Righteous Apostate: Raptor Apocalypse Book 3

by Steve R. Yeager

  Noah indicated toward Cory, and the man in the knit cap joined the other in the baseball cap and shoved Cory forward until he was beside Jesse.

  “You look like shit,” Cory said to Jesse.

  Jesse tried to laugh, but it hurt too much to do so.

  “You have the virus?” Cory asked.

  Noah stopped in front of him. “Yes, I already have the virus. You think I was stupid enough to leave it behind when we destroyed that place? The ink was what I needed. Sadly, what we brought along got destroyed. But now we have you, dear boy. Until you came along, I was the only one left that still had the marks. The virus I’ve had for some time. We’ve even tried to use it. A couple of times, actually. You remember Tim, right? Sadly, even with him it did not work. It has always failed to work without the proper catalyst.”

  “Not about to sacrifice yourself then?” Cory asked.

  “You are a smart boy. I never felt it was my place to make such a sacrifice. God didn’t want that, so He delivered you unto us just in the nick of time. The ink I sent Eve after was just a backup. More of a bonus, mind you. Yet, it is still important.”

  “You are a monster,” Eve said. “You are no servant of God.”

  “No, my dear, I am. I am His humble instrument of destruction. Through me, We destroyed the wicked infesting this planet. Through Us, the world has been reborn. Think of all those idiots who are gone now. All those unless people and their wanton pollution of the land and sea. Think of all the sins we have now set to right. Global warming, global cooling. What does it matter now? Mankind will no longer be the cause of it. America is no more, my dear. And the country that was once the most evil force the world has ever seen, founded by slave owners and capitalist pigs and destroyers of the planet is now gone. All of them are now dead. Through God, that whole vile country and culture have been completely destroyed. We now have truly created a new world order.”

  Jesse hung his head. Everything was finally adding up. He tried to raise himself from his chair and pull at his bonds one more time.

  Nothing.

  “Ah ah ah,” Noah said catching Jesse attempting to free himself.

  He grabbed Eve by the arm and held her in front of him. “Final chance, my dear.”

  She shook her head. “Only when Jenny is gone,” she said defiantly.

  Nodding slowly, purposefully, Noah circled behind Jesse.

  Jesse couldn’t see what was happening, but judging by the new look of horror on Eve’s face, it wasn’t going to be pleasant.

  -28-

  NO MORE HITCHHIKING

  EVE KNEW SHE couldn’t give in now. Not until she got what she wanted. Jenny had to go. Jenny, the destroyer, the wrecker. She had stolen away Eve’s man and had pushed her in second place.

  She needed to pay for that.

  Eve also recognized this was only Noah in one of his moods. He always snapped out of it after he’d knocked someone around for a while. Plus, Jesse was a strong man. He could take a few punches before Noah finally gave up and gave in to her demand.

  Another snap of Noah’s belt caught Jesse solidly on the jaw. Jesse’s head flipped back then slumped forward to his chest. Blood ran freely from his lips. His eyes had swollen almost completely shut, and he was mumbling and unresponsive.

  It hurt her to do this to him, but she knew if he could hold out, so could she. She would win—eventually—even if that meant Jesse had to pay the price for it.

  Jenny just had to go.

  Noah stepped back and adjusted the belt in his hands. The leather was already stained red with blood. Ryan put a hand under Jesse’s chin and propped his head up, tilting his face from side to side for Noah to inspect.

  Eve looked at the ropes holding Jesse to the chair. One of Jesse’s wrists was bound tightly to the armrest. His other was bound to the chair leg behind him. His ankles were bound to the two study front legs. The ropes holding him in place had already cut deeply into the flesh of his forearm, and his face was a crisscross pattern of angry red gashes.

  Cory sat motionless. His eyes remained two black orbs judging her for what she’d done. She wanted to explain to him what she was doing and why she had done it, but she knew he wouldn’t understand. He would never understand.

  She had seen others tortured before. Cyrus had shown her what real torture looked like. This wasn’t real torture. Not even close. This would end soon. She knew it. It just had to. Noah was nowhere near as vicious as Cyrus. So, all she had to do was to wait it out.

  But, Jesse. She couldn’t stop thinking about him. She’d betrayed him when all he had done was to try to help her. She swallowed and tasted the blood in her mouth from her cut lip. It seemed tainted somehow.

  Noah adjusted the belt his hands. “Do you know how many spots there are on a man’s body sensitive to pain?”

  She did not respond.

  “No? Maybe by the end of this you will.”

  He was bluffing. She knew it.

  “You really do hate her, don’t you?”

  Eve nodded.

  “What did she ever do to you, girl?”

  Eve said nothing. She couldn’t tell him. He’d never understand. He’d think it was childish and stupid. But she had her reasons.

  Matt handed Noah a baseball bat. The wood of the bat was stained black with dried blood.

  “What are you going to do with that?” Eve asked.

  Noah ran his hand up the length of the bat. “Maybe I should start slow? Or, maybe I should start fast and just bash his teeth out.” He wound up and threatened to hit Jesse in the face with the bat. Jesse’s head tilted to the right and he was moaning incomprehensibly. He would be completely vulnerable to whatever Noah had in mind to do next.

  Gurgling on blood and spittle, Jesse shook his head slowly. He returned a look of pure hatred.

  “Oh, that’s what I like to see,” Noah said, stepping away. “He’s a brave one, don’t you think, my dear? Busting out his teeth would be too quick. I think we can ultimately salvage him, don’t you? So, for me to break another of God’s children like this for no good reason? No, I think not.” He smiled. “Not just yet, that is.”

  Ryan and Matt nodded.

  “Maybe we should try something else first? Maybe he needs a little loving?” Noah made an obscene gesture with the bat. “Maybe you’d like to get in on it too, Eve. Maybe, for once, you’d like to be on the giving end instead of the receiving end.” He showed her the tip of the bat. It was broken and splintered.

  No, she thought. He’d never do it. He was not that kind of monster. He was a man of God.

  “Still not going to tell me?” he said. “Pity, that.”

  He spun and drove the bat into Jesse’s stomach. Jesse’s body drew itself together, but the ropes binding him to the chair prevented him from protecting himself. He heaved a couple of times and stared back at Noah with bloodshot eyes and drool running from his fattened lips. His face had swollen to at least double its normal size.

  “Now we’re getting down to business. We have plenty of time now that Cory has decided to come to us instead of us going to him. Plenty of time. I do hope you will tell me soon where you have hidden it. For both their sakes. I suspect neither will last long once we really get going. But if you tell me now, I’ll stop, and they can go free. You have my word on that.”

  Jesse twisted, trying to get off the seat of the chair.

  “No?” Noah asked.

  She said nothing.

  He grabbed her by the front of her shirt and spun her around, smacking her in the side of the head with a savage blow, and then kicking her to the floor. She tried to open her mouth to cry out, but couldn’t. He’d loosened some of her teeth. She began to cry as she curled up on the floor again.

  “Raise her,” Noah said.

  Ryan and Matt cupped her under her arms and lifted her to standing then turned her to face Noah. Her breathing was tortured, rasping. He had to give up. Had to, her mind told her, as long as she held on. She must not give in. Not now.
r />   “Tell me where it is!” he bellowed down at her.

  She winced, drawing herself into a tight ball, feeling his spittle landing on her face. He bent and pinched her jaw viselike in his hand. He lifted and squeezed harder. Harder still. She could feel her teeth moving about in her mouth. He held her rock steady and glared into her eyes. Then he shifted her head from side to side before yanking his hand away and letting her head drop to her chest.

  “I could torture them all day,” he said while straightening and adjusting his shirt. “But maybe I am wasting my time.”

  She said nothing. He was bluffing again.

  “Odd how the human brain works,” he mused. “I could torture each of them until the pain becomes excruciating beyond belief. Do you know what happens to a man who has been tortured so? If he doesn’t break quickly, he actually learns to enjoy the suffering. Odd, is it not? The feeling becomes almost sexual in nature. He begins to crave the pain and takes pleasure in the efforts to break him. So interesting… But do you know what I get?”

  She again said nothing. He looked as though he was going to scream at her. She curled up tighter and recoiled away from him.

  But he did not scream at her. Instead, he said in a level, easy voice, “All I get is a lot of blood on my carpet and floors, and no results. It’s far too messy, really. This is why I enjoy using the bat so much. It keeps most of the damage locked up inside.” He held up the bat, admiring it. “But, if I keep the blood inside, how am I to convince you to tell me what I want to know? If I smash his teeth out, I also get blood on my carpets. Do you know how hard it is to clean blood out of these carpets? Much less the wood floor. And, so far, he has created enough of a mess already.” He pointed at the pool of blood near Jesse’s feet. “But if I break his leg, maybe you don’t necessarily see the damage that’s done. It is an interesting dilemma, don’t you think?”

  Eve pulled herself up using the sofa and stood tall. She stayed out of Noah’s range and did her best to keep her internal emotions from bursting through the thin veil she had painted on her face.

  “No?” he asked her mockingly. “You don’t think so? I find torture to be ineffective unless the one I am torturing is too weak to put up with it for long. These two? I’m not sure they will ever break. But you, my dear…”

  Jesse moaned something. His lips writhed and mumbled sounds came out. He was trying to say something.

  “It seems your friend has something to say.”

  “I’m getting thirsty,” Jesse croaked. “You planning…on…finishing soon?”

  Noah’s smile widened, and he pointed at Jesse with the bat. “I like this one.” He went to the table and grabbed a clear glass pitcher filled with water.

  “Thirsty, you say?” he asked as he returned to Jesse.

  With one rapid motion, he grabbed Jesse by the hair and yanked his head back. He poured water up Jesse’s nose and into his mouth. Jesse’s whole body trembled and stiffened, spasming wildly.

  “It’s like drowning slowly,” Noah said. “He knows he can’t breathe. If he does, he sucks in the water. But his body instinctively knows what it should do. Get away. Make it stop… So, really, he can’t help himself. Just watch how he reacts.”

  Jesse twitched and bucked, going into convulsions as the water continued to pour over his nose and mouth. Soon the water in the pitcher ran dry. Noah shoved Jesse’s head forward, leaving him sputtering and coughing up water and blood. Before the coughing ceased, Noah hit him again in the stomach.

  “Stop that!” Eve shouted.

  Jesse’s head sank to his chest. He looked as though he had lost consciousness.

  “Are you going to tell me now?”

  “I can’t…” she said, “Jenny. Need to…”

  Then she realized she no longer wanted Jenny gone. This had gone much too far. She couldn’t let Jesse die. Not over this.

  “Shall we continue?” Noah asked.

  Jesse groaned and came awake with a start. Cory wriggled and thrashed in his chair. Ryan stepped forward and backhanded Cory across the jaw, causing Cory to growl like an animal. Noah raised the bat and threatened to smash Cory’s teeth with it.

  “We don’t need his face,” he said. “Just what’s inside him. A little surface damage won’t hurt. It might even tenderize him a bit. Make him more palatable.”

  Cory tried to hop his chair forward. It scraped forward an inch and stopped.

  “Oh yes, you thought we’d forgotten about you? No, my dear boy, no. Ryan?”

  Ryan left the room and returned with a small leather case.

  “What is that?” Eve asked.

  “This, my dear, is the final solution…literally. It is what your friend and his sword have come all this way to find. So, isn’t it fitting he is now going to be the one who finishes what we started nearly nine years ago? He will be the planet’s new savior. Shame, though. It’s too bad he won’t live long enough to experience all the accolades and the wonderful new world of the future.”

  “You’re crazy,” Eve said.

  “Oh, my dear, how little you know.” Noah withdrew a hypodermic needle from the small case. “Did you know I was going to be the one? I was actually planning to sacrifice myself for the good of humanity if you never returned. But God spoke to me on night. He told me to wait a little longer, and that I would be rewarded for my patience. So, I waited. And, wouldn’t you know it? God was right.”

  Noah chuckled as he filled the hypodermic needle from a small vial.

  “But, you see, this is nearly the last dose of the virus. After all this time it still may not work, which is why I asked you where you have hidden the ink I sent you to retrieve. But, we do have Cory. He has what we need. His tattoo is even more distinct than mine, so we have a very good chance the virus will work this time around.”

  He knelt down in front of Cory and rubbed the knuckles of Cory’s right hand. “See these? They are faded, just as my own are, but not nearly as much. This is why we needed the ink, my dear. If you would have given it to me in the first place, I could have spared him. But now? I am afraid not.” Noah injected the needle into the backside of Cory’s hand.

  “No,” Eve breathed.

  Cory struggled and tried to pull away. Ryan and Matt stabilized him.

  “And what is your final answer, dear Eve?”

  “What about Jenny?”

  Noah laughed as he stood. “Are you still so concerned over her? Do you think I give a shit about her? I’ve always loved you, Eve. Always. So, just tell me where it is.”

  His eyes were pleading and no longer menacing. She saw forgiveness in them. Maybe she had won. She could still save Jesse and Cory if she just gave in and told him. They should not have to die for her. They may not understand why she had done what she had, but at least they would be alive.

  She had held out long enough.

  “And now, final answer, my dear. Will you tell me?” He lowered his head and gazed at her through his upturned eyes.

  Jesse came awake. He was shaking his head. His eyes were going wide, as though he wanted to say something. Of course he was worried about Kate. Maybe that was it. He had put together where she had stashed the ink. But Eve also knew that Noah would not harm Kate. He’d recruit her, much as Cyrus had. She would even vouch for Kate if Noah ever found her. No one had to get hurt.

  “Okay,” Eve said. “I’ll tell you.”

  Jesse moaned, dropping his head to his chest.

  Eve knew this was for the best. Even if he didn’t know it yet. She went on to tell Noah where she had stashed the ink. But what she told him was a lie, and Jesse and Cory had reacted perfectly to it.

  “So it must be the truth,” Noah said after she had finished. “Finally, dear girl. Finally.”

  He patted her on the cheek and went to a bookshelf. From one of the higher shelves, he retrieved a pair of gardening shears. He opened and tested them.

  They squeaked.

  “What are those for?” Eve asked.

  “You know it
is never smart to leave behind a threat when it can be so easily avoided,” he said. “You’d be surprised how many times I’ve made that mistake. Far too many. But I’ve learned my lessons well.”

  “What are you doing?” she asked, a hint of panic creeping into her voice. “I told you what you wanted to know.”

  “I know my dear girl, I know.”

  Noah stepped in front of Jesse and held up the shears. Ryan and Matt joined him. Matt nodded, circling behind Jesse. He pulled a gag over Jesse’s mouth and yanked it tightly between his teeth, forcing Jesse to sit up straight.

  Noah chose the pinky finger first.

  “This little piggy went to market.” He clipped Jesse’s pinky at the second knuckle. Two knuckles worth of finger dropped to the floor, where it rolled onto one of the throw rugs.

  Eve stared at it in horror. Jesse’s eyes widened and he tried to scream, but it came out only as muffled grunts through the gag.

  Noah put the shears on the ring finger next.

  “This little piggy stayed home.”

  He cut, and the next finger dropped away and rolled in the opposite direction from the first and ended up under the sofa.

  Noah switched to the other side, to Jesse’s index finger. Jesse squirmed in his chair, blood already pulsing out of his two missing fingers. Noah readjusted. He set the clippers over the index finger and began to squeeze the handles of the shears.

  “This little piggy tried to shoot us.”

  Jesse’s eyes bulged wider. He rapidly shook his head back and forth.

  “Please,” Eve said. “I told you what you wanted to know. Please. Don’t.”

  Noah grinned at her and turned back to Jesse.

  Staring at Eve, he clamped down on the handle of the shears, cutting off Jesse’s index finger at the second knuckle. The severed piece of flesh and bone dropped to the floor, leaving only the middle finger and thumb. Jesse shook violently, repeatedly drawing back in the chair, and wriggling to free himself.

  But he could not get free.

  Noah repositioned himself again. He stuck the shears over Jesse’s thumb and began to cut.

  “No!” Eve shouted. She grabbed Noah’s arm and tried to yank him backward. “Don’t. Please, don’t,” she said, crying hysterically.