Kings of Carrion

by Keri Lake

  “Ratchet, you have to keep moving, or they’ll find us.”

  The low rumbling growl that follows is a warning, and when Ratchet twists around, his eyes are as black as ink. Through the mask, he snaps his jaws, the plastic shield of his hood smeared in blood where he’s coughed.

  “Oh, fuck.” The camera backs away from him, which seems to incite his growls.

  He bends against the natural angle of his body, and the snapping sound that follows echoes in the shaft, as his bones crack in half.

  He reaches and claws for Six, his upper half alongside his legs in a grotesque deformation of his body.

  The thumping sounds return, and Ratchet’s body jostles. It doesn’t deter his desperation to reach Six, as he claws the metal vent below him, stretching himself against the curve of his own spine, as if he’d tear his upper half away from his legs.

  An object crashes through the vent below him, creating a small hole, and I realize its the mutation’s fist beating through from below. Ratchet pauses only a moment to look around him, before the mid section of his body is yanked through, folding him against his legs.

  Hand to my mouth, I focus on the ice-cold tendrils that snake up my spine. Growls and screeches from below accompany the sound of tearing flesh.

  “I need to get the fuck out of this place,” Six whispers. “I don’t know how much more of this shit I can take.”

  I reach out and unmute myself. “Six,” I whisper, to keep them from hearing me. “Keep moving while they’re distracted.”

  As if like a robot, the camera moves toward the hole in the vent, and as he passes over, the beasts can be seen feeding on Ratchet’s body below. The infected don’t typically eat other infected, which means there isn’t a chance in hell they would hesitate to eat Six.

  It isn’t long before Jed’s shoes come into view, and I steal a moment to breathe, forcing the calm back into my body.

  Calm that I know is short-lived.

  Chapter 25

  Cali

  On my knees, I stare at the blood and fragments of clothing inside Valdys’s chamber. The one on the opposite side of his, eighty-seven, holds bits that look half chewed, as if something came through and consumed them while they slept.

  My head won’t believe what my eyes are seeing. A hum of dread vibrates beneath my skin, while I reach out a shaky hand, lifting the bloody fabric out of his empty capsule. When I hold it to my nose, that metallic scent hits the back of my throat, and I suspect it must be shock that keeps me from breaking.

  “Valdys,” I whisper, and the sound of his name on the air is a broken promise. It’s the universe reminding me how much it’s willing to take from me. How little I’m worth, that the only thing I’ve loved could be ripped so viciously from my hands. Mouth gaping, I look around the room, my brain desperate to process all of this. Surely, I should be angry? Sad? Devastated?

  I feel nothing but a cold tickle in my chest that tells me my head is in a very dangerous place.

  “Cali ...” Brandon chokes up, and he rubs his skull as he walks away for a moment, perhaps not wanting to show his emotions. Even if he’s Legion, he understands what this means, better than I do, it seems.

  Cadmus sits crouched beside me, one knee propped up, upon which he buries his head in his bent arm. Even the influence of drugs doesn’t steal away the devastation of this moment.

  A tight squeeze clamps around my chest, and that’s when I notice I can’t breathe. I’m suffocating, and I don’t even realize it. The world is heavy, bearing down on my shoulders, and every muscle in my body quakes with the effort of keeping myself upright.

  “Did you find him?” Titus’s voice over the walkie-talkie is a bitter shot of reality that slides down my throat, as I stare at the piece of equipment in my unsteady hand. “Cali? You there?”

  A stronger hand than mine reaches for the walkie-talkie, and through tears, I look up to see Cadmus staring back at me, his green eyes drowning in sadness.

  He lifts the equipment to his face and gives a hard swallow that bobs in his throat. “He’s gone,” he reports back.

  The sheer veil over my eyes begins to lift, and I curl into the ache burrowed deep inside my gut.

  I finally break.

  Coiled up on the floor, I clutch the scrap of fabric to my chest, as I stare at the white wall across from me, spattered in bright red blood. I imagine Valdys lying peacefully in his chamber, unaware of the surrounding chaos and carnage, until it’s too late. Until those bastardly things tear him from slumber, their eyes cold and black, and unremorseful.

  Perhaps I’ve been lying here ten minutes. Could be an hour. I don’t know, and I don’t care.

  “Whatever is going on, you need to wrap it up. There’s movement at the end of the hall. Trying to get a visual on it.” The voice is Kenny’s, but his words fail to give me any urgency.

  Not even when Cadmus tugs at my arm and says, “We have to go, Cali.”

  “I’m not going anywhere.”

  “I’m not leaving you here. If I have to carry your ass out of here, so be it.”

  The sting of tears hits my eyes again when I stare up at him, the realization that I have to walk out of here without Valdys slowly sinking in. “There’s nothing for me out there now.”

  He flinches as if this wounds him, and the sadistic ache inside me craves more pain. More suffering. The ache swirls into anger, and through tears, I give a mirthless smile.

  “You might as well go. I don’t need you, or Titus anymore.”

  Hands at his hips, he shakes his head and snorts. “You’re something else.” Before I can stop him, he shoves his hands beneath me, lifting me up from the floor, and hoists me over his shoulder. The world is upside down, his back smacking me in the cheek.

  Writhing and squirming does nothing to break his steel grasp, as he strides through the room back toward the door.

  I don’t want to scream and alert whatever Kenny found on the cameras, but I’m not leaving this room with Cadmus. “Put me down,” I say low enough that he can still hear the anger poisoning my words. “I swear to God, Cadmus, I will scream.”

  “Scream, then. Either way, I’m getting you the fuck out of here.”

  “Wait. Just … wait a minute. Please?”

  He pauses midstride and slides me down in front of him, holding me against him, so there’s no chance of running. “You’ve got thirty seconds to say what you need to say.”

  “Beyond these walls, I have nothing. Don’t make me go back out there. Please. I want to stay here.”

  “I lied. Ten seconds.” His shoulder slams against my stomach like before, flipping me over as he carries me to the door, while I squirm again for freedom. “I’ve said it before, somebody’s gotta be the bad guy. Might as well be me.”

  “Cadmus, please!” The panic of my reality begins to settle over me. The likelihood that I will be forced to roam the desert without Valdys. Always searching. Always waiting for the day when I can be reunited with him. Every month, I’ll be forced to bed someone, or end up bloated in false pregnancy for weeks, crying in pain. I can’t do it. I won’t. “Put me down!”

  His big palm squeezes the back of my thigh when we reach the door, where he pauses to listen. “Shhh.”

  In spite of my wishes, my intent isn’t to get him and Kenny killed, so I do as he says and still in his grasp.

  The quiet squeal of the door tells me he’s cracked it open, though I can’t see anything through his massive body.

  “Fuck,” he whispers. “Four of them. About three rooms down. Looks like they’re polishing off some bones, or something.”

  Through the haze of misery still clouding my brain, his words give me a jolt of urgency. Perhaps merely instinct kicking in, the rush of adrenaline masking my apathy.

  “I’ve never seen anything like these. Some hearty-looking bastards.”

  Brandon crosses the room and crouches low, where I’m level with his face. Expression blanched with despair, he shakes his head. “Crossbreeds.�
�

  “What are they?”

  “The early mutations. Before Legion built up its army, they crossbred dogs with the Alpha gene. Wiped out hives in minutes, but they were hard to control. They turned on their handlers.”

  Cadmus finally sets me down, and I twist, peeking through the door to see four massive animals that hardly look like dogs anymore. Bulky muscles and blocky heads give the appearance of beasts, their lips deformed and peeled back over razor-sharp teeth, and milky eyes that make them look undead. One of them must cross a boundary, because the dog next to it growls and snarls, before it sinks its teeth into the other dog’s neck and thrashes its head, tearing a chunk of the second dog’s throat. The bitten animal yelps and lunges at the first dog, until the two of them are rolling on the floor. If not for the two still feasting on bones, it’d be a good opportunity to sneak out.

  Watching in horror, I imagine those teeth sinking into my own flesh. “Why keep them, if they turned?”

  “Not sure, exactly. Except, my superiors often threatened to feed us to them, if we got out of line. Plus, they weren’t afraid to attack Ragers. They used to unleash them on hordes, I guess.”

  “This the only entrance to this room?” Cadmus speaks into the walkie-talkie.

  “The back lets out to a lab, but that door is blocked by fallen equipment on the other side.” Kenny’s voice has been dialed down, so as not to rouse the dogs, but a beeping sound in the background stirs my curiosity. Like some kind of alarm going off.

  “And the vents?” Cadmus looks up, as if searching for a way in.

  “If you’ve got a ladder handy. The ceilings in that room were built high to accommodate the storage of capsules.”

  An upward glance shows the ceilings well out of reach, perhaps thirty-feet high.

  “Well, that’s brilliant. We’ll have to wait it out, then.”

  “The dogs aren’t the only issue. I’m getting a reading on the liquid nitrogen tanks in the cryo lab. The pressure is dangerously high.”

  “’The hell does that mean?”

  “When the electricity was turned back on, it must’ve altered the ambient temperature in the room just enough to tip the balance between gas and liquid. The valves must’ve defected.” The sound of an electronic voice speaking in the background jumbles whatever follows. A warning from him, I imagine.

  I glance up toward the dogs, who’ve stopped fighting, and I notice two of them are missing. “Cadmus, where …. Where are the other two?” Scanning the hallway shows no sign of them, but the sudden curiosity of the other dogs sends crystals of ice crawling over the back of my neck.

  They turn toward the crack in the door, and I swear, their milk white eyes latch onto mine.

  They bound toward us.

  Air stalls in my chest, as the door slams before they barrel through, and Cadmus yanks me to my feet. “Get to the back of the room! The two of you find somewhere to hide! Now!” Shoulder to the door, he braces himself, to keep it shut against the growls and snarling on the other side.

  “What about you?”

  “Don’t worry about me, just go!” The last word is spoken on a grunt, as a hard thump knocks the door.

  Swiping up Brandon’s hand, I take the lead, and race toward the back of the room, my stomach twice as tense when we pass Valdys’s chamber. A large, steel supply cabinet catches my eye. Perhaps hiding inside will mask our smell, as those things undoubtedly have a craving for blood.

  Cadmus curses, and the clashing sound that follows begs me to run and help him, but I know I’m no match for those beastly things, and there isn’t anything in sight I could use for a weapon. I’d only put him at risk.

  Swinging open the door to the cabinet reveals some large piece of equipment I don’t recognize. Brandon moves off to the side before prodding me in first, and I scoot over to make room for him beside me.

  He swings the door closed, and at the click of it, we sit in darkness. Listening. Waiting.

  I no longer hear the growls, or Cadmus. All is quiet, unnerving.

  Agonizing.

  Breaths stuttering, I have to will myself not to think of Cadmus lying in a pool of blood for having tried to save our lives. My whole body trembles, poised, terrified.

  At thunderous crack against the steel door, I startle, reaching out for something to clutch and settle my ragged nerves. I hold my breath to contain the scream cocked at the back of my throat. Another slam, this one followed by growls, leaves a dent in the metal of our enclosure, concave enough to touch my knees. Slapping a hand over my mouth, I scream quietly into my skin. I can feel Brandon trembling beside me, and I thread my hand in his, squeezing. More growls. More crashing, clawing. If they tear away this door, this is exactly the way they’ll tear into us. Mercilessly. We’ll be eaten alive. The way they’ve undoubtedly already torn into Cadmus.

  More dents pock the metal, each one beating against my shins as a reminder that it won’t be long before they break through.

  A yelp signals what must be another fight, as they battle for their next meal. I turn to Brandon, choking back tears of what I’m guessing will be our last moments, as the dogs relentlessly slash at the door. The next thud cracks it open just enough to let a small bit of light through, and I see Brandon’s lip quiver with panicked tears. Flashes of black on the other side show the furious movement of the vicious dogs on the verge of their next feeding. Another yelp, this one louder than the last.

  I clamp my eyes and wait for the slaughter.

  A booming voice echoes over their growls, so strong and commanding, it would make thousands of men shudder, believing it belonged to a god. A deep and furious voice that strums a chord so familiar, I wonder if it’s real.

  The growls cease.

  The dogs whimper.

  My heart leaps into my throat.

  Valdys.

  As I push open the door, I watch an enormous figure retreat, his back to me, flanked by three of the four dogs as they trot alongside him.

  “Valdys?” My voice is weak, almost a whisper, and I can’t see through the shield of tears in my eyes to know if he’s heard me, but he comes to a halt.

  The dogs swing around, baring their teeth, hunched in a way that makes me momentarily regret making my presence known.

  The man turns to face me.

  A sob tugs in my chest, and I slam both hands over my mouth to cap it. My ribs ache with the incessant pounding of my heart.

  His hair has grown out a bit from the shaved cut of before, slightly scruffy, but still cropped. Hair has grown out on his face, as well, but fails to hide the new scars--one across his lip, another that extends from his forehead and over his nose, disappearing beneath the dark beard at his jaw. His brows flicker, tears gathering in his eyes, but my attention flicks to the dogs beside him, standing guard, as if protecting him.

  Without taking his gaze off me, he snaps his fingers, and they sit to attention, their tongues sweeping over their exposed teeth.

  Rubbing a hand down his face, he shakes his head. “Stop. Fucking stop!” As he turns away from me, my body stiffens with the shock of his rejection, confusion swirling in my head.

  I climb out of my hiding, feeling a hand tug my arm.

  Brandon means well, protecting me against the dogs, but I unclasp his grip. Although I should be fearful, not even the hounds of hell can keep me from what I want right now.

  “Valdys! Wait!”

  At the sound of my voice, he twists around again, panic rising in his eyes.

  “Please, Cali. You’re not real. Don’t do this to me. Not now.”

  “I am real.” I push to my feet, standing where he can see me. “I’m real.”

  Brows pinched to a frown, he steps toward me, cautiously, as if wary. As if he’s been through this before, seen me in this hellish place, and was met with disappointment.

  The dogs remain on their haunches where he left them.

  Stood before me, he towers over my smaller frame, and my whole body hums as he reaches out a hand, hesit
ating at first. The moment his fingertips make contact with my skin, I break into tears.

  His eyes are brimming with tears, too, as he draws his fingers over my cheek, his thumb across my lips. Jaw hardening, he seems to fight back the emotions inside of him. “You’re here.”

  “I’m here,” I whisper.

  His eyes focus on the path of his thumb as it brushes across my cheek. A hard blink confesses his disbelief, but the agony swirling in his stare says otherwise. “I never thought I’d touch your skin again. Or see these eyes.” He frowns, the distrust of what he’s seeing written in his expression. “This can’t be.”

  “It is, Valdys. I’m here.” Nervous breath flutters in and out of my lungs, as I take in the feel of rough and calloused fingertips that dance over my face.

  He leans forward, his coarse facial hair grazing across my cheek, and I shiver with the proximity, listening to him inhale, breathing in my scent, before he pulls away.

  Gaze dawning with realization, he falls to his knees before me, and buries his face in my stomach, his arms wrapped tight around me, caging me in.

  Running my fingers through his hair, I let out a tearful laugh, and bend forward to kiss the top of his head.

  Dragging me to his lips, he rises to his feet, and I melt against him, feeling every muscle in his body tremble when he steals my breath in a kiss so filled with longing and passion, my knees turn weak. Air blasts from his nose, arms banding around my back, and he lifts me up off the floor. My mouth captures sounds of relief, or sadness, that rip from his throat--I can’t discern, which. Forehead pressed to mine, he grips the back of my neck with one hand, the other still holding me up, as our ragged breaths mingle between us.

  “I never thought I’d taste these lips again.” He stares up at me, the scar at his eye twitching with the expression of incredulity on his face. “If this is another dream, if I’m still asleep in that chamber, and they’re tearing me apart as I speak, I pray they finish and I never wake.”

  I run my trembling fingers down his stubbled cheek, the tears of joy blurring all his scars that pass beneath my skin. “I’m still trying to figure out whether, or not, you’re real.” Elation pulls at my chest, and I swear I can hear my own heart beat back to life. The air doesn’t feel as thick as before. The weight on my shoulders lighter. “I’ve waited so long for you.”