The Torn World: The Harvesting Series Book 5

by Melanie Karsak

  Amelia gasped.

  “The injection made it worse,” Zoey said.

  I nodded.

  “Tell Amelia to say goodbye. Her mother is gone. Please give me mercy.”

  “Amelia…”

  “I know,” Amelia whispered.

  “What should we do?” Zoey asked.

  Amelia moved toward her mother.

  “Tell her not to get close. I cannot control myself.”

  “Don’t get close.”

  Amelia stopped.

  “We’ll give her mercy,” I said then reached to take Zoey’s gun.

  “Layla, take Amelia inside,” Zoey told me.

  I looked her in the eye. She had known this woman. Maybe it was better this way. I nodded to Zoey then moved to lead Amelia away.

  “Mom?” Amelia whispered.

  “Goodbye, Amelia. I love you.”

  “She said goodbye and that she loves you.”

  “Goodbye…I love you too,” she said then turned to me and wept as I led her back into the house. I led her into the living room then braced myself, and her, for the sound. It felt like it took an eternity, but in reality, just a moment had passed. The gunshot rang so loudly that both Amelia and I shook.

  A moment later, Zoey joined us.

  “Amelia,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s okay. Thank you, Zoey,” she said, then we went out onto the front porch.

  The moment we stepped outside, however, we all stopped.

  Amelia gasped then moved backward.

  Now we knew where Brighton’s undead were.

  They were here.

  All of them.

  CHAPTER 35: LAYLA

  “OH MY GOD,” ZOEY WHISPERED.

  “Back inside, back inside. Now,” I yelled, pushing the girls back into the house. I slammed the front door closed behind me, locking it.

  “Through the back. Amelia, don’t look.”

  We raced through the back of the house and out onto the back lawn.

  Caroline’s body lay slumped over in the seat, a ghastly gunshot wound to the back of the head. Amelia shielded her eyes. It was a horrific sight, but there was no time to mourn. We ran toward the back fence. Zoey went over, followed by Amelia, just as the undead crashed through the gate surrounding the property.

  “Where did they come from?” Zoey asked as I dropped onto the other side of the fence. We took off in a run.

  “Just had to say it was too quiet, didn’t you?” I told her as we rushed across the neighbor’s lawn and on to the adjoining street. But I knew the truth. I had seen this often enough to know that when the undead showed up en masse, it usually meant the kitsune, and some vampires, were right behind.

  “Witch Wood,” Amelia said. “We need to get back to Witch Wood.”

  “This way,” Zoey said as we raced down the block, turning down a side street.

  “They’re everywhere,” Amelia said as we ran.

  She was right. Around every corner, every side street, the undead thronged.

  The pawns had arrived.

  “Here, here,” Zoey said as she led us into the parking lot of the Brighton Car Cabana. She ran toward the main building as she fumbled in her pockets.

  “Go on,” I called to the girls. “I’ll hold them off.”

  They raced ahead as I stopped to take on the undead who were right behind us. My blade moving fast, I swung at an undead man who grabbed at me. His body was so soft that the sword ripped him in two diagonally from the shoulder to the waist. His body slipped sideways, falling with a mushy splash onto the ground. The heap of purplish and reddish brown guts were loaded with maggots. The smell made me gag. I jumped onto the hood of a car, decapitating the undead woman who came near. Pausing for a moment, I scanned the oncoming horde. They were all decayed. There were none of the others among them.

  Behind me, an engine roared to life.

  “Layla,” Amelia yelled.

  I looked back to see Zoey and Amelia pull out of the showroom in a classic Mustang, the muscle car’s engine rumbling.

  Shaking the blood and guts off my blade, I joined them, sliding onto the bucket seat beside Amelia. I slammed the door shut as Zoey gunned the engine.

  She raced across town toward the old dirt road leading toward Witch Wood.

  “What the actual fuck?” Zoey said. “Where did they all come from?”

  “The kitsune. This is the third time I’ve seen this happen. The undead come first, then the vampires, then the kitsune.”

  “It’s morning, sun is out,” Amelia said.

  “And the vampires are decimated. The undead will reach Witch Wood,” I told them. “The kitsune are leading them.”

  “But we’ll be okay, right?” Zoey asked. “Madame Knightly has enchanted the walls.”

  “With the same magic the kitsune use,” I replied.

  “We need to get back, to warn the others. We need to get everyone out of Witch Wood,” Amelia said.

  “And go where?” Zoey asked.

  “Wait,” Amelia said, setting her hand on Zoey’s arm. “Don’t go directly to Witch Wood. Stop there,” she said, pointing toward a nearly-hidden road along the way.

  “The gorge?”

  “We’ll hide the car and go by foot. The engine is too loud. We don’t want anyone to follow us or…”

  “Or hear us coming.”

  “Shit,” Zoey said, turning the car down the grassy road.

  Zoey pulled the car into a rocky and overgrown parking lot. An old, broken-down wooden fence lined the edge of a steep cliff. Climbing out of the car, I looked over the ledge. Below was a large pool of water. Even from this angle, I could see bodies lying on the banks below.

  “Let’s go,” Zoey said, pulling her gun.

  We ran through the woods toward Witch Wood. Just as we reached the spot in the road near the gate to Witch Wood, Amelia grabbed us both and pulled us down.

  From the cover of the dense forest, we stopped and looked.

  There we saw something we hadn’t expected.

  The gate to Witch Wood was perfectly clear.

  And it had been smashed off its hinges.

  CHAPTER 36: CRICKET

  WHEN I WOKE UP, MY HEAD ACHED and my arm hurt. But I wasn’t a zombie.

  I sat up slowly, inspecting the bandage on my arm. My skin all around the wound looked okay, painful, but not infected. Amber-colored medicine bottles sat on the table beside me. There were a lot of them. No wonder my head felt woozy.

  I smiled to see the little dog I’d found dancing around. I bent to pet him. Yep, definitely woozy.

  “What is it, boy? You excited?” I asked him, but as I watched him prance, I realized what the problem was. He needed to go outside. I looked over at Tristan who was still sleeping. Chase was also snoring in a chair nearby.

  I had to chuckle. Some guard he was. If I had turned into a zombie, he would have been in trouble. But I was fine. There was no use just lying around.

  “Shh,” I whispered to the little dog. “Let’s go.”

  Moving slowly, feeling like I’d had one too many Coronas, I made my way to the front of the house. I’d just let the dog out, get some air, and then come back.

  The house was real quiet. I gave the door a hard shove then followed the little dog outside. He ran, at once, to pee all over the tires of the Jeep we’d nabbed from the car lot. I was surprised to see, however, that the truck was gone. Who’d gone back out? And especially after yesterday?

  I crossed the driveway and leaned against the lamppost while the little dog sniffed all around. When he finished his business, I turned to go back inside. Just then, the dog stopped, his ears and tail poking up on alert.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  And then I saw it.

  At the edge of the field was a glowing ball of blue light.

  “I saw you from the upstairs window. What are you doing outside?” Vella asked, coming up from behind me.

  “Vella?”

  “You sh
ould be resting.”

  “Vella, look,” I said, pointing.

  Vella and I stared as the blue ball of light bounced across the field then over the horizon.

  “Let’s go,” Vella said, following after it.

  This time, I didn’t argue.

  Vella and I followed the light as it moved across the freshly-plowed fields. The light floated toward the back of the property. There was a stream between Madame Knightly’s place and a neighbor’s property.

  The blue light danced toward the edge of the property. There, a thick tree branch had fallen over the wall. Frankie, excited to be on an adventure, climbed up the branch, stopping at the top to look back at us.

  “We need to follow it. But Cricket, how are you?”

  “I feel like I spent all night at a Cinco de Mayo party. But otherwise, I’m good. I can do it,” I told her. “But Vella, how are we going to get back in? As soon as we cross the wall, we won’t be able to find Witch Wood again without help.”

  Vella motioned to the light. “I’m not worried.”

  She was right. “Okay, let’s go.”

  It took a good bit of balance, but I made my way across the fallen branch. Vella went ahead of me, climbing down with Frankie in her arms. When she got to the other side, she set the little dog down then helped me off, careful about my bad arm.

  “You need to go easy. They had to give you stitches. Stop putting yourself in dangerous spots, please.

  “I just couldn’t let Zoey get bit. Dangerous spots? I am in the middle of the woods with you…again, following a weird blue light…again. Talk about dangerous spots.”

  “Last time, the blue light led us to Chase, Darius, and Ariel.”

  “And where are we headed now?” I asked.

  Vella pointed. “Looks like we’re crossing a stream.”

  I frowned as the blue light bounced over the stream then into the field adjacent to Witch Wood.

  “Look,” I said, turning back. Behind us was nothing more than a wall of mist. Witch Wood, which had been as plain as day the moment before, had vanished.

  “The enchantment.” Vella turned her attention back toward the orb of light. “There,” Vella said, pointing to some stepping stones. “We can cross there.”

  Frankie stopped at the side of the stream to drink then went splashing on ahead of us.

  Vella went first, holding onto my good hand to steady me. I was able to stay mostly out of the water, my foot slipping in only twice.

  “Are you okay?” Vella asked when we reached the other side. “You look pale.”

  “My head and stomach are tumbling a bit.”

  Vella frowned then gazed after the light which danced between rows of dead cornstalks.

  “Let’s go,” I told her.

  “Are you sure?”

  I nodded. “If there is something we need to see, let’s go see it.”

  Vella nodded, and we went ahead. I didn’t want to tell her that I felt like I might puke at any minute. But it didn’t matter. We needed to go wherever the light was taking us. I didn’t like that the world I lived in was full of weird spirits and such, but it was what it was. I’d about gotten used to it.

  As we made our way through the corn field, some sort of weird sound came from the direction of Witch Wood. It almost sounded like an explosion.

  Vella and I stopped. The mist around Witch Wood swirled strangely and then, all at once, dissipated. The mansion was clearly visible.

  “Vella?” I said, worry clouding my voice.

  “I see,” she said. “Let’s go.”

  “Something must be wrong. Tristan…we need to go back.”

  “No,” Vella said. “Let’s go,” she said, and we turned and moved more quickly behind the blue light. The corn field provided us with good cover. Not a soul could see us in that field, if they had been looking.

  My heart was pounding in my chest. What was happening at Witch Wood?

  The walk felt like it took forever. My head swam, my chest thumped, my arm arched, and I damned near felt like puking the entire time. By the time we got out of the field, I felt like I might just drop.

  “There,” Vella said, watching as the blue light bounced across the driveway and through a thin crack in the barn door.

  The dog ran ahead of us, slipping into the barn. Vella and I moved more carefully. Vella pushed the door open so we could go inside. The barn windows were old, dirty, and covered in cobwebs. Thin light shone in. I looked all around. There was nothing unusual here, just tractors and other farming equipment, a hayloft, grain bins, and animal pens. There was a small equipment room on one side. The blue light twinkled one last time then disappeared into the room.

  Vella followed it, opening the door.

  I sat down on a tractor tire and wiped the sweat off my brow. I took a couple of deep breaths and tried to calm my stomach.

  “Well?” I called.

  “Interesting,” Vella answered.

  “What’s in there?”

  “Guns. Lots and lots of guns.”

  A noise from outside startled us. It was followed by someone pushing the barn door open even more. Vella reappeared at once, holding what looked like an automatic weapon in her hands. I stood, realizing I had nothing on me, not even my pipe wrench. On top of that, my knees were just about ready to give out.

  Vella lifted the gun, ready to shoot.

  A moment later, Amelia, Zoey, and Layla walked in.

  CHAPTER 37: LAYLA

  “LAYLA?” CRICKET SAID.

  “Cricket? Vella? What are you doing here?” I asked, looking from one to the other. Amelia had led us down a woodland path to a property adjoining Witch Wood in the hopes we could get a look at what was happening.

  “We could ask you the same,” Vella replied.

  “Witch Wood is compromised,” I replied.

  “The loft,” Amelia said. “Maybe we can get a look from there.”

  “Binoculars inside,” Vella said, motioning to the equipment room behind her.

  “Cricket, you okay?” I asked. She looked deathly pale.

  “Might throw up, but I’m not a zombie,” she replied, bending over to take a deep breath.

  “What happened?” I asked Vella.

  She shook her head. “I don’t know. We were outside. We were…led here. Next thing we knew, we heard an explosion at Witch Wood, and then the mist lifted.”

  “The town is crawling with the undead,” I said. “That’s where we were. There are so many.”

  “Just like at Claddagh-Basel,” Cricket said.

  “And in Hamletville before that.”

  “Then the kitsune have found us,” Vella said.

  “But what about Tristan, Logan, and Madame Knightly? I mean, they won’t start anything with them,” Cricket said.

  “Who knows what the kitsune are capable of,” I replied. “Tristan’s people have honor. They don’t. And now that their king is gone—”

  “They will be out for blood,” Vella finished for me.

  “Where did you get that?” I asked her, looking at the gun she was holding.

  She motioned over her shoulder. “Inside.”

  “I see movement,” Zoey called from the loft above. “It’s Logan and two strangers. The others are being led outside too.”

  “Others? All of them?” I asked, my heart beating hard. Kira and Susan were going to be terrified.

  “Yes.”

  “We need to go. Now,” I said. In the equipment room, I started pulling guns off the wall, digging through the boxes of ammo, loading them.

  Amelia and Zoey climbed back down to join us.

  “We need to get to our people before the undead get here,” I said as I loaded the guns, handing them to the girls. Amelia looked at the weapon like she had no idea what to do with it.

  “Okay,” Vella said. “But how?”

  “If we can take out the kitsune, I can pull up the enchantment around Witch Wood before the zombies arrive,” Amelia said.

  “How m
any kitsune were there?” I asked.

  Zoey shook her head. “A lot. Maybe twenty or more people I didn’t recognize.”

  We all looked at one another.

  “We could try to bargain,” Cricket offered.

  “With them?” Vella said.

  “Madame Knightly will try diplomacy, but in the end, she, Tristan, and Logan will be forced to choose a side,” I said.

  “You know Tristan will protect us,” Cricket said.

  “Layla, what should we do?” Zoey asked.

  I looked down at my blade. “We were not meant to survive this. We were not meant to live. But we have. We are alive. And we can survive the undead. The vampires are nearly decimated. The kitsune…they will never be satisfied until we are all dead. I killed their king, and I’ll kill the rest of them too, or as many of them as I have to. We need to fight. If we give in now, we’re as good as done, and I promised those little girls I’d protect them. I’ve lost everything else, but I’ll die on my feet before I let a horde of zombies or some damned faerie people with a vengeance wipe out the last of my friends. We attack. We get everyone we can, then we head into the maze.”

  “To where?” Cricket asked.

  “Home. To Hamletville.”

  “But then what?” Vella asked.

  I looked at Cricket, remembering our conversation about Vella’s cards. I smiled at Vella then motioned to Amelia. “Then, the High Priestess.”

  CHAPTER 38: LAYLA

  “YOU GOING TO BE ALL RIGHT?” I asked Cricket as she checked her gun.

  “Gotta save the living,” she said, slipping a magazine into her weapon.

  Adjusting the two automatics I had slung over my shoulders, I checked my boot daggers. Everything was ready.

  “Who knew Mister Sanders had so many guns,” Amelia said with a shake of the head. “He used to shoot clay pigeons. I would see him outside with a shotgun from time to time, but I didn’t know he was—”

  “A gun nut?” Zoey finished. “This should come in handy,” she said, holding the sharp sickle she’d found on the barn wall.

  “Oh yeah,” I replied.

  Zoey gave the blade a twirl. “Time for the harvesting.”