Mutation (Twenty-Five Percent Book 1)

by Wheatley, Nerys

  An eater grabbed the collar of Micah’s jacket, pulling him backwards as he was about to plunge his knife into another’s skull. Its mouth snapped at the back of his head. Alex grasped the woman’s long hair and yanked it away, jabbing his skull-spiker into its ear.

  “We can’t keep going like this,” Micah huffed, stabbing the eater in front of him and watching it fall to the ground.

  It was the first time he’d complained and Alex was secretly impressed with his stamina. He himself felt ready to drop. The moans of the main horde were close, as always.

  He spotted a narrow alley beside a house. “That way. Maybe we can lose them.”

  The alley led to a wider thoroughfare behind the row of houses, lined with back gardens and garages. It was mercifully empty. They’d only gone a few steps, however, when they heard a voice.

  “Pssst.”

  They stopped and looked around, searching for the source of the breathy sound.

  “Over here,” someone hissed.

  Micah nudged Alex’s arm and he turned to see a back gate open behind them, a hooded figure leaning out. The figure beckoned and stepped back out of sight.

  They stood looking at the opening.

  “We have two choices,” Alex said, keeping his voice low, “carry on along this alley and hope the horde doesn’t find us, or go through that gate and hope we don’t get attacked again.”

  “We’re armed,” Micah pointed out.

  “And yet, people still keep attacking us.” Alex flexed his hands. They still ached a little when he moved them.

  “To be accurate, they keep attacking you,” Micah said. “I just get caught up in it.”

  A moan interrupted Alex’s retort. Ahead of them, two eaters wandered into the end of the alley, lifting their heads when they saw Alex and Micah and scenting the air. Three more followed. The eaters were upwind, but it was only a matter of time before they got a whiff of Micah.

  “Make it slow,” Alex said. “They can’t smell you yet.”

  They shuffled away from the eaters towards the open gate, the decision about whether or not to trust the person behind it no longer an issue. Once inside the garden, the figure they had seen closed the gate behind them and pushed down the hood covering their face. Alex drew in a breath. It was a woman. She placed one slender finger over her full, red lips, puckering them in a silent ‘ssshh’, and then motioned for them to follow her.

  Alex’s eyes dropped to her perfectly shaped backside as she walked away from them before noticing Micah doing the same. Alex elbowed him in the ribs, tried to affect an appalled look as if he hadn’t just been doing the exact same thing, and followed her.

  The building they entered was a large detached house which had at some point been split into two flats. A staircase immediately inside the back door led up a flight of stairs to a blue door at the top. The woman opened the door and a thick puff of lavender air freshener escaped.

  Alex couldn’t stop a sneeze as the woman led them inside. The smell was so strong he had to blink away tears.

  “Are you alright?” she said when she’d closed the door behind them. “I saw you running from all those eaters at the front. I was afraid they’d caught you.” She pushed a strand of long, auburn hair behind her ear.

  “We’re fine, thanks to you,” Micah said, smiling and holding out his hand. “I’m Micah.”

  The woman took it and smiled. “I just didn’t want you to get hurt. I’m Kerry.”

  “Well, we still owe you our thanks, Kerry.” Micah hadn’t let go of her hand. Alex had to marvel at his ability to go from fighting for his life to lothario in under five minutes.

  When Micah finally released his grip, Kerry turned her gaze to Alex and he braced himself for the familiar look of fear and/or disgust. Instead, she smiled, tiny wrinkles forming around her beautiful green eyes.

  “Uh, Alex,” were the only two words he could remember. He hid a grimace. Was that really the best he could come up with? One of them wasn’t even a proper word. It had been too long since a gorgeous woman had paid him any attention.

  “What were you doing out there?” she said, when he failed to expand further on his erudite introduction. “I didn’t think it was very safe on the streets.”

  “Right now, we’re just trying to get home,” Micah said. “You’re right though, it isn’t safe on the streets.”

  She nodded, causing the light to sparkle across the soft waves of her hair, and focused on their clothes. “Why are you wet?”

  Alex looked down at himself. “Yeah, sorry about this. We had to jump in the river to escape some eaters. A lot of eaters.”

  “And you’re hurt,” she said, taking Alex’s right hand.

  The sodden bandage was barely attached anymore and she gently unravelled it to reveal the cuts beneath.

  “It’s okay, really,” he said, “as long as I haven’t picked up anything nasty from the river.”

  Kerry let go.

  Great, Alex, he thought, tell her more about any infectious diseases you might have.

  “Do you live around here?” she said as she walked along the hall ahead of them.

  Micah glanced at Alex with a smirk and followed. “No, we’re just passing through.”

  Alex trudged after them to a bedroom.

  “You can change in here,” she said. “And the bathroom’s across the hall.” She opened a wardrobe to reveal a rail full of men’s clothing. “Take whatever you want. It belonged to my ex-boyfriend so I don’t mind what you have. There are towels in the cupboard in the bathroom.” She flashed them a stunning smile and walked from the room.

  “Well, that was weird,” Alex said when she’d left.

  “What was weird?” Micah said, stripping off his shirt and dropping it onto the wooden floor.

  “She wasn’t afraid of me at all. And she has just invited two strangers into her home. And this.” He indicated the wardrobe.

  “A gorgeous woman helps us and you’re doubting her motives?” Micah picked out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt from the wardrobe and walked to the door. “Drop the detectiving and just be glad we’re alive. I smell like a sewer. I’m going to rinse off all this river crud. You can have the bathroom after me.”

  . . .

  After Alex had showered and changed, he joined Kerry and Micah where they were chatting in her monochrome lounge. The room faced the front of the house and Alex walked to the window to check the road where they had been fifteen minutes earlier. It was crammed with eaters. Fortunately, none of them were paying particular attention to the house.

  “They won’t get in,” Kerry said. “There are a lot of infected around, but they don’t bother going near the houses unless they see someone go into one. And even then they can’t get through the doors, usually. There was poor Mr Hollinger down the road yesterday, but his door was in terrible condition. A strong breeze could have knocked it down.” She smiled.

  “Oh, well, um, it’s good you’re safe here,” Alex replied, turning away from the window and finding a place on the sofa. Micah had taken the chair closest to Kerry. “Thank you for letting us in.”

  She smiled. “It’s my pleasure. What will you do now? It could be a while before the infected leave and it’ll be dark soon.”

  A glance at his watch, which, amazingly, was still working, told Alex it was after five. Which was surprising, considering how early he’d been woken by Rowe and his cronies.

  Apparently, time flew when you were running and fighting for your life.

  “We hoped to get back hours ago,” Micah said, “but we’ve been sidetracked a bit.”

  “Well, I have two spare bedrooms,” she said. “You’re welcome to stay for the night.”

  “Really? But you don’t know us.” Alex wanted to kick himself for saying it, but the policeman in him needed to tell her how dangerous that was under any circumstances.

  She smiled. “If you can’t trust a policeman, who can you trust?” she said, pointing at the badge on his belt.

&nb
sp; He’d put it back on after changing out of habit. Finally, wearing it had paid off.

  “And having a strong Survivor here will make me feel so much safer,” she added.

  Alex stared at her in shock. That was an attitude he’d never come across before.

  “I’m an expert in mixed martial arts,” Micah said.

  It smacked of desperation. Alex wanted to roll his eyes, but as Micah was facing away from him, his attention fixed on Kerry, he didn’t bother.

  Her face lit up. “Then I’m going to be the luckiest woman in the city tonight. Would you like tea? Or coffee?”

  Alex couldn’t help wondering what she meant by “luckiest”. Because the way she said it, with a smile that could easily have been interpreted as suggestive, was making his heart beat faster. He hoped he wasn’t picking up signals that weren’t really there. It had been a long time since he’d had to interpret romantic feelings from a woman, but his recent success, with at least two women not looking at him in disgust when he spoke to them, seemed to be going to his head.

  “Coffee, please,” Micah said. “Two sugars.”

  She looked past him to Alex.

  “The same for me, thank you.”

  It wasn’t the words she spoke next that annoyed Alex. It wasn’t even the way she said them. It was that she said them while brushing her fingers across Micah’s shoulder on her way past.

  “I’ll be right back.”

  As Kerry disappeared into the hallway a smug smile spread across Micah’s face. He leaned back in his chair, lacing his fingers behind his head.

  This time, Alex did roll his eyes. “Our world turns to crap, we’re fighting for our lives on an almost hourly basis, and all you can think of is getting your rocks off.”

  “You’re just jealous because the hot girl likes me.”

  “I am not.” He was.

  “Your nose is growing.”

  “I was getting signals in my direction too,” Alex said, sounding more defensive than he would have liked.

  “They were just random overspill from the signals she was sending me.”

  “You’re deluded.”

  “Seriously, though,” Micah said, “if she makes a move on either one of us, the other one backs off. Okay?”

  Alex sighed and slumped back into the sofa, dropping his head onto the back of the cushion. “Yeah. It’ll be you she wants though.”

  “I can’t help it if women find me irresistible,” Micah said. “Devastating good looks like mine are both a blessing and a curse. Although mostly a blessing.”

  Alex shook his head. “Dream on. It will be you because you don’t have these.” He waved one hand at his face and widened his eyes.

  Micah studied him for a few seconds before saying, “You ever thought of wearing lenses?”

  Some Survivors wore coloured contact lenses to hide the deformity and experience life without the casual prejudice they were normally subjected to on a daily basis. Alex objected to them from a moral point of view, but he understood why they did it. He’d even considered it at the beginning, during some of his darker days.

  He shrugged. “Once or twice, in my weaker moments.”

  Micah was silent for a while. “Maybe I’m wrong,” he said eventually. “Maybe she does like you.”

  Alex lifted his head and raised his eyebrows.

  Micah grinned. “Oh, who am I kidding? Of course she likes me. What woman could resist this?” He waved his hand up and down at himself.

  Alex leaned his head back again and closed his eyes. “You’re not just deluded, you’re deranged.”

  . . .

  By the time the eaters outside had disbursed somewhat, it was after eight. Kerry insisted on cooking them supper, for which Alex was very grateful considering all he’d had since breakfast at the Carlson’s was a raisin and biscuit Yorkie he’d grabbed from the Tesco petrol station on their way past. Micah had chosen a mint Aero. Wuss.

  Kerry’s tuna pasta wasn’t gourmet, but it was good enough and Alex had two servings.

  They spent the evening chatting and playing a marathon game of Monopoly while Micah flirted shamelessly with Kerry and Alex gave any chance he’d thought he had up as a lost cause.

  As time went on, something began to niggle at him about their hostess. Nothing major, she was friendly and pleasant and, well, had a body that made him want to fall to his knees and beg. Just something felt a little off in the way she called eaters “the infected” and didn’t seem overly bothered by having hundreds of flesh eating monsters on her doorstep. But he couldn’t put his finger on anything specifically bad and by ten he was too tired to care and ready to just go to bed and forget everything for a few hours.

  Besides, he couldn’t get past the possibility there was a very real chance he was just imagining it because of how well she was getting on with Micah.

  He fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow, all niggles forgotten.

  15

  “Mmm.”

  A smile crept across Alex’s face as he stretched and rolled onto his back. This was his kind of dream. Wonderfully stimulating sensations were tingling around his crotch and sizzling up his spine. Warm breath caressed his neck.

  A woman’s voice whispered in his ear. “I give myself to you. Fill me with your seed. Let me bear your pale-eyed children.”

  His eyes snapped open as he abruptly became aware he wasn’t dreaming. Kerry was lying next to him, her naked body pressed up against his.

  Her hand was shoved down the front of his boxer shorts.

  “What on earth are you doing?” he exclaimed.

  “Ravish me. Take me as your concubine. Plunge your raging member deep into my wet sheath.”

  After a moment’s hesitation, which he wasn’t proud of, Alex grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand away. He struggled to untangle himself from the covers and scrambled to his feet.

  “Would you get out of the bed, please,” he said, his tone noticeably strained.

  Her eyes dropped to stare at the stretching front of his boxers where his raging member was having ideas of its own. He turned away rapidly.

  “But I want to please you,” she said.

  Alex glanced back at her. She was on her knees on the bed, her very sexy body very naked. He turned away again, looking around for his clothes and spotting them in a crumpled heap on a nearby chair. He vaguely remembered throwing them there before getting into bed, but his higher brain functions were currently having issues. He grabbed his jeans and pulled them on, being careful to stay facing away from where Kerry was still on the bed, her eyes boring into his back.

  “You can do anything you want to me,” she purred. “I’m very, very flexible.”

  His movements slowed as Alex found himself trying to remember when the last time he’d had sex was. Why exactly was he pushing a beautiful woman out of his bed?

  “Together we can reach the pinnacle of sexual ecstasy as you drive your rigid shaft into me over and over and over,” she breathed.

  Meir’s outbreak, he said to himself. Danger everywhere. Need to focus on... oh, that feels good. He shivered as her fingers touched his arm, stroking up to his shoulder and across his bare back.

  Kerry’s breath caressed his ear as she whispered, “Together, in the heat of our passion, we will create the perfect child.”

  The parts of Alex not already rigid stiffened. That was why he was pushing her out of his bed. “I am not a sperm donor,” he said, grabbing his t-shirt and pulling it on.

  Kerry sighed and Alex heard her climb off the bed, then the rustle of clothing as she dressed. “In that case, I’m going to have to use less subtle methods,” she said.

  “Less subtle than climbing naked into my bed...?”

  Alex turned around and stopped. Kerry was pointing a gun at him. His gun. He glanced at the bedside cabinet where he’d left it. Not for the first time, he wondered why men had to turn into gibbering idiots in the presence of a pretty woman. And complete morons if she took off her clothe
s.

  “You can’t force me to have sex with you,” he said.

  “We’ll see,” she said with a smile, waving the gun towards the door.

  “There must be hundreds of men who would jump at the chance to shag you and wouldn’t care how many kids they produced,” he said as he moved. “Why me?”

  “None of them are worthy,” she said. “Only a Survivor can give me the child I want, strong, fast, powerful. Our children will rule the world.”

  His sluggish brain finally caught up, managing to think about something other than Kerry’s naked body. “You’re a Meirite. Or is Meirling the correct term nowadays?”

  They were a small but significant faction, Meir’s fetishists. Alex had met a few before, been propositioned by some. He knew some Survivors did indulge, but he never had, finding the whole thing incredibly creepy. Although there had been times, when he was alone at night, when he did wonder if it would really be so bad.

  They ranged from those who just had a weird thing for Survivors to a deep underground few who wanted to have full on sex with an eater. Just the idea made Alex want to gag. It was also illegal.

  They were part of the reason the police were so concerned with picking up new eaters as quickly as possible, especially the females. Male eaters couldn’t get erections, but that wasn’t an issue with the females. Although superhuman strength and a raging desire to eat anyone within biting distance was. Alex wasn’t sure if any men had succeeded in raping a female eater, but he’d heard the gory stories of a few who had tried. And failed badly.

  He walked out into the hallway ahead of Kerry. She was obviously insane, but he attempted logic anyway. “My DNA is no different from anyone else’s,” he said. “Any kids I have will be totally normal.”

  “That is a lie,” she said. “When our child is born, you will understand.”

  She guided him into a room they hadn’t been into the previous evening. As soon as Alex walked in, he understood Kerry’s apparent obsession with strong smelling air freshener.

  The entire end of the room, spanning the wall, was a metal barred cage split into two sections. In one section was a male eater, an original by the odour which, now he was out of the floral fug in the rest of the flat, Alex could smell. It was agitated and moaning, trying to reach through the bars separating it from the other half of the cage.