by Maya Riley
“You’re wrong. There’s always an option three.” My eyes darted around. The guy I had been pummeling moments before still lay on the ground unconscious, but the blonde-haired woman was nowhere to be seen. She concerned me most of all right now. I didn’t care what they did to me, but if she hurt Mateo again, there would be all seven levels of hell to pay.
Not even an apocalypse could stop me from hunting down every being in the world to seek vengeance.
The mountain of a man who I never wanted to climb like a tree, stepped right up to my face.
I could see every speck of dirt, every blemish on his face. His ever-present sneer accomplished nothing other than to piss me off more, and I so badly wanted to take a blade to that evil face of his and carve it into something more pleasant.
I could still hear barking from somewhere behind me, and I moved my eyes around as far as they could go since I apparently couldn’t seem to turn my head right now.
The flames now covered the entire truck, and were so big that they were now licking at the van Puppy was trapped inside of.
I looked back at the monster in front of me. “Bite me.”
His sneer grew, if that was even possible. I spat in his face with as much saliva as I could possibly muster, and watched as he stepped back in anger.
“You bitch,” he cursed, as he pulled his shirt up to wipe his face.
I reached up and held on to the arm that was around my neck, and using all of my strength, I braced myself and lifted my legs, kicking the man in the stomach so hard that he stumbled back a little bit, despite his massive size.
I twisted myself so the forearm of the man who held me was at the side of my neck, and turned my chin to face the crook of his arm. Elbowing him in the stomach for good measure, I slid my head free and chambered my leg to kick out, and then sent him sprawling to the ground.
Frantic, I turned every which way. There were even more goons than before, but the guys were fighting their way free. Adam, Jonah, and Maura were trapped inside our vehicle, with two more men blocking every door and threatening them with sharp objects if they were to try and open one.
Jonah signed to me though. We’re okay and will get free. They only think they have us trapped, but they don’t know what’s coming.
I nodded, trusting them. I turned around and ran for the van.
First mission was to get Puppy out, then help the others.
As I neared the van, the blonde woman stepped in front of me.
“What do you think you’re doing? I don’t think we gave you permission to leave.”
I rolled my eyes. “Lady, you’re delusional. I’m warning you now, if you continue to cause me problems, you will learn firsthand what it’s like to lose an eye.”
She cackled and I raised an eyebrow. This bitch thought I was joking.
“Well, I wish I had more time to hang out, but you see, I’m kind of in a hurry here.” I spun around and kicked out so the bottom of my boot was pressed up against her throat. She was now flat against the side of the van, and her knife clanked to the ground.
Despite the predicament she was in, she smiled.
She. Fucking. Smiled.
I smashed my boot into her throat even harder, then she fell down to the ground, trying to breathe. If she could get through the next few minutes without air, then she’d live. I wish I knew how long she could hold her breath for.
My hand reached out for the doorknob and turned. Puppy bounded right out and straight for a guy who was in hand-to-hand combat with Mateo.
Lincoln was unconscious on the ground—that couldn’t be good.
I ran over to Lincoln and pressed my fingers against his neck. I doubted he overused his ability, so this must be because of something the scavers did.
A pulse thumped to my fingers, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
Shouts erupted out and the ones trapped in our vehicle broke free, taking out the two guys holding them hostage in the process.
I turned around and threw my hand out. It wrapped around a small wrist that was swinging a sword.
Stunned, I turned my head. The fucking blonde woman.
Her ruby red lips snarled at me as she struggled to get free.
Lincoln shuddered beside me, coming back to consciousness. I could sense him as he opened his eyes and then immediately sat up.
“What the…”
I jumped up and flipped the woman over. She landed on the ground, hard. I took her own sword and rammed it into her thigh, before leaning in close to whisper in her ear. “Now, don’t you ever forget that promise I made you.” She let out a scream as I twisted the sword embedded in her thigh.
I planned to do more, but the temperature around me dropped nearly five degrees, if not more. I looked around, curious.
Before I could try to do anything else, a canoe went flying through the air. Everybody else stood there, shocked as I was, watching as it pummeled into the beast man and his gang of lackeys.
The group of scavers went flying to the ground, and I heard sickening crunches echo off the pavement as their heads hit.
They all lay there motionless.
“Go,” I yelled. “Get in the car, now.”
I plucked the sword from the woman’s leg, helped Lincoln up, and ran to the car.
Mateo soon joined us as we rushed to the car and jumped in. Luckily, it had been running this whole time, so I didn’t need to waste time getting it started again. Unfortunately, it used up a good amount of gas while sitting there doing nothing, but we still had enough to get us out of this area.
Right as I saw a big brown boot twitch, I slammed my foot onto the gas pedal and got us out of there.
Beast Man
I awoke just in time to see the blurred outline of an SUV speeding off, kicking up dust and screeching tires in the process.
My head pounded as I sat up. There was a large green canoe off to the side. Where the hell did that come from? Well, I knew it was strapped to the top of their car, but how? Did the fuckers really throw a canoe at us? They must have had more muscle to them than their scrawny frames eluded to.
Groaning sounds rang out around me as the others came to.
“What happened?” Ryker asked, rubbing his forehead as he sat up.
“They threw a canoe at us,” I answered.
“A what? How?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t care.” I pushed up to my feet as rage built inside me. If they thought they could keep getting away from us every time, then they were sorely mistaken.
It wasn’t only me, or us, that they had to deal with. They may think they could keep taking us out now, but these were only flukes. This was no longer fun. Now, it was personal.
Others would laugh in our faces if they found out a scrawny group of survivors kept escaping us. The Roaches would no longer be a name to fear. We needed to tie up these loose ends.
“Get up, you sad excuses for scavers. We have some work to do.”
It was only a matter of time before they felt the full power of The Roaches.
Blyss
The car bumped as we ran over the dead guy still laying on the ground in front of us as we got away.
My breathing began to even out the farther away we got from the scavers. We’d had two run-ins with them so far, and both times we’d barely made it out alive.
“Hey,” I called out, “where did that canoe come from?”
Adam, sitting in the passenger seat beside me, lifted his hand to rub the back of his neck. “Uh… I may have done that.”
“Wait, what? Really?”
He nodded sheepishly. “Yes.”
I gave a light, playful punch to his arm. “That was amazing. Throwing a canoe at them? Seriously, who would ever expect that?”
He grinned. “It kind of just happened.”
“Because bad things were going down,” Lincoln chimed in from the middle seat. “Kind of like how my fire manifested the last time we ran into them.”
“I may be understanding it mo
re now,” Adam replied. “I’d prefer to not be in that same situation again, but I could feel it better.”
“That’s amazing, Adam. You really did great back there. Now that you understand it more, maybe we could try and practice again to bring it out?”
“I’d like that,” Adam agreed.
“You guys met them before?” Maura asked from the far back seat. “I didn’t know that until today. That was… pretty scary. I don’t want to meet them again.”
“It’s okay. Hopefully we won’t have to. We could take them out, but they’re really strong and always seem to get an upper hand somehow. They won’t get one every time though. I’d prefer to not keep running into them, but we’ll see what happens.”
I swerved the car around other broken down and stranded vehicles, until finally I could see something off in the distance.
Tall buildings rose into the sky like beacons. I’d seen plenty of tall buildings during our travels, but these ones were different.
This time, they meant something new. Something good. Something safe.
I couldn’t suppress my grin. “I think we’re almost there.” I pointed ahead. “That should be it, right?”
The others laughed and hollered as they caught sight of what I was referring to.
We entered the city and I maneuvered the car around. We weaved in and around other vehicles, dead rotters, debris, and all the buildings.
We’d entered small towns a lot and stayed in the woods. This was the first time, however, that I’d seen an actual city post-outbreak.
There were old, yellowing newspapers scattered everywhere, no longer containing relevant information. Now, rather than reading about the crazy things that happened in the world, every single person was living them.
Colorful graffiti covered the walls of buildings and abandoned cars. Strings of random symbols and colorful words decorated the previously bustling city.
Some roads were too cluttered to go down, so I kept driving where the vehicle could fit. “Guys, we may need to get out and walk around at some point.”
“I was thinking that too. This car can’t fit down all these roads, there’s too much clutter.” Adam’s full attention was on our surroundings, taking in all the new sights. “This is the first time since the outbreak that I’ve been in a city. Well… the second time. We always tried to avoid them before, because the state of the survivors in the one we walked through were bad. Cities breed scavers, and it’s not a place you want to hang out.”
“So, what you’re saying is that we should keep our eyes open and our knives at the ready. I can do that.” I continued to drive on until we came up to a barrier of broken-down cars. There were too many to drive around. “Well, guys, I think this is our stop. Time to pack up and continue on foot.”
We stopped the car and Lincoln got out and popped the trunk. We collected all of our belongings, and then stood there, each of us carrying two bags or more.
The radio crackled from where Adam was carrying it, and I turned around, trying to gauge which direction to head first.
Weeds were growing through every crack in the road, standing proud in humanity’s decimation. Vines wound their way around rusted vehicles, and creeped along the sides of buildings, reaching for the sky.
Mice skittered around, running even more rampant in the city than they probably did before. Some of them dropped down into the sewers, and some ran in and out of buildings. One tried to run across my boot, and I flung it away.
“Let’s check out one of the buildings first,” Lincoln suggested, as he began to walk to the nearest one. The signs around it were so faded, we couldn’t even tell what kind of building it used to be. “For all we know, the Salvaged Lands could be inside a building. Or a series of buildings.”
“Or even underground,” Maura supplied, thinking back to the grocery store that felt like forever ago.
“Keep an eye out for trap doors as well. It wouldn’t surprise me if humanity decided to move underground.” Adam disappeared inside the building with Lincoln, while the rest of us followed.
“Then why wouldn’t they say that on the radio?” I asked.
“They probably didn’t want any kind of person to find them. They might want to stay hidden. It’s possible that all we’d have to do is walk around the area, and then they find us,” Mateo grumbled behind me.
We were in what looked to be an old hotel. The lobby furniture was ripped to pieces, and deep slashes covered the fabric. Stuffing from the cushions had been tossed everywhere.
The plants that once stood tall and welcoming by the doors and throughout the space now lay dead and forgotten. Their roots stuck out, dried up with nothing to cling to for a source of life.
I moved over to the front desk and shuffled through the files and drawers. “Maybe there are clues hidden around for people to find.” I skimmed quickly through the papers, but they all seemed to be dealing with hotel business rather than a hidden sanctuary.
“That seems like a lot of extra work,” Adam muttered.
“Which is exactly why they would do it. Er—I don’t know.” I threw down a stack of papers, exasperated. “Let’s peek at the other floors real quick and then move on.”
I found my way through the debris and over to the stairwell. It wasn’t too difficult to find, because the door was laying on the floor rather than on its hinges, leaving the stairwell in full view.
We made our way up to the first floor, and I heaved the heavy door open. It only took a few moments of looking down the hallway to slam it shut again.
“It’s filled with rotters. Dozens of them. Let’s get out of here.” As soon as I stopped speaking, fists pounded against the door I’d just shut, and I jumped. Muffled groans mixed in with the pounding fists, and then dents started to protrude from the door with every pounding the rotters did. I didn’t want to be here if they managed to break it down.
We wasted no more time running down the stairs and then back out into the streets. As soon as we broke free from the building, something caught my attention from the corner of my eye. A flash of darkness I was pretty certain was a human.
“Let’s go that direction, I’m pretty sure I saw someone. Maybe they can lead us to where we’re trying to go.” I took off running, with Puppy sprinting at my side and the others following behind us.
I turned the corner and spotted him. He looked to be a teenage boy, dressed in all black, with black hair and a black backpack.
“Hey!” I called out. “Stop, we won’t hurt you, I promise. I only want to ask you something.”
He darted down another alleyway, where a bunch of cats ran out in all different directions, hissing.
“We’re trying to find the Salvaged Lands,” I shouted, as I rounded the corner to the alleyway right in time to see him disappear over a fence at the end of it.
I ran and hefted myself up onto a dumpster, then looked over the fence. The boy was nowhere to be seen, and beyond laid a series of more streets and buildings. He could be anywhere.
“Fuck!” I pounded my fists against the fence, and then jumped over. “May as well keep going forward.
Lincoln landed on the ground next to me and then reached up as Jonah handed him Puppy. Several moments later, we were all back on the ground again.
Let’s keep moving around. It’s a good thing the boy ran, it’s a survival thing, and we can’t fault him for that. He doesn’t know whether or not we really mean him harm.
I sighed. Jonah had a point. I know. Let’s keep moving.
My eyes were peeled for any sign of movement. I noticed every rustle of the stray newspapers that filled the streets, every leaf that hovered in the wind, every rat that scampered away.
None of it was helpful though.
We searched endlessly. We peeked inside every rusted car, every abandoned building. We spent hours wandering the dead city, dispatching the occasional rotter that stumbled into our path.
After everything we’d been through, and now the endless searching, we we
re exhausted. We were hungry and thirsty, but nobody wanted to stop for a break. We were all constantly on our toes, and that kind of alertness tired a body out.
Right before I was about to give in and demand a break, I turned down another street and came face-to-face with a group of four people.
Two guys and a woman, plus the boy we were chasing not too long ago.
The boy was on his knees and one man had him by the scruff of his neck. The boy looked toward me, and I saw the light in his eyes dim. He thought we were with these people.
“What is going on here?” I slid a knife from its sheath at my hip.
The man who wasn’t holding the boy grinned and twirled his own knife around. “Oh, looks like some more have come to play.”
“There won’t be much playing here,” Mateo growled, as he stepped in front of me but still off to the side. “Let the boy go.”
The woman reached up and behind her, and pulled out two swords. “Make us.”
I raised an eyebrow. Did they not realize they were seriously outnumbered? Maybe they didn’t care. “You must have a death wish. You have no idea who you’re up against.”
“What are you going to do, sic your dog on us? We can take that thing down no problem.” The man holding the boy shoved the kid face down onto the cracked cement before he let go and then turned to face us.
“I’m going to cut that smirk off your face,” I snarled as I lunged forward.
Before he knew what hit him, I had him pinned to the ground. Waves of heat rippled through the air around me, and screams echoed off the crumbling walls, but my focus remained on the asshole below me.
“I don’t normally show mercy, so good luck getting out of this alive.” I moved my knife to his neck, but before it could touch, he flipped over and I was the one pinned to the ground. Dammit.
“I could say the same to you,” he sneered, and then produced a small gun from a holster hidden inside the waistband of his pants. He didn’t get a chance to point it at me before an arrow protruded from his chest.