Fathers. War of the Fathers is available as a free ebook if you sign up for the Dan Decker Newsletter. Here is an excerpt from the show: 

Adar slid to a stop, wiping rainwater out of his eyes while gasping for breath as he put his back against the rough lumber of a shed. He brought up his blaster so it was ready in case Hunwei or turncoats or Tere stumbled into the backyard of the home he was cutting through.

The extra blasters Adar had slung over each shoulder cut into his back, and he eased up off the shed while still trying to take advantage of the lip of roof that stuck out overhead. It was the first opportunity he'd taken for shelter since killing the last turncoat, and the rain looked as though it was finally stopping anyway.

Figures, he thought. That's just about what I'd expect today. Now I just need a dozen or so turncoats to chase me and things will be right again.

Adar shook his head as he looked at the remains of several dead Hunwei. The tower had done its job well. He was more than a dozen blocks away from it and was continuing to find the burned out armored husks of the Hunwei.

He had no way of knowing the effective range of the tower. The further he got from the tower, the antsier he became. He hoped all of the actual Hunwei in the city had been killed, but he wasn't going to count on it.

The smell of charred flesh still hung heavy in the air and overpowered a nearby pigsty. The pig looked up at Adar and grunted pitifully. It's back was covered with water, mud, and bits of hay. The pen lacked even a rudimentary shelter. He figured the animal was typically kept in the shed at times like this. 

He would never have thought he’d prefer the smell of a pig manure over anything else, but he now found himself wishing for that unique sickly-sweet stench rather than the odor of the dead Hunwei. He'd hoped the smell wouldn't be as bad the further he moved from the tower, but from what he could tell, the distance hadn't made a difference. The smell was far better than having all the Hunwei alive, but that didn't make each breath any less unpleasant.

Movement at the corner of his eye drew his attention, he brought up his blaster.