by Tigris Eden
Diamond and Marius had come to an understanding. He ruled the city, and Marius controlled the Ragers. Yesterday, when he’d witnessed the Ragers and their death procession, it was the first time he realized just how bad things were outside of the Quarry walls. Now, Marius was blocking his path back to the Quarry. Buy why?
“I know you’re in the first car. I can smell your stench from a mile away. Come out and talk to me. We’re still friends, right?”
“Is the guy serious?” Lip questioned.
Even Lip was clueless when it came to the precarious relationship between Diamond and Marius. It was rumored that Ragers couldn’t be reasoned with. It wasn’t entirely true. There were two kinds of Ragers. Both preferred flesh, but only one could control their hunger. The ones truly mad with their desire for human flesh were put down. It was clear to both Marius and Diamond that they needed to be dealt with. It was one of the main reasons for their truce. If Marius took care of the Descended, Diamond would look away when people went missing. The Descended were mindless Ragers with no rationale, judgment, or reasoning. They only had one thing on their minds, and that was food. You could tell a Rager from a Descended because they looked desiccated and starved. Their skin tight against their bones and muscles, their faces sunken in, and their gums almost non-existent. Marius would let them loose when things got out of hand, then round them up and put them back in their cages. It was a way to control the population without an all-out war. Marius mostly took the old, but, at times, would take rebels from the inner-city gangs who were becoming a bit of a problem. But he also handled the Descended population with monthly cullings.
Marius never attacked, and he sure as hell shouldn’t be making an appearance in the middle of the street, blocking Diamond’s motorcade from reaching the Quarry. Something was up.
“Stay in the car, I can handle this.”
Diamond stepped out, motioning for the guy manning the gun on top of the second car to back down. He approached the group of Ragers slowly, carefully. Not wanting to set anyone off into a feeding frenzy. Sadly, that wasn’t uncommon. Even Marius was unpredictable that way. Phyr jumping from the car hadn’t helped the tension, and he hoped wherever the man was perched, he saw the sign to not engage.
“Marius.”
“Diamond.”
Marius stepped from behind two giant dogs. The beast’s shoulders were hunched and poised for attack.
“Why are you blocking my path back to the Quarry?”
Marius was just as big as he was, if not bigger. He was dressed in a long, black duster with holes in the shoulder where he kept two long hatchets. A ripped tank and leather pants rounded out his outfit. The male didn’t wear face gear. He kept his face uncovered. But he had a fascination with war paint. It covered the top of his face—a blood-red layer brought down to points just below his cheeks. His hair was pulled back into a severe bun on the top of his head. His face, clean-shaven, showed evidence of his condition. His pupils were dilated, taking everything in—the whites of his eyes almost completely consumed by red veins. There was something new Diamond hadn’t noticed before, though. Black veins scaled the side of Marius’s neck and the underside of his jaw.
“Good question. I could ask why you’re traveling, but I already know the answer. Attia.”
It seemed everyone knew of Attia’s plans.
“What about Attia?” Diamond played dumb.
“She’s coming to lay waste to the Quarry, hoping you’re in it. I even hear she’s coming for something very specific. Very rare.”
There was nothing rare about Nadya, except her virgin status.
“I don’t know who she’s looking for, but I don’t have them.”
Marius smiled, showing sharp teeth. When he’d first succumbed to the Rage, he made sure to have his teeth sharpened. It made tearing into the flesh of his victims easier. He took a deep breath, as if sniffing the air.
“I can smell her on you.” Marius turned and whistled, and a young male stepped forward—a body topped by sandy-brown hair caked with dried blood. “Rory, is this who you saw earlier by the slaughterhouse? Was it him?”
The young Rager looked at Diamond and answered, “It is. He has her.”
Marius turned back to Diamond. “See, you have her.”
Shit.
Marius wanted what was his.
“You can’t have her. You can’t afford her.”
Marius contemplated Diamond’s response before answering, “I can afford her. We are better able to handle her than you are. She’s to be one of us.”
“She doesn’t want that.”
“You can’t know that. She’ll do anything for me!” the male with the sandy-brown hair yelled.
The car door opened and Nadya stepped out.
“I tried to get her to stay in the car, but she wouldn’t,” Lip explained.
Whatever. Lip was nosy. He wanted to see Marius.
“Rory?” Nadya stepped closer. Her eyes taking in the Rager.
“Marius, you look like shit,” Lip tossed out.
Two simultaneous reunions.
Marius laughed. “Thanks, little brother, it’s good to see you, too.” They weren’t really brothers, but they may as well have been. Marius had taken Lip in when he was still wet behind the ears. Trained him, and gave him purpose. Lip didn’t like to be reminded of his connection to the other male, but he knew when to be polite, if not civil.
“Nadya, you need to come with us.”
Diamond watched as her body went rigid. Her eyes looked over at the large group of flesh-eating Ragers. He thought she might have even been counting, the way her eyes took in the crowd.
“Nadya, Rory has been worried sick about you. I’ve been worried.”
Marius, worried sick?
“Worried, huh?” she asked. “You eat flesh, Rory. I think you should be more concerned with who you keep company with.”
“Don’t say that,” Rory pleaded. His eyes were still clear but slowly changing.
“She stays.”
Nadya looked at Diamond and smiled. She was up to something.
She turned her attention to Rory, who was eating her up with his eyes. Not like he missed her, but like she was next up on the fucker’s menu of good eats.
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” she told Rory.
“D’ya, be serious.”
She flinched at his nickname. Nadya took a step toward Rory. Her entire frame tight.
“Adya, you don’t have to go anywhere with them. You’re under contract with me now,” Diamond countered.
“That may be true, but I’m not sure I want to go anywhere with you either.”
The male Rager took a step toward them then, and Lip drew his weapon. Nadya stayed him with her hand.
“I’m fine, Lip. I got this.” She looked at Marius as she stepped closer to Rory; five steps and she was in front of him. She leaned forward to whisper something in his ear. The male gripped her waist, and Nadya seemed to relax, her eyes on Marius the entire time. Rory’s body jerked violently before he fell lifelessly to the ground. His heart in the palm of Nadya’s hand. Her eyes a molten mercury, she glared at Marius as she tossed Rory’s heart at his feet.
“I will end you before I let you take me. You hear me?” she yelled, her voice harsh. There was no fear, only determination.
Too stunned to speak, Diamond swallowed. He was trying to find the words. Trying to form a reasonable explanation for what his eyes had witnessed.
“D’ya, you can’t run from me. I’ll find you,” Marius growled.
She had a better chance with Diamond at the Quarry than she did with Marius and his man-eating clan. Her fearless display of defiance towards Marius was awe-inspiring. She’d looked the Rager in the eye and not only offered her verbal defiance, but also asserted her will using brute force.
“She comes with me,” Diamond repeated.
Nadya looked up at him, hatred and fury pouring from her eyes. He wasn’t concerned with her feelings. She was st
ill under contract. You should be concerned, his mind supplied.
“Nadya, come.”
Diamond turned and made his way back to the car. Marius wasn’t going to attack.
“Don’t be a stranger, little brother. There’s always a spot right here on the winning side.”
“No thanks. I don’t dine on my people. Messes with my complexion. But you have fun with that,” Lip said.
“Nadya. Come. Now.” Diamond rasped.
Her body jolted at his words. She didn’t move. Not for long seconds. She stood there, between the vehicles and the Ragers, the blood on her hands dripping on the asphalt. Marius held out his hand as if she might walk to him. In a last ditch effort Diamond should have seen coming, she bolted. Ran right down a side street and into the darkness.
“She’s amazing, isn’t she?” he heard Marius say, before the male turned and led his men in a different direction.
Chapter 11
Nadya didn’t think twice about her options. She saw her window and took it. She had weapons and food in her pack and what was left of their medical supplies. She could make it. Would make it. Her boots hit the pavement hard, pushing her deeper and deeper into the darkness until her chest burned and her clothes were soaked with sweat. She didn’t hear the others following her, but it didn’t mean they weren’t. She’d killed Rory. She’d acted purely on instinct. Her aim true, her hand punching through his chest cavity with such ease. She hadn’t questioned it. Her mind had given her an image—the soft patch of skin easily penetrated. She knew her kind were the only ones who were capable of that kind of strength. She’d accumulated enough memory snippets to tell her that much. Her only issue, she had no clue who—or what—her kind was. Marius hadn’t looked shocked. He’d looked pleased, even impressed with her show of force. She hadn’t realized her own strength until after it was all over. Diamond, on the other hand, had been rocked by her actions. Still, his pride had him thinking he controlled her.
He didn’t.
Nadya looked left then right. Trying to gauge exactly where she’d run to, but couldn’t pinpoint her exact location. There were abandoned buildings on either side of her, the windowpanes no longer there, lending to the already eerie atmosphere. She thought she saw movement in one of the windows but ignored it and kept moving. The street signs were all gone in the section she was in. Trash littered the ground, and roots from deep beneath the concrete pushed through, making her journey cumbersome.
Nadya reached a section of street that was completely flooded. Charred vehicles half in, half out of the water littered her path. A bus was turned on its side with the beginnings of a tree growing out of one of its side windows. There were sandbags piled high. Someone had tried to keep the water from seeping through, but they were doing a poor job. The buildings on either side of the street were completely covered by thorny vines. The smell alone was enough to make her turn around. You have to keep moving forward.
Nadya pulled her mask over her face, hoping to block out the smell. She hoped her boots were water resistant; her feet had remained dry when she’d fallen into the mud hole. Bottom line, she needed to get to the other side quickly and find a place where she could hole up for the rest of the night.
She’d have to use the cars to get across. If the tires weren’t touching the ground, she could maybe paddle her way to the other side. Impossible. The cars will be too heavy for one person to maneuver alone. She had to try something. If Diamond or Marius caught up with her, it was going to be her ass. There was a long branch growing out of the sidewalk a few feet away. It’d make for a good tool to test the depth of the water. She hadn’t forgotten about Phyr. He was out there somewhere with her. Likely following her, or worse, tracking her.
Nadya yanked the stick from the ground, secured her pack, and made sure her weapons were strapped down before taking the first step towards the water. She adjusted her headgear and was happy that she had a glow stick in her pack. That and her goggles were the only things lighting her way. At first look, it appeared the water wasn’t that deep at all. There was an old car with some sort of lights fastened on top. It was her starting point. With sure footing, she made it up to the top of the car without incident. Slowly, Nadya made her way to the front of the car, as far as she could go, and leapt to the next car.
She made it all the way to the bus before she realized her mistake. The water was a lot deeper than she’d anticipated, and the bus was filled with bodies. They were past the point of decomposition. Some were all bones with rotted clothes. Others looked fresh and bloated. The smell was offensive and made her gag. It was clear that everyone on the bus was dead. When she made it to the roof of the bus, she became physically ill. The smell was really starting to get to her. The bus was blocking out a large part of the water source. There were cars stacked high on either side, but there was nowhere to go. She had two choices. She could swim the rest of the way, though she didn’t know how far of a swim it would be, seeing as there was no sign of dry anything for as far as she could see. And that meant she’d have to contend with whatever was in the water. Or she could climb the railway bridge and walk the tracks. The buildings on either side of her were lined with the spiny vines, and though they looked dead, she was reluctant to take the chance.
There was a sound to her left, and Nadya turned, aiming her sawed-off in the direction of the sound. Nothing. There was nothing there. Shouldering her gun, she contemplated how she was going to maneuver the railway. There weren’t any footholds she could see that could assist her in getting to the top.
Fuck.
“Shit.”
She looked for something to help her climb the railway bridge and kept coming up short. She was about to give up when she heard the moans. It was coming from inside of the bus. Some of the windows were closed, and her goggles weren’t doing the job of seeing inside, and her glow stick wasn’t bright enough to see all the way inside. A loud slap against the window right below her feet alerted her to the gruesome face beneath. It wasn’t just one Rager, but several. They looked abnormally different from the Ragers she was used to seeing. These looked far past the state of living. By all accounts, they should be dead—their skin grey, and eye sockets sunken in. Their eyes, colorless and large, were bloodthirsty as they continued to bang against the window of the bus. Trying to get to her.
They are going to break through.
No sooner had the thought occurred, then the glass beneath her broke and something had hold of her foot, trying to pull her down. Nadya would have screamed, but she was already in survival mode. Using the branch in her hand to hold her steady, she balanced on one leg as a grey, bony hand tried to pull her through. There was the sound of gunfire whizzing past her, and one bullet clipped the metal of the bus right at her feet.
“What the fuck?”
Another bullet sailed by, this one going through the wrist attached to the hand trying to pull her into the window. Nadya looked up to see where the shots were coming from and noticed a lone figure in the broken window of a vacant building. She couldn’t tell who it was, but was grateful either way. When her foot was freed, she made her way to the tail end of the bus, closest to the railway, and was about to jump when another hand grabbed her ankle, propelling her forward. Half her body was atop of the bus, while the other half dangled loosely, inches from the murky water below. This was not happening. She was smarter than this, faster. The firing stopped, and the bus rocked when the shooter landed on top. Nadya couldn’t see who it was; she was too busy looking at the items from her backpack floating on top of the water. Great. Just great.
There was nothing to be done about it now, and it looked like she was going to go swimming. In nasty-ass water. The hand at her ankle shook, and jerked, trying to pull her up, and Nadya tried to make her weight as heavy as she could. She’d rather be dropped into the unknown depths of the water than munched on by a Rager.
“Hold still, woman. I’m trying to pull you up.”
“Phyr?”
Startled—
and maybe even a little shocked it was Phyr and not a Rager—Nadya stopped struggling and allowed herself to be lifted.
“You’re a lot of trouble.”
“You mean I’m in a lot of trouble.”
“That, too.”
Phyr’s chest moved rapidly as he tried to catch his breath. His hair was damp, the long strands wavy. His blue eyes were murderous as he stared at her for long moments.
“I’ve never met a Raema as idiotic as you. What tribe are you from?” Phyr asked.
Raema? What the hell was that? Although the word vaguely resonated with her, she wasn’t sure if it was from some memory or if she’d heard the word in passing.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not a Raema.”
“Sure you’re not.”
“I’m not.”
At least, she didn’t think she was.
“Seriously, I don’t have time for your lies. I’m Bloodborne. I know exactly what you are. You were trying to get up to the railway, let’s go.”
Now she was really confused. Bloodborne? What the hell was that? But when he’d said the words, her mind immediately accepted them as true. Almost as if she’d heard them somewhere. Sometime.
Phyr moved with stealth and speed as he pulled something from his side and shot it into the wall of the railway bridge. He tugged to ensure it was strong enough before turning back to Nadya.
“It’s strong enough to hold the both of us. Hold tight.”
Nadya’s arms went around his neck. Phyr adjusted his gear and weapons, his hands going to his belt where he buckled something and held her around her waist, pulling her into his arms.
“Don’t let go.”
Nadya nodded. They sailed through the air. Her stomach bottomed out and her breath was sucked from her chest as they went up and over, landing rather harshly onto the tracks.