From round the edge of the office door Oscar had a clear view down the tunnel created by the rows of stacked crates. The grenade was halfway down when he spotted it, bouncing across the warehouse floor towards him. His reaction was instinctive. He stepped through the door, his hands rising up in warning, his head turning towards Gabriel and Kathryn. When he saw them locked together, unstoppably launched in his direction, he experienced a moment of divine clarity and everything slowed almost to a stop.
His eyes dropped back down to the grenade, turning slowly in the air, barely an inch above the ground. It bounced once, with a sound like a hammer striking stone, and continued moving towards him. He tensed his legs and shifted his centre of gravity towards it.
Ninety years … he thought, as his body started to move. I have dodged the enemy’s arrows and spears for ninety years …
The grenade spun closer, struck the outer wall of the office then bounced back, coming to rest right in front of him.
Not bad for a dead man.
He fell forward, flattening himself on the ground, smothering the grenade with his body.
Gabriel saw Oscar crumple and realized what he was doing. He reached out as their momentum brought them closer. Felt his fingertips brush the back of Oscar’s flight suit. Started to close his hand around the heavy-duty cotton.
Then the first grenade exploded behind him.
The pressure wave tore the flight suit from his grip, lifting him up and forward, over Oscar’s prone body and into the warehouse wall beyond. He hit it head first, with the full force of the explosion behind it, then slid heavily to the floor behind a crate. As he landed he felt consciousness being hammered out of him. He tried to shake his head clear. Tried screaming to shock himself awake. Then Kathryn crashed down on top of him, cracking his head against the concrete floor, finishing the job the wall had started.
The last thing Gabriel was aware of before he passed out was the ground shuddering beneath him and a muffled crump as the second grenade exploded.