by Jorja Kish
She watched as the lead Infected turned its opaque orbs toward her and the rest of the horde followed suit. They hunted as a unit and that was why they were relentless and deadly.
The pack didn’t stop until there was nothing left to eat.
Fear made her limbs weak, instead she screamed at the approaching horde. “Come on, you fuckers! You’re going to have to work for this meal!”
A faint outcry from her daughter made Mackenzie’s heart bleed.
She turned without sparing a glance at the huddled women hidden in the shadows. Mackenzie knew she would hesitate if she saw her daughter.
Instead, she sprinted across the open park and headed toward the south side of the forest. She needed to give everyone enough time to escape and find shelter. Being caught in the open like they were was a death sentence. No one else had to die tonight. She just prayed that she could find a hiding spot in the forest and save her ass.
“Oh god, please let me live. Oh god, please save my daughter, save my friends from them,” she haphazardly prayed for the millionth time.
Mackenzie tucked her arms close to her body and forced herself to tune out the hungry wails of the hungry that rapidly followed behind her fleeing body. She knew she only had minutes to find someplace to hide before the horde overtook her and ripped her into pieces as they devoured her alive. More tears blurred her eyes. She scrubbed them away, giving her a few extra seconds to live.
The forest surrounded her twisting body as she crashed into low-hanging branches and gnarled limbs that threatened to tangle her legs. She left a trail even a blind man could follow. It didn’t matter, because even an infected blind man could hunt her down.
Lungs starved of oxygen squeezing the side of her ribs with cramps, Mackenzie’s only thought crammed into her head. What the hell am I doing? Her bravery bordered on lunacy as she jumped over rotten logs and slalomed between trees that were once serene and natural. Instead, the gnarled branches and clever roots lashed out, trying to grab her body in their deadly grip.
Her eyes frantically searched for any place she could burrow into and hide from the marauding Infected. There had to be one spot. She knew these woods like the back of her hand and had traversed them countless of times as a child and teen.
Her mind had grown blank as she ran. Only the heavy breathing and the stitch in her side gave her the strength to lose those fuckers that wailed to catch and devour her.
The images of her fellow neighbours run down and torn into bloody, chunky messes streamed in her mind. She wasn’t about to be a meal for the Infected.
“That’s not going to be me. Do you hear that, you pieces of shit? I’m not going down,” she sobbed with anger.
Newly resolved and just plain stubborn to live, even in this new hell on earth, Mackenzie pumped a burst of speed into her escape.
Her eyes narrowed. Focus on what loomed ahead was the only thing that saved her ass. She caught from the corner of her eyes the hulking shadows of the faster and stronger Infected that managed to break from the floundering horde that chased behind.
Whimpering, Mackenzie tucked her arms tighter to her body and squeezed every ounce of strength into her limbs, shooting her slender body ahead. Terror made her fly through the tangled woods, heedless of her approaching death. The wet moans ran shivers down her back as the Infected gained speed and loped easily beside her tiring body.
“No!” she screamed when the first filthy hand grabbed at her clothes. She twisted and yanked free, only to lose her balance and stumble. It was all the Infected needed to tackle her to the hard forest bed.
Mackenzie crashed onto her knees and instinctively rolled, tucking her head into her chest. The clothes covering her body ripped, barely heard through the ravenous grunts and whines from the grasping Infected. She squirmed and jerked, twisting her body from the clawing hands desperate to cling to her and enfold her limbs into an embrace meant to devour.
“Get away from me,” she shrieked, baring her teeth, wild with horror. She clawed at the soil, kicking out and feeling her shoe hit and sink into a gaping hole that once filled with organs.
The soft squelch muted her terrified wail as she did whatever she could to escape. Blinded from sweat and tears, she yanked her legs away from the groping hands and managed to slip free from the flaying arms and snapping teeth. She rolled on to her knees and pushed forward, barely able to stand from the herculean surge of power that catapulted her into the night. “I’m going to live, I’m going to live,” she chanted, fearing if she said anything else, she’d fold and give up.
Mackenzie booted down the overgrowth, praying that her luck would hold out. She skidded to a stop when the forest opened up unleashing a pack of Infected, racing toward her exhausted limbs from the opposite side of the small clearing. She violently shook her head in denial and screamed in fury.
“No, I’m not going down, you fuckers. I won’t let you do this to me!”
They were herding her toward her doom. She never had a chance. The reality she faced dead on drained every ounce of fight in her body, despite her war cry. She numbly collapsed to her battered knees, eyes furious and tormented. She squared her shoulders, took the last of her courage, and lifted her head to face the horrifying death that loped and wailed before her trembling body.
“I still win, you fuckers. My daughter and friends are safe from you.” I hope, she prayed.
The breeze was cool as it brushed against her sweat-slick skin, making her shiver. The dampness of the foliage and moss that peeped from hidden crevasses was musky, smelling as summer should. Hot tears burned her eyes, her lips quivering and the snap of her teeth chattered from the firestorm of fear.
She opened her mouth as the first twisted and clawed hand reached for her face.
“I’m so sorry, Shayane.”
A blinding light forced Mackenzie to squeeze her eyes shut, before the sensation of weightlessness cocooned her body. Snapshots of strange images whirled inside her head, making it ache. She tried to open her eyes, but her body didn’t seem to work.
Darkness slipped her into unconsciousness and the world slipped away into nothing.
Chapter 8
The shriek of terror and pain ripped out of Mackenzie’s mouth before she could stop it when she jerked into consciousness. “No, get away!”
She fought to open her eyes, feeling a thick gel coating her lashes together. Her fingers clawed at the sticky mass, carefully prying her eyelids open. “What’s wrong with my eyes?” she gasped, her throat raw, almost bleeding from the roughness of each swallow and word uttered.
“It hurts,” she whimpered.
Impenetrable darkness blanketed her unfocused eyes. She doubled over and pitched a growing pool of vomit that erupted from her stomach. Her eyes watered from the stench and her stomach heaved from the deep body throb of pain. There had to be blood on the floor. The sharp pain she felt was best described as acid scorching her throat.
Collapsing to her side, writhing in torment, she rested her sweat-slick head on a hard surface. Mackenzie shuddered from the wracking pain. It felt like six-inch needles slowly inserted just under her skin, but thousands of them at the same time. A low whimper escaped before she forced her eyes to open wider, seeing only darkness.
“What’s wrong with me?” She moaned in pain.
Sweat drenched her skin as another wave of pain cascaded over her limbs, forcing them to quake with the sudden icy tendrils that saturated her every cell. Her body arched from the bitter cold as more hot rivulets of sweat soaked her naked limbs, greasing her skin with the foul odour of sickness and fear. She clenched her teeth, jaws aching from force as she tried to will the vicious, invisible assault on her body to end.
Long minutes, which could have been hours to Mackenzie, passed before the sharp jabs to her skin subsided. She released an exhausted breath and trembled from the weakness that threaded through her muscles. Her eyes were wide, staring into the black void that surrounded her curled body. The darkness that stared back
at her was ominous.
“Hello, can anyone hear me?” she tentatively called out, her voice cracking from the rawness that scratched her trachea.
Silence answered her frightened question.
She rapidly blinked and struggled to lift her hands to wipe her eyes from the sudden tears that filled her sight. The sting to her eyes from the harsh rubbing merely blinked into the same darkness when she reopened them. Shivering, she painstakingly curled her knees to her chest and wrapped one arm around them. Oh my God, what happened? Where am I?
Terror built its slow hold on her mind and body as it drained what little strength she had managed to gather.
Even though her sight was impaired, the hazy images flashed in her head, capturing snippets of memory. Jagged, filthy claws reaching toward her upturned face, their nails tearing into her skin, had Mackenzie frantically patting her cheek, terrified of what she would find.
Only her smooth skin brushed against her open palm. She wilted, drawing her arms around her naked body. “I’m safe,” she whispered with relief.
Hold on, why am I naked?
Mackenzie’s brows furrowed when a blurry memory slid into her mind. She felt hands trailing down her body, touching her intimately, forcing her stomach to heave. Covering her mouth with quivering hands, she didn’t want the pain to come back, so she fought the urge to puke. Everything hurt so bad then, even breathing scraped at her lungs.
A cold sweat washed over her limbs. She whimpered and chewed her lower lip. Somehow, she managed to calm her rapidly panting breath when she began to feel lightheaded.
“Please let this be a dream. Please wake me up safe in my house, with my Shayane grumbling about the hot water tank needing to be bigger.” He voice caught on mentioning her daughter’s name.
Mackenzie took a wavering breath and miraculously found a scrap of strength. She wasn’t about to give up. She was alive, and for that one reason, she had the incentive to find her daughter and kill anything that would stop her.
There was no choice now. She had to be on her game, regardless of her pain, confusion, and the darkness that surrounded her collapsed body. The few thoughts that did manage to jumble around in her head were what forced her to sit upward.
“I’m alive, therefore, I’ll figure out where I am. Someone must have saved me, but…”
Her features contorted. Why was she in darkness? She manoeuvred to her knees, wrapping her arms around them to save her strength as it rapidly depleted from just sitting up. Another thought popped in her mind. Why am I still alive? Nothing made sense to her.
She took a weary breath, her heart slowing its rapid pace, and her limbs stopped the constant shivering. The room wasn’t cold. It was just her nerves whacked out.
Mackenzie cleared her throat and tried to illicit a sound or comment from whoever held her in the room. Well, she hoped it was a room. She tried again, hoping her voice didn’t waver.
“Hello? Is anyone the—”
Blinding white light flashed and a high-pitched shriek echoed into the room, over stimulating every connected synapse in her brain to spill apart in chaos. Mackenzie squeezed her eyes shut and screamed from the painful assault, forcing her to shove her hands over her sensitive ears.
The Klaxon indiscriminately wailed, making her ears vibrate as she cried out, violently shaking her head, trying to stop the intense pain that skyrocketed through her skull. She screamed and bucked from the attack.
In the next rapid breath, the room washed in darkness and the alien-pitched shriek was silent. Whimpering, Mackenzie refused to move and sat frozen, petrified by what happened. Facing the Infected at least gave her a chance to escape, but here she was, completely helpless. That caused Mackenzie to shiver harder.
She curled on the metal floor, too numb to move or even think.
It didn’t take long before her eyes drooped from exhaustion. She fought the compulsion of her body’s shutdown. Mackenzie didn’t want to be unconscious in the sinister room, but the more she fought, the heavier her limbs felt.
Within the next beat of her heart, she slumped toward the floor, losing the battle that may have just saved her sanity.
* * * *
The low hiss and swish from the opposite side of the room opened a slit of gleaming, pale light into the dark room.
A slim tall figure stood in the doorway, motionless.
Whoever was there coldly observed the outline of Mackenzie’s slumped body, before stepping back through the threshold on a booted foot, slipping the cell into darkness again. The glow of pale-fuchsia irises blinked vertically, announcing the otherworldly heritage. The void of emotion that made the stranger sinister was tangible.
“This one is strong. I’ll enjoy breaking her.” He grinned at the promise.
It was the third visit he had made, before the med techs administered the next stage of the metamorphosis that all the captured females underwent.
The tall stranger was dressed in an ebony leather tunic and matching breeches that moulded across his lean, wiry build. He took a step away with his slender hands folded behind his back. He barely glanced at the med techs as they scurried their wiry, shiny bodies toward the cell door. Before the last creature entered the cell, a soft command froze the spindly creature.
“Make sure this female is ready for the Breeding Process within the next cycle. I want her impregnated before we leave this pathetic system.”
The command forced several wild jerks from the smaller creature as it scurried inside the cell. The pungent odour of fear curved a sensuous smile on the stranger’s sharp features and stunning, cruel eyes. Only the coldness in the pink-hued depth revealed his malevolence. “Don’t fail me and kill her like the others. I want this one as well.”
With a sweep, he gracefully pivoted and sauntered down the metal-enforced corridor, passing several locked cells, before he stopped at the fifth door. His mouth broke into a serrated grin of sharp teeth and a sharper appetite.
The door slide opened into a dimly lit room. A dark spark in him wanted to drown in the terror that leaked from bright eyes that matched his. His cock hardened and his breath increased with cruel anticipation. His harsh grin widened as he stepped through the threshold. A frightened whimper and a low wail washed over his approaching form. “Hello, precious. Glad to see me again?”
A shudder lanced through his tight limbs as his graceful fingers pulled a lethal serrated blade from its scabbard strapped to his lean hips. Before the door slide closed, his deep, smooth voice floated into the still air.
“Missed me, slave? You should feel honoured that I am here to introduce you to my brand. If you survive, I may give you the honour as my First Breeder.”
The cell door closed on the female’s terrified wail, sending the corridor into numb silence. The corridor was long, filled with numerous cell doors, and behind each door, a captured female was waiting for the horror to begin or praying for it to end.
* * * *
Mackenzie jerked awake gasping. This time she didn’t feel the searing pain encompassing her entire body. Still naked, her mind a bit fuzzy but with each breath it cleared as she strained to peer through the darkness that still enshrouded her body. As horrible as the fear that lingered was, the silence felt comforting, to a degree. There was no way peering eyes could see through the weight of darkness, at least she hoped, prayed.
Carefully, her arms pressed against the cool floor, lifting her body to a sitting position. She swayed from the exertion as sweat beaded across her forehead. Dammit, she already felt drained just sitting. Her body felt strange, like she was full. With what, she didn’t know, but it was the same sensation of eating too much.
“What is wrong with me?” she whispered softly. She cringed, forgetting for a moment about how the Klaxon blared into the room.
Cautiously, she blinked and immediately knew she was still in the creepy, dark room that held her captive. There was a faint odour that tickled her nose. It was cloyingly sweet and made her stomach curl with discomfor
t. The rest of her body was warm to the touch, as if waiting to plunge into a feverish heat.
Trepidation rolled her to her knees and she crawled forward, her trembling hands searched the floor surface. In a spot at the back of her mind, she trapped her fear and focused on the cool composure that got her through med school, a messy and awful divorce, and the shattering pain of her miscarriages.
“I can do this,” she reminded herself, needing to hear the words regardless of the consequences.
It didn’t matter where she was, for the moment. The only thing that mattered was finding a way out of her cell. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that she was in a cell. Confidence and a renewed spark of determination had Mackenzie moving slowly, methodically, taking the time to map her surroundings. It could mean her life.
It seemed like she crawled forever in the darkness, before her hand tapped against the hard surface of a wall. She inched forward and carefully stood on wobbly legs eager to give out from the lack of use.
Mackenzie took hesitant steps forward as her hand guided along the room. She kept her other hand outstretched in front, just in case something blocked her passage. Slowly, she paced the chamber, taking numerous breaks to gain her wavering strength.
For some reason, her intuition quietly nagged that she just wasn’t in the room for only a day. Her body felt too worn out for just a day. She didn’t know what happened to her while she was unconscious. The mere thought caused her limbs to tremble and her lower lip to quiver. She sniffed loudly and silently cursed.
Where was the woman that took a huge gamble and saved her daughter and the remaining survivors back in Spring Valley? She immediately blanched with the possibility that they could all be dead by now.
“No.” She shook her head, refusing to believe that she failed them. “I saved them, and I know I did.”