If Neil had the disease then everyone on Level Five was royally fucked. He was up on the Traitor Board, and he had loved to tell everyone he was up there near the top of that sick invention.
Neil and his friends specialized in hunting down the people who tried to escape from the bunker. Those twisted bastards kept a running tally of how many heads they’d collected, and they’d made an actual display board, listing the top ten names of the men with the most heads. Neil was high on the board, but Shane was even worse. He was at the top of the list.
Terrier hated those bastards. If Neil and his friends had any balls, they could have freed everyone, but they sided with Afana and the generals instead of the people of the bunker.
Terrier loosened his grip on Natalie, and she instantly looked up at Coby’s body, unable to help herself.
Coby blinked.
Neither of them could believe what they were seeing. They’d both thought he was dead a few seconds earlier, but now, his eyes turned red and began to glow. His hand slammed into the pool of blood he was lying in as he tried to get to Terrier and Natalie. When he couldn’t, he awkwardly got to his feet and stumbled away.
She gasped in horror and went right back into Terrier’s arms.
“What the hell was that?” Natalie asked as she looked up at Terrier.
Terrier shook his head as he held her close. “Madness.”
Leandro heard a gunshot and took off running in the direction it came from. When he got there, his dad was looking down at a body. His glowing red eyes looked disappointed, and his fangs barely protruded from behind his pursed lips.
Leandro had never seen his dad’s eyes look like that, since it usually took Massimo only a few seconds to lose his vampire glow.
Massimo hadn’t been sure how Leandro would react to seeing him like that, but Leandro gave his dad a big hug. He was strong and almost crushed him, but Massimo didn’t complain because Leandro’s heart was filled with love. He’d been showing his dad affection like this since he had been a child, and Massimo would never tire of it.
Massimo pulled away from the embrace and looked up at Leandro. “Are you okay?”
“Old fool! I was going to ask you the same thing.” Leandro smiled. “What mischief have you been up to while I’ve been away?”
They both looked down at the body on the ground. The man was sprawled out and snoring. He would probably be out for a while.
Massimo nudged the man with his foot. “These stupid rednecks wanted to steal my alcohol, but I took care of them.”
“You did? Wait, them? Where are the rest?”
“They ran off. They said they were going after a guy called Ryder next.”
Leandro realized these were Afana’s men, coming to hunt her just as she’d feared. “We have to go back to Pinewood and make sure they don’t get to Ryder.”
31
Ryder watched the people in the Old Dog. They looked happy, and she started to wonder what it had been like growing up in a normal world like this, where everyone appeared to be equal and free. It felt almost like a dream to her, but she knew it wasn’t just because she was damn tired and needed sleep.
Tonight, she would sleep under the stars, which she didn’t mind. Quite the opposite—she was looking forward to it. After all the years trapped underground, being outside was liberating.
Carter smiled at Ryder, and when she did the same, Carter’s eyed widened. “Did you just smile?”
“Shut up, or I’ll knock you off your stool,” Ryder teased, pushing him and making him wobble. Then, she grinned at him and held him so he wouldn’t fall. She couldn’t injure the only person who was going to help her, even though she’d often felt like it.
“Aaand she’s back,” Carter laughed with a shit-eating grin.
Ryder rolled her eyes. He was on his second beer and was chatting to the locals in the bar. Carter wasn’t drunk, but Ryder had a feeling that after four beers, he’d be well on his way.
Ryder enjoyed her beer with the knowledge that she wouldn’t get drunk. The only problem with beer was that after a while, it didn't quench her thirst. It just made her thirstier.
“That’s an interesting tattoo,” Kelvin said. “What does it represent?” She rubbed the back of her neck uncomfortably, and Kelvin seemed to sense her discomfort. “I've got a few as well.” He lifted his sleeve to reveal tattoos on his arm.
Ryder made a face of appreciation. “Wow, those are cool!” He rotated his arms so she could see the swirling black patterns banding them. “Who did them for you?”
“Tightwad.” He pointed to a man drinking at a table.
“Tightwad?”
Kelvin looked at Carter to make sure he wasn’t listening, which he wasn’t. He was engrossed in another conversation. Kelvin cautionary scan made Ryder interested in what he was going to say next.
“Massimo calls him that because he gets drunk on water, like you.” Ryder raised her eyebrow, and Kelvin grinned. “It’s my job to know my customers, even the new ones. Would you like some water?”
Ryder shook her head. “I like to have a clear head. Another beer will do.”
Kelvin smiled and passed her another beer. “I can introduce you to Tightwad if you like. He’s good at doing tattoo cover-ups as well.”
A twinkle entered Ryder’s eyes at the thought of getting Afana’s stamp on her neck obliterated. “Thank you for the offer. I’ll take you up on it next time I pass through.”
“You’re not staying? This town has a lot to offer.”
“It does look like it. Just not right now.”
“Well, we’re not going anywhere. But I am. I need to keep everyone’s drinks filled, or my ass will get canned like tuna.” With that, Kelvin went to serve the other customers.
Carter leaned toward Ryder. “Looks like you’re making friends.”
He winked. That was it. Ryder started to push him off his stool for real, but before she could, a bloodcurdling scream came from the corner of the bar.
Ryder whirled to see where the scream was coming from. A man was biting a woman’s neck, and she was howling in pain. Some people hadn’t heard the cries over the music and kept dancing. A few men pulled the guy off the woman, but he just lunged at the next person, biting them like he’d never eaten before. His eyes glowed red.
“He’s gone Mad!” Ryder yelled above the commotion.
There were too many people in the Old Dog for Ryder to use her bow, so she went for her knives instead. Carter did the same, but Kelvin was the first on the scene with a baseball bat.
“Move out of the way,” Kelvin yelled as he swung the bat at the man. He hit the Mad in the head, but he wasn’t strong enough to cause damage to the brain.
The Mad grabbed another person and sank his teeth into his arm, pulling part of his flesh away and spraying blood on the people next to him. The party was over.
Carter arced his knife over the people’s heads, the blade burying itself in the Mad’s skull with a dull crunch.
Panic spread quickly through the bar. One of the Mad was dead, but they didn’t know if there were more around or how many people had been infected.
Music boomed out of the jukebox, something about West End girls and East End boys. A woman stumbled over to Ryder, crying as she clutched her neck. Blood seeped through her fingers, but this woman’s eyes weren’t red. They were filled with fear.
“Help me,” she begged, stumbling closer.
Carter stepped in front of Ryder.
Why do men always think I need protecting? She spotted a man in the corner whose eyes were turning red as he lapped at the blood on his hand.
Ryder jumped onto the bar. A hand grabbed her and yanked her back. She grabbed a beer glass and slammed it right into the man’s glowing eyes. Then, she kicked the glasses out of the way, and they smashed on the floor.
Some of the bitten had started to change. There were too many pairs of glowing red eyes to count now.
Out of nowhere, Ryder’s legs were pulled from bene
ath her, and she banged her head on the bar before slamming onto the floor. She was dazed for a second, and then her head started pounding from the blow. She knew that if she stayed down, one of the Mad would bite her, and she’d be done. There was no fucking way she would let that happen.
Ryder flipped over so she was no longer face-down. She was shocked at who was in front of her. It wasn’t a Mad. It was Pavel.
“Pavel, what the fuck?” she spat.
He grinned. “Ryder.”
“Where are the others?” Ryder asked.
“They’re on their way. You know I’m faster than them. Faster than you, too. You’re my kill, traitor.”
“Are you serious right now?” she yelled. “Do you not see what’s going on around us?”
Pavel made a face and shrugged. “That’s why I’m gonna grab your head and get the fuck out of here.”
Ryder wracked her brain for her next move. She had hunted with Pavel for years, so he knew all her moves. If she flipped, he’d be ready with his knife. If she went for his nuts, he’d grab her leg. If she just lay there, he’d stab her. His knives were already in his hands.
She could only think of one decent option. She lunged forward and grabbed his legs, pulling him to the floor.
Before he could right himself or get leverage, Ryder pounced on top of him and pounded her fist into his face. Pavel managed to turn his body, knocking Ryder off him. Then, he was on top, and it was her turn to take the pounding. With all her strength, Ryder bucked him off with her hips, and one of his knives flew out of his hand.
Ryder scrambled for it. Pavel grabbed her feet, pulling her away from the knife.
Then, a pair of boots appeared next to the knife. It was Tightwad. He kicked the knife into her hand and shot her a drunken thumbs-up. Ryder wondered how much water he’d had tonight.
She grabbed the blade, flung her body sideways, and stabbed her former companion in the leg. As he moved instinctively to cradle the wound Ryder quickly pulled the knife out and stabbed upward, slashing him across the face.
Pavel swiped his other knife at Ryder, but she was too fast for the injured man. Ryder lunged at the hunter and sliced his throat. His knife dropped as his hands wrapped around his spurting wound. No amount of pressure would stop that, though. He was a goner.
Pavel was taken care of, but the others would soon be here. One down, two to go. She’d worry about those dickheads when they showed up.
“Ryder, a little help here?” Carter yelled. He was fighting off the Mad.
Ryder hopped on the bar, and this time, nobody stopped her.
It took less than a second to nock an arrow and ensure that she had a clear shot at the Mad. She sighted and fired, then reached for the next arrow before her previous one had embedded itself in the Mad’s brain.
The arrows took Carter by surprise. “How about a warning first?” he shouted over the music.
It took a few seconds for Ryder to work out what Carter was saying over the voices singing about a dead-end world. It was like the music knew what the hell was going on in here.
“Can someone turn that damn music off?” Ryder yelled.
“I’ve got it,” Kelvin said as he worked his way toward the jukebox.
It was like a human obstacle course. Kelvin ducked and swung at the arms of the Mad coming toward him. Kelvin swung his bat as Carter stabbed with his knives and Ryder fired her arrows, attacking the Mad from every angle. Those who weren’t bitten ran out of the Old Dog, leaving the three of them to fight the five remaining Mad.
The trio of undead hunters fell into a rhythm, almost like they’d been killing the Mad together for years. Kelvin and Carter would knock them out of their way, and Ryder would finish them off with a headshot.
By the time Kelvin got to the jukebox, all the Mad were dead. At least, they appeared to be.
“We’re not done yet,” Carter panted. He bent at the waist with his hands on his thighs while he got his breath back. “We have to make sure they have some type of head trauma. Then they don’t come back. Two-tap rule.”
Carter didn’t need to explain any more than that. Ryder and Kelvin knew what the two-tap rule meant. Neither of them wanted to do it, but these people were changed. They were Mad.
Being down didn’t mean they were dead.
Kelvin pounded the first one’s face with the baseball bat, and blood spattered everywhere.
“Wait,” Ryder exclaimed. They all turned to look at her with their weapons held awkwardly in the air, mid-swing. “Will we turn if we touch the blood?”
Kelvin looked down at his blood-covered hands nervously.
Carter shook his head. “Just shut your mouth.”
Ryder drew herself up. “What the fuck did you just say to me?”
Carter laughed. “I mean, don’t get the blood in your mouth. Keep your mouth closed.”
“Oh.” She felt like an idiot for biting without provocation, yet again. “Wait. How the hell did you become the expert in the room?”
“I’m no expert, but we all learned some lessons the hard way back at the settlement,” Carter told her. “If they bite you, you’re infected. If you get blood in your mouth, you get infected. Brain trauma takes them down. And that’s it. That’s all I know. Now, you’re all experts, too.”
Silence hung in the air between them as they tried to process the whole situation. Ryder knelt to examine the nearest undead, trying to glean any kind of answer she could. She got closer, and the blaring sound of a trumpet filled the air.
Ryder jumped as the jukebox started playing ‘Tequila.’ “I thought you turned it off!” she accused.
“I was preoccupied.” Kelvin waved his bloody baseball bat. “Let’s get this over with.”
They all got to work making sure none of the living dead got up again. Oddly enough, the song made the grisly work somewhat less unpleasant.
32
The three of them looked at the bloody mess on the Old Dog’s tiled floor. It was a horror show. “You can come to my house and clean up,” Kelvin told Ryder and Carter.
“Thank you,” they chimed in unison.
Two men walked through the doorway.
One of them—the one who had bumped into Ryder earlier—let out a sigh of relief. The older man’s mouth dropped open as he took in the sight.
Kelvin looked up with a tired grin. “Massimo, Leandro, you’re just in time to help me clean up!”
“What happened?” Massimo asked, looking around the bar with a blank expression.
“One of them wet Mad and started biting everyone,” Kelvin told him. “Then, the people who got bit turned too, and things just spiraled out of control from there. Carter showed us how to two-tap them.”
Massimo nodded in approval. “Good.” The man looked like he was holding in his emotions, and Leandro placed his arm around him.
Massimo turned away from the abattoir. “We’ll clean this up tomorrow. It’s been a long day.” Everyone nodded.
“How rude of me,” Massimo apologized, turning back around. “Where are my manners? It’s so nice to finally meet you, Ryder. You’re as breathtakingly beautiful as Leandro said you were. I’m Leandro’s Pops, Massimo.” Massimo held his hand out for Ryder to shake.
Ryder looked at Leandro and back at Massimo. “It’s nice to meet you, but I’m afraid I don’t know your son—except for when he bumped into me a few hours ago.”
Massimo turned and looked at Leandro, who held his head in his hand. “Leandro?”
“I overheard some men saying that they were looking for you,” Leandro mumbled, trying to veer the conversation away from how Ryder didn’t know who he was. “They were from Afana’s bunker.”
Ryder looked past Massimo and Leandro through the door to the outside for Sergei and Yegor. They should have been here by now.
“Mad! Move!” Ryder yelled as she threw her knife between the two men, who quickly got out of the way. They turned and watched the knife fly past them. It landed right in the approaching Mad’s
eye.
Leandro wasted no time snapping the Mad’s neck, and the Mad dropped. Carter’s smug grin from earlier was gone, and now, it was his turn to raise an eyebrow at Leandro’s strength.
Leandro smiled at Carter. “You need two taps?”
Ryder was also impressed with his strength, but his dress sense was awful. Why do all the men around me have to be little boys trapped in men’s bodies?
“One thing I hate about Pinewood is all the damn zombies,” Massimo said, grinning expectantly. No one else joined him. “Did no one see what I did there?” Everyone else looked at one another, confused.
“What’s a zombie?” Ryder asked, frowning at the strange man.
Massimo sniffed and waved a hand at the rapidly cooling corpses. “My genius is wasted on today’s youth. For the record, you’re missing out on the best vampire movie ever.”
A cold shiver washed over Ryder’s body when Massimo said “vampire.” The thought of there being more than one Afana terrified her.
Leandro shook his head wryly. “Pops, movie trivia isn’t going to work if they haven’t seen the movie. And most people haven’t seen a movie in, like, two hundred—”
Ryder quickly interrupted Leandro. “Where are Afana’s men?”
“I sent them in a different direction,” Massimo told her. “They didn’t seem like very nice men. I hope they weren’t friends of yours.”
Ryder sighed with relief. “They aren’t my friends.”
“Good,” Massimo concluded. “Kelvin, you’d best get yourself home, or you’ll have a divorce on your hands.”
Kelvin looked at the broken clock on the floor. “You’re right. She’s going to be pissed. I’ll see you guys tomorrow. That is, if you two plan on staying.”
Kelvin headed home without waiting for a reply, leaving the four of them staring at each other.
“Where are you two sleeping tonight?” Massimo asked. “And you really need to get that blood cleaned off you quickly before you turn into a zombie.”
Madness Unleashed_Age Of Madness_A Kurtherian Gambit Series Page 18