Some days, she gave in to the urge—unable to resist the sweet relief of quenching her parched throat a single moment longer—but she always paid for it. It was a thin line, and if she crossed it then one day she would pay the ultimate price.
The two guards standing inside the exit door barely glanced at Terrier and Ryder as they reached the top of the staircase. They went this way every day and the guards always let them pass, along with the other hunters. Anyone else trying to leave would be turned back, or worse. Only the hunters were allowed out of the bunker, Afana decreed it.
With the exception of Ryder, all the hunters were males. Ryder would only be allowed to leave the bunker as long as her secret remained intact. If her deception was ever uncovered then her death was a given, but to Ryder, it was worth the risk just to feel the sun on her skin.
Terrier pushed open the heavy metal exit doors, and Ryder inhaled, savoring the day’s first fresh breath. The warm air hit her, sending the nerves tingling across her naked arms. The freedom of being outside made Ryder feel alive. It would be taken from her when the day’s hunting was over, but until then she would make the most of every second.
The moment soon passed. Other hunters were already outside, loosely clumped together in a group. Ryder could feel Terrier’s eyes on her, making sure she was comfortable with joining the hunting party.
She knew for sure that one of these assholes would spoil this beautiful day. She wouldn’t care to wager which of the assholes gathered before her it would be, but there was always at least one dickhead in the group intent on fucking things up.
She wished she could hunt alone with Terrier, but Afana only let the hunters go out in groups of six. If a hunter strayed from the pack, the others would cheerfully hunt him down and bring his head back to the bunker as a trophy.
Afana would not accept traitors in his domain, and abandoning the bunker was at the top of the “traitorous acts” list. These men would behead their friends, not out of any sense of Justice, but for the promise of a base reward —access to the most desirable women in the bunker.
Ryder hated Afana’s rules, but if she didn’t follow them then she’d be dead. Sometimes, she wondered if death would be a better alternative to the life they led under Afana’s iron fist.
However, she doubted whether she would be brave enough to take the risk if she ever got the chance to escape. Running could mean losing her head. There were four men standing right next to her right now who would jump at the opportunity to curry favor by bringing it to the generals.
Of course, Terrier wouldn’t let anyone kill Ryder. He would die before he let that happen, and she would do the same to save her best friend’s life. There were a few good people left in the bunker, Ryder and Terrier were two of them.
“Where the hell’s Ivan?” Ryder asked Terrier as they walked over to join the other hunters. “He was supposed to meet us here.”
Terrier frowned. “I couldn’t find him anywhere, and the women in the kitchen haven’t seen him.”
“That jerk,” Ryder complained. “He begged me to let him come with us, said he’d trade extra rations if I showed him how to hunt.” She wanted the extra food for Terrier. Ryder shared her own rations with him, being much smaller than him she didn’t need as much food but she worried that he never got enough to eat. He was always hungry, and at six-foot-three and big-boned to boot, she could understand why the standard food allocation wasn’t enough for him. Physically, they couldn’t be more different. Terrier was a big, hulking man, who wore his hair in long dreadlocks, and Ryder was lithe and athletic and sported a buzz cut. She’d spent her whole life pretending to be male, and the hair—or lack thereof—enhanced her disguise. They looked like the odd couple when they were together, although they weren’t an actual couple—just a great team.
Ryder and Terrier joined the other hunters, Pavel, Yegor, Nestor, and Sergei.
“Why would that pansy-ass be here anyway?” Sergei asked. Sergei was the self-appointed leader of their hunting group and had nothing but contempt for piss-poor hunters. He was a big guy, but he had nothing on Terrier and he knew it.
“Because I invited him,” She wasn’t in any mood to argue with Sergei, but Sergei was itching for a fight. Ryder had stepped over the line too many times.
Sergei got in her face. “You?”
He might have been much taller than Ryder, but he was also much slower and dumber. He always acted before thinking, which had led the group into many dangerous situations during their hunts.
“Yeah, me.” Ryder was just about done with Sergei’s attitude and the hunt had not even begun yet. She pulled her blades from her wrist sheaths.
Terrier was right beside her, ready to back her play when suddenly, the howling of wolves echoed around them.
Pavel cocked his head in the direction of the wolves. “Shut up, you bickering old women, or I’ll put my boot up your asses! Wolves are on the menu tonight, but you probably can’t hear them over the sound of all your bullshit.”
Ryder didn’t back down from Sergei.
He glared at her for a moment, and then he snarled. “This isn’t over, but it’s time to hunt.”
Ryder sneered. “I’m ready when you are.”
Sergei headed toward the forest, trailing after the others who had already left. He caught up to them, and they disappeared between the trees.
“Where are your axes?” Ryder asked, eyes narrowed as she peered at Terrier’s empty hands.
Terrier looked down at the loops on his belt where his axes normally went and shrugged. “I forgot them.”
Ryder stared in disbelief. “What are you waiting for? Go get them!”
Terrier shook his head. “I don’t need an axe when I have these.” He flexed his biceps, each the size of any other man’s thigh.
“Those will make a tasty snack for a Siberian tiger,” she grinned. “Go get your axes!”
Ivan’s hunger was unbearable. He stumbled blindly through the woods hunting for something—anything— to subdue his hunger.
He ran mindlessly, his mad dash only halted when his upper body slammed into a tree. The top layer of skin on his hand came off completely when it scraped against the bark. He stared down at the blood and the raw muscle but felt no pain. He tilted his head to inspect it more closely, it smelled oddly delicious.
His tongue darted out to lick his hand almost against his will. He recoiled at the action, flinging his hand away from his mouth as total and utter panic set in.
“What’s happening to me?” He screamed, hoping that someone would hear him. A guttural cry left his lips, startling the birds in the trees. There was a muffled clap as they flew away in alarm.
Even they knew something was terribly wrong with Ivan.
Ivan experimentally pushed down on the exposed muscles, but he couldn’t even feel the pressure. His nerve endings were dead and numb, he felt nothing. He pulled at one of the tendons, and his middle finger rose toward him in a twisted parody of the gesture he’d thrown back at the guards as he left that morning. He let go, disgusted, and it dropped back into place.
Ivan freaked the fuck out, screaming for help and running frantically.
He shook his fists impotently at the sky. “What’s happening to me?” That was his last coherent thought before the madness took him over completely.
Ryder heard screaming. She couldn’t tell who it was, but they sounded like they were in trouble.
She thought one of the hunter gangs might have tracked down a “traitor,” and were about to collect another head for Afana, but she hadn’t heard of any recent runners so she quickly discarded the idea.
Fuck it. She ran toward the voice, keeping her senses on high alert in case it was some kind of trap. When Ryder neared the tree line she found Ivan running in her direction.
“Ivan, what the fuck are you doing out here on your own? I put my ass on the line for you.”
Ivan didn’t pause to answer her. Before Ryder could open her mouth to berate Ivan furt
her she heard growling from the trees. Ivan stopped dead as wolves crept out of the woods and surrounded him. He screamed in desperation as he tried to keep his distance from their slavering jaws.
There was nowhere for him to go. They had him.
One of the wolves leapt into the air gripping Ivan’s neck between its jaws to pull him down. Ryder watched in horror as the other wolves joined the fight, eager to subdue their prey.
Ivan flailed his arms wildly, knocking wolves away and sending them tumbling through the dead leaves. Ryder did a double take as she pulled her bow, Ivar’s show of strength a complete surprise. She had never thought of him as being strong but she had clearly underestimated him. Ivan might make it through this, after all.
Ryder loosed her arrow, hitting one of the wolves. It yipped in pain and made a break for the tree line with Ryder’s arrow hanging out of its ass. As if they sensed the tide was turning against them the other wolves retreated, intelligent enough to know when they were outmatched but hungry enough to stay there at the edge of the trees, watching them.
Ryder fired a few more arrows in their direction, shouting as she ran toward Ivan. “Stay the hell away from him!” She didn’t give two shits about Ivan, but he was still a human being and didn’t deserve to be ripped to pieces by wolves
Terrier appeared by her side with his axes at the ready. His massive frame cast a looming shadow that looked like a bear on its hind legs as he emerged into the clearing. The wolves backed into the trees, giving up. Ryder doubted they would be back anytime soon.
Ivan still lay on the ground, facing away from Ryder and Terrier. She couldn’t tell what kind of state he was in.
Ryder leaned in a touch, concerned. “Ivan, are you injured?” she asked, reaching out.
She snatched her hand back as Ivan turned over, his eyes glowing red.
“What the fuck?” Terrier spat.
He and Ryder jumped back out of Ivan’s reach and glanced at one another. She didn’t know what was wrong with Ivan, but she knew it wasn’t good. Glowing red eyes—or any color really—never signaled that something pleasant was about to happen.
Ivan scrambled to his feet and rushed at Ryder, the speed at which he moved surprising her as he grabbed her throat and tried to pull her toward his gaping, bloody maw.
Ryder froze for a second, her mind refusing to process that Ivan was trying to take a bite out of her. Terrier reacted before Ryder came to her senses. He swung his axe and severed one of Ivan’s hands clean off the wrist. Terrier then picked the man up bodily, tearing his other hand off Ryder’s throat, and threw him across the clearing. He struck a tree with a thump, and slid limply to the ground like a ragdoll.
The hand continued to cling to Ryder’s neck for a second. She smacked at it, knocking it away and she and Terrier both stared as it continued to twitch weakly for a moment.
“What the hell happened to him? And where is everyone else?” Ryder looked around them, but she didn’t see anyone else from their hunting group. They had gone off in a different direction before Ryder and Terrier heard the sounds of Ivan’s screams. It was rare to be away from the group like this.
This is our chance, she thought. “Terrier, we can leave all this behind us right now.”
“What? No.” He paused. “You go, Ryder. Get away from here while you can.”
Terrier’s words slid over Ryder, her brain refusing to accept what her dearest friend was saying. “Terrier, no! What are you talking about? We can both get away. Together. But we need to go – like, now!” Ryder heard voices in the distance, and she knew the others would be here soon.
Terrier’s face was set. “I’m serious, Ryder. It might be your only chance. I’ll lead them in the other direction, give you time to get away.”
“I can’t just leave you!”
He gathered her into a crushing hug. “Ryder, I’m not fast enough. If I went with you, they’d hunt us down in no time. Then we’d both be dead.” In the twenty years Ryder had known Terrier, he’d only ever thought about her, even now.
“What about you? They’ll kill you when they find out you’re lying.”
“Then they’d better not find out, right?” Terrier smiled and kissed the top of her head. “Go, Ryder. I’ll survive, it’s what we do.”
The rest of the hunters’ voices got louder—they were almost there. When Terrier turned his head toward the voices, she could see the cross tattoo on his neck, which was the same as hers. As Afana’s possessions, they had been branded like cattle.
“Go!” he urged again.
She made her choice. There was no more time to argue, it was now or never.
She wrapped her arms around Terrier one last time, squeezing with everything she had. “I’ll come back for you. I promise.”
Ryder couldn’t bring herself to look back at Terrier as she made her way into the forest. She wouldn’t have been able to see him anyway. Tears filled her eyes, making her vision blurry. She was leaving the only person she’d ever trusted.
Ryder would come back for Terrier, but first she had to survive. Then she would find help and rescue not only Terrier, but everyone she cared about from Afana’s hellhole.
2
Ryder’s heart pounded with every frantic step she took. Could she really escape from the bunker and get help for the others? Or was it just an impossible, desperate dream?
She’d find out soon enough.
The adrenaline pounded in her ears as sprinted flat-out, but dreaming aside, her situation was infinitely thornier than that. Once news got back to the bunker that she’d betrayed them and fled, Afana would send his hunters after her.
Every hunter would be competing to bring her head back, desperate to trade it for some extra rations and a night of dirty sex. That was how much her life was worth now.
But only if they caught her.
Ryder’s spine burned as her vertebrae ground together, a hot knife tore into her side each time she drew a ragged breath, but the pain meant she was still alive. She ran, pushing through it and let the sweet taste of freedom guide her.
“He’s over there!” Ryder heard the shout behind her. She risked a glance over her shoulder, but her hurried glimpse didn’t reveal anyone directly behind.
She caught a movement in her periphery as she refocused on finding a path. A man was running parallel with her through the trees. She nocked an arrow and aimed, and his eyes bulged in fear at the threat.
It was Austin, a teenage kid who had just moved to the men’s levels. Ryder remembered teaching him to read and singing songs with him. He wasn’t running toward Ryder.
He held up his hands, backing away from her. “Don’t shoot! I’m sorry… I’ll go back, okay? Just don’t kill me, Ryder, please!” He was escaping? Ryder cocked her head in the direction Austin had been headed. “Go, now. I’m not going to kill you.”
His face collapsed into relief as he bolted in the opposite direction, but he was making too much noise. Austin wasn’t a hunter yet. He hadn’t spent years stalking his prey silently like Ryder had. Ryder was a pro at hunting. She could walk up to an animal and stroke its back before it knew she was there.
She camouflaged herself behind a tree, but the hunters weren’t after her. They were on Austin’s trail. She decided she’d give him a head start like Terrier had done for her.
One of the hunters crashed through the undergrowth, barreling past the tree where Ryder had concealed herself. She could hear more men running, but they were farther behind, too far away to see her.
Ryder lifted her bow with the arrow still nocked and leaned out from behind the tree. She sighted along the shaft and released it with her outward breath, sending her arrow into the back of the hunter’s neck, a quick death. She had to drop him before he could call out to the others.
Two more hunters passed by her. They didn’t see their fallen comrade so Ryder was able to take them out quickly and cleanly. The bodies were piling up, though. The rest of the hunting party would know someone was hunting them n
ow and which direction the arrows had come from.
Ryder needed to find a different hiding spot if she wanted to make sure Austin got away safely.
Up the tree, she thought. She slung her bow over her shoulder and shimmied up into the branches. The trees in these woods were sturdy as long as you didn’t climb to the tops. The pines tapered dramatically up there, and Ryder knew of at least one overconfident hunter who had fallen to their death when the top bough of a tree gave way under his weight. She shuddered at the memory of the hunter’s body lying like a tangled marionette as she caught the next bough and hauled herself up onto it. She reached a tangled cluster of branches which would hold her with ease and got into a comfortable position—well, as comfortable as she could get in a tree—and prepared to pick off the rest of the hunters one by one.
The thickness of the branches made it hard to see new arrivals, so she looked for gaps in the foliage showing movement on the forest floor. When she caught sight of a hunter, Ryder shot her arrows through the gaps, and she was rewarded with the sounds of bodies falling to the ground and panic from the remaining hunters as they tried to figure out where the arrows were coming from.
Ryder heard a rustle below her. Fuuuck. She froze, pressing herself into the sharp boughs and held her breath as she waited for the hunter to leave, hoping against hope that he hadn’t seen her. She’d come too close to freedom to be captured now.
She scanned the horizon, there was no more movement in the distance, so she assumed Austin was safe. Now she just had to worry about herself. After a few long, tense minutes of strained listening with no sound from below, she left her perch and down the tree.
A blade brushed past her face and buried itself into the tree trunk before her feet hit solid ground. The hunter was smarter than she’d give him credit for.
Madness Unleashed: Age Of Madness - A Kurtherian Gambit Series (Live Free Or Die Book 1) Page 2