“Please!” The taller of the pair began to blubber which irritated me all the more. “We haven’t done anything to you!”
“Tell me about your base.”
“What?”
Not the best and brightest it seemed.
“How many people live in your base?”
The two exchanged looks and it was the shorter who squared his shoulders and stuck out his chin as he answered, “a lot.”
It was going to be like that then, which certainly made my decision easier. I gestured for the women to bring them forward.
“Hold out your hands.”
“Why?”
“Fucking do it!” Two snapped, grabbing the shorter man’s arm and lifting it towards me.
I didn’t speak as I lifted the rope I carried and wrapped it quickly around his wrists, binding his hands together tightly. He was stubborn, that shorter one, and he stared me in the eye despite his clear fear.
“How many people have you killed?” I asked and he blinked.
“Lots.”
I didn’t believe that.
“Have you ever forced yourself on another?”
“What?”
“You ever raped someone?” Two clarified, and he shook his head.
“No! What the hell, why would I?”
Clearly not one of those that went out to the smaller bases which told me a great deal about their setup. The ones on the island were likely more for show, to keep the populace feeling safe, while those that went out were the real danger.
I bound the other man’s hands as I had the first while I considered that. The two raiders were not a real threat and hardly met the criteria for being people I could kill without breaking my promise. All the same, a message had to be sent.
Emma caught the longer rope that I tossed to her and quickly scurried over the ladder before wrapping it around the last rung. She dropped the two ends down and quickly tied one end to the bindings around the shorter raider’s wrists, and the other to the bindings of the taller raider.
They watched me in silence, not quite sure what to make of what I was doing, and I smiled as I watched them.
“I can’t kill you,” I said as I pulled free my knife. “It would break a promise I made.”
“Then let us go, man! We’ll just head back. Won’t tell anyone about you, promise.”
Did a lie make someone a bad enough person to kill? I doubted Lily would think so.
“I mean,” continued the shorter raider. “Tell us what you want, man. There’s no need for all this crap!”
“P-please,” the taller raider whimpered.
“Okay,” I tapped my knife blade against the side of my leg.
“You’re gonna kill em, yeah?” Two asked. “They can’t live.”
I silenced her with a glance and turned my attention back to the shorter man. My grin was nasty as I leant in close.
“There’s a message I need to send.”
“We’ll take your message, man. Whatever you want, yeah?”
“I know you will.”
My hand moved fast, blade cutting deep into the shorter man’s side, sliding beneath his armour. His eyes went wide, and he gasped as the pain hit him, his expression confused as if to ask, ‘why?’
“Oh god! Please, no!” the other whimpered and I turned my attention on him as the shorter raider sagged, knees failing but unable to fall due to the rope around his wrists.
“Your friend is going to die,” I said, my tone calm, conversational even as I wiped my blade on the shorter raider’s shirt. “When he does, he will turn.”
I glanced along the road towards the general direction of the island where they made their home. The raiders patrols lasted for two hours as they meandered through the city without any real urgency of fear.
They had just started their patrol when my Furies took them, which meant it would be several hours before their absence was noted and search parties sent out. If they went slowly, methodically, it could be nightfall before they were found.
Plenty of time then for someone to reanimate after death.
The shorter raider had clamped his arm against his side, pressing it there to stem the bleeding as he gritted his teeth against the pain. There was hatred and pain in his eyes and I almost laughed. If I were a betting man, my money would be on him.
Emma clambered down from the engine and pulled a knife from her belt. She tossed it onto the melted tarmac close to where the two men were bound and stepped back. I turned my attention once again to the taller raider.
“Whoever gets the knife first will be able to free himself.” I held up a hand to keep their attention on me. “Neither of you can reach it without one of you having to give as much slack on their end of the rope as possible.”
The women were grinning as they realised the game that was about to begin, while the two raiders exchanged looks. Shorter sucked down a deep breath and glanced back at me.
“We get the knife, we go free?”
“Sure.”
I watched the hope flare in his eyes before I held up one finger.
“However, you, my friend, can not really raise your arms with a wound like that in your side.” While it hadn’t been too deep, he would weaken with each passing moment. “Your friend, then, could simply make it easy for you by jumping up and grabbing the ladder which isn’t too far above his head.”
Both of the raiders looked up, almost involuntarily, which is when Emma darted in and her knife flashed. Taller screamed as she sliced through the tendons at the back of his knees. Two quick slashes and the man was falling, his legs unable to hold him up.
Shorter yelled his own pain as the force of the other man collapsing pulled his arms up and away from his side. Blood immediately began to flow, running down his side as he struggled to pull his arms back down.
“Now,” I said, laughter in my voice. “For one of you to reach the knife, the other will likely have to die. You will need to haul their body up into the air as you drag yourself over to where you can reach the knife.”
My Furies laughter filled the air, a fitting accompaniment to the moans of pain and weeping of the two raiders.
“Of course, if one of you dies and the other can’t manage to muster up the strength to lift his carcass up, when he reanimates he will surely eat you.” I glanced up at the grey sky and flashed another smile. “You best work fast. I don’t think you’ll survive till your friends find you.”
I turned then and walked away, my Furies falling in behind me as the two men began to argue bitterly about their dilemma. The women were silent as they followed me, at least until we turned a corner.
“We not watching?” Two asked.
“Of course we are,” I replied. “The next building over will provide access to the flats that overlook the road. We will watch from there.”
“When their friends come, what then?” One asked.
I turned and looked back at her, hearing the tremble of fear in her voice and I smiled.
“Then we kill them.”
Chapter 11
Water cascaded down the front of the building opposite and I watched it form a pool on the pavement below as I leant against the window frame and watched the two men struggle as they tried to reach the knife.
Mould covered the walls of the flat, a creeping black stain that covered the peeling wallpaper. A woman had died in the flat, long ago, and her body had left a stain in the centre of the floor that my Furies avoided with looks of distaste.
A fitting place for me to wait, watching those men grow weaker with each passing moment as I reflected on my choices that had led me to that place. Anger was my driving force, a rage unlike any that I had ever felt before and I couldn’t understand it.
Whatever the cause, it was driving a wedge between my friend and me, and try as I might, I could think of no way to fix that. I lacked the social skills and the basic understanding that others seemed to instinctively know.
With a soft sigh, I watched the spilt blood ming
ling with the rainwater falling from the building beside them. Its gutters, like all others in the city, were full of muck and had grass and other plants growing in them, the seeds deposited by the birds when they defecated. The drains too had all long since been blocked, so when the rain fell heavily as it was that day, large areas quickly flooded.
That was a problem that I should have foreseen and while our journey through the city had been fairly direct, I had not realised the extent of the problem I would face. How much of the city would be made impassable or, at least, difficult to navigate, was yet to be seen but it was something that I did not want to become an issue when I needed to extricate myself from the area.
“Emma.”
“Yes?”
“Head back to the safe house. Pay attention to the roads and if there are parts that are becoming flooded, come straight back.”
She gave a quick nod of her head before rushing out of the door and down the stairs to the shop below. A glance at the dark clouds that covered the sky didn’t make me think that the rain would be stopping any time soon.
“Someone coming,” Two said, her face pressed against the grimy glass window. “Three, no four people.”
“Kill them if you must,” I said, a no doubt evil smirk crossing my face. “But capture as many as you can.”
“Why?”
I glanced at Two, the angry young woman glared back defiantly and didn’t look away from my eyes. She had courage, that was for sure, and I could appreciate that. She also pushed herself harder than any of the others with her training which made her someone I could almost trust in a fight.
“Because I told you to.”
Her glare didn’t diminish but she didn’t argue either. The other three women exchanged nervous glances as we continued to stare at one another, but it was Two who lowered her eyes and glanced away, shifting her feet.
Outside, the raiders were sawing at the rope as they tried to cut free their companions, both of whom were likely close to death. Which would make what came next all the more amusing for me, and I leant forward to watch.
The raiders were caught entirely by surprise, the sound of the rain and their excited chatter as they tried to free their friends more than covered the approach of my Furies who descended on them like the heralds of death they aspired to be.
A man screamed as his blood filled the air, Two’s knife blade slamming through the back of his neck and out through his throat. He died with a gurgle as blood frothed on his lips and then the other Furies were amongst them.
In moments two were down, their weapons pulled from unresisting hands as knives were held to their throats. The fourth raider slashed at Five with his sword, his panicked expression doing nothing to make me think he was anything other than the scared man that he was.
I didn’t bother to wait and watch him lose the fight as I knew it would bring me no real joy. There was no challenge in defeating such people and no joy in their murder for they were not the true enemy.
The rain hit me as I stepped out of the building and within moments I was soaked through as I walked around the side of the building to where my Furies waited. The two raiders were still tied together, and I dismissed them as soon to be dead anyway.
Kneeling in the deepening water that was flowing fast along the road, three more raiders waited. One had his left hand pressed against his right bicep and blood leaked between his fingers. His expression was surly, and he stared hate with his dark eyes.
“You’ll be first,” I said without pausing in my stride. I marched straight up to him and grabbed his greasy black hair with my left hand and drew my knife with my right.
“The fuck’re you doing, man?”
“Blinding you.”
His scream echoed from the nearby buildings as my knife cut deep into first his right eye and then his left. The other raiders watched in horror as I released my hold on the man and he collapsed to the ground, hands pressed against his ruined eyes.
Five and Three both looked to be about to lose the contents of their stomachs, but they held onto their hold of the other raiders. Two smiled as the man screamed, writhing around in pain.
“Why?”
I glanced at the chubby raider and sneered. For him to be carrying excess weight meant that they had ample food supplies, mostly stolen from others. He had sat on his island feasting on the toil of others and either ignored the rapes and murders or been too comfortable to care.
“How many people have you raped or killed?” I asked in reply.
“None! What the hell, man! We’re not like that.”
“Your people are,” Two snapped. “The ones that go out and steal from other communities.”
He gaped at her and shook his head, plump face almost quivering with his fear as he babbled some inane response. I had no care to listen for all I knew was my anger, my unrelenting rage.
“That man turned a blind eye to what is happening,” I said as I stepped towards the chubby raider who shied back against Six, away from me. “You should have asked questions.”
Six seemed to understand what I wanted for she grabbed the man’s head and held it tight as I forced open his mouth. He sputtered and shook as I reached in, grabbing his tongue firmly before pulling it as far out of his mouth as I could.
His blood spattered against my coat as I cut through the man’s tongue. The bright red of his blood ran down his chin and over his jacket as he bucked in Six’s grip. I grinned wickedly as I tossed aside his tongue and brandished my knife once more. I wasn’t done.
I cut deep into the side of his bicep on his left arm before moving to the right. The blood began to run freely as I gestured for Six to release him. He flopped to the floor beside his companion, not quite able to use his arms properly due to the cuts I had made, severing those muscles and tendons needed for control.
The third raider stared at me with growing horror as he realised that he was next. He whimpered as I approached, and I patted his cheek gently before looking up at Five.
“Undress him.”
Five didn’t hesitate for a moment as Six moved to join her and I looked back at Two. Her eyes were lit from within by a hunger that I could almost feel. I didn’t need to speak as I just inclined my head and she pulled free her knife.
“Why are you doing this?” Three asked as she watched her sisters forcibly castrate the young raider. “Why not just kill them?”
I considered whether or not to answer her as I listened to the men’s screams. The fact that she didn’t understand was disappointing and it irritated me to have to explain myself. The simple truth was that I couldn’t kill them, not without potentially breaking the promise I was determined to keep.
Besides, there was another reason.
“When they are found by their friends or make it back to their island, this leader of theirs will have a decision to make.”
“What do you mean?”
“Each of them will need a lot of time to recover. They will need medicine and care as well as food and supplies that they might not be able to spare. So, will he ensure they are cared for or will he have them killed?”
Whichever his response, it would tell me a great deal about who he was. What sort of man, what sort of leader, and most of all, what sort of enemy he would be. Soon enough I would be in a position to take my anger out on him in person and I wanted to know who I was killing when that time came.
“If… If he looks after them, does that mean you won’t kill him?”
Her hazel eyes shimmered as she looked quickly away, and I wondered at that. Lily or even Gregg would have been able to explain it to me, but without them, I would have to just be honest regardless of whether it would upset her or not.
“No, I will still kill him.”
“Good.”
I felt my brow furrow as I tried to understand. My initial thought that she was concerned I would kill a good man was wrong. She merely wanted to make sure that I would kill him regardless. I was almost curious enough to ask why but didn
’t. Whatever her reason, I didn’t really care anyway.
“Let them go,” I called to the women. “We are done here.”
“We not killing em?” Six asked, seemingly surprised.
“No. Let them find their way home and be a decision for their leader to deal with.”
“Maybe we could-“ Six cut off as her eyes rounded and she reached up with a hand that trembled to touch the arrowhead that had burst through her mouth. Her lips moved but no sound came out, though blood did.
She dropped to her knees as I was already moving. More arrows hit the ground as the rumble of charging horses came to me.
“Run!” Two screamed as she followed me along the street, ducking into a side alley just before the horses galloped past.
I breathed easily as I ran, no stranger to long periods of cardio. I had trained countless hours for just such an event, though my Furies were not in the same condition. They puffed and panted as they struggled to keep up while I led them out of the alley and across a wide road, keeping low as I passed the abandoned cars rusting there.
Glass shattered as an arrow whistled past my head and I increased my pace. Either they had heard the screams and come running or they had been waiting to ambush us, knowing that it would mean likely death for the raiders they had sent in first.
If that was the case, it was a clever move. One I could almost admire.
Three cursed as an arrow grazed her cheek and then we were around the corner and running full speed along the road. I slowed to allow the others to catch up and as they did, yelled out my orders.
“Split up and lose them before heading to the safe house.” I slowed to a stop as they ran past me and turned towards the horse that was charging straight at me, an armed raider on its back. I pulled free my axe and flashed a grin. “Go! I’ll buy you some time.”
They didn’t need telling twice and as they ran, I lifted my axe and without a sound, ran straight at the charging raider.
Chapter 12
I swung my leg over the top of the wall and let myself fall down the other side to land in the thick grass below. Rainwater hit my face as I stared up at the black clouds above and tried to control my breathing.
Killing The Dead | Book 22 | Fury Page 7