Kelly pouts down at me where I’m still sprawled on the floor. “Considering you were supposed to die to feed my pack, you aren’t exactly living up to my expectations either.” She leans even closer and runs her tongue the length of my face, her breath rank, and I try not to flinch. “I suppose there’s still time to fix that. Besides, you killed one of my guys in that hospital. The way I see it, we have a score to settle.”
A hiss brings my attention back to the others. Kelly isn’t the only new Ripper in the train car. Three bulky males have Trey pinned to the floor, and a fourth is gripping my mother in a chokehold, a claw hovering above her eye socket. Ellis stands apart, two dead bodies at his feet. He’s ready, poised to take them all down if he’s given half a chance. For now, his eyes are fixed on Kelly, and she knows she’s on an uneven playing field. She doesn’t exactly have the advantage she thought she would.
Kelly rises from her crouch and surveys the situation. She clearly doesn’t see me as a threat, as she turns her back to me, and I’m both relieved and annoyed by that fact. What, does she think I’m weak or something? With a well-aimed kick, I could probably knock her out the door. But then my eyes dart back over to where my mother is balancing on the edge between life and death. Real death, this time, no take-backs allowed. Ellis seems to realize the same precarious situation; he’s resting on the balls of his feet, watching for a window of opportunity.
I can’t help but feel like our lives may rest in his hands.
Until, that is, Kelly says, “Hello, lover. Fancy running into you here,” her eyes fixed on Trey.
9
Lori
The words seem to dangle. She can’t have said what I think she said… can she? Or maybe it’s like some kind of code word? Lover could mean anything. Like… “buddy” or… “total stranger I’ve never seen before”, right? I look over at Trey to see his reaction, and our eyes meet.
I wish I could say that Trey’s expression reflects guilt, but honestly, I don’t think he’s capable of that emotion. It’s more like a resigned acceptance for getting caught in the act.
“Hello, Kelly,” he says, finally looking up at her from his pinned position on the floor.
She gives a nod to her minions, and they haul Trey up by the scruff of his neck. Is it wrong of me to find satisfaction in his wince of pain as their claws snag his skin?
The Rippers keep his long arms twisted behind him, but he doesn’t even look ready to fight back. Instead of being angry, Trey plasters on a seductive smile. Well, as seductive as a mouth full of fangs can manage. “You just couldn’t bear being apart from me, huh? Hijacking a train seems a bit extreme, though. You couldn’t just said something.”
“Aw, honey,” Kelly purrs, leaning in and grabbing his face with her clawed hand. “You have an awfully high opinion of yourself.” She plants a small kiss on his lips before shoving his face back.
I can’t believe I’m actually about to open my mouth and bring their attention back to me, but I can’t seem to help myself. “How do you guys know each other exactly?”
Kelly turns back to me, her predatory grin laced with satisfaction. “This man of yours gets around. Don’t be too jealous, though. It seems he was just using me. I was convenient.”
As I’m lying here on the rough floor, I keep waiting for some kind of huge shift in how I feel. Some amount of betrayal or rage. But honestly, it’s a pretty disappointing lack of emotion I’m feeling right now. I didn’t trust Trey ten minutes ago, and gee, that hasn’t changed with this revelation.
Kelly seems disappointed by my lack of reaction too. “He would leave the compound and come to me. He brought me food, lured me along.”
I sit up and give a nod. “Yeah, sounds about right.”
She frowns, huffing a breath, and tries to rile me again. “And then, when he’d earned my trust, he convinced me to come with him to the compound. Except it wasn’t to live. No, it was to become part of their experiments. So that doctor of his could make me into this,” she hisses, gesturing to her body.
“Uh-huh.” I stifle a yawn, and she snarls at me.
“Doesn’t that make you angry?” she roars, her voice reverberating in the small space.
I give a small shrug. “Look, I’m really sorry that he did that to you. You didn’t deserve it. Am I surprised? Not really. If you’d seen what it was like living in the compound, and the level of manipulation and abuse going on, you wouldn’t be surprised either. But if you’re trying to make me feel some kind of sympathy for you, it’s not going to happen. You tried to kill me and my family.”
A glint appears in her eye. “I can’t help but notice your family isn’t here with you… Care to tell me what happened to them? To that dear brother of yours?”
I lunge at her. I actually manage to get one hand on her neck before I’m taken down. My back slams against the floor, my breath leaving my lungs in a whoosh. Even without that life-sustaining oxygen, I can feel the rage vibrating through my body, and I know that I’m still very capable of fighting.
A hand presses down on my chest, and it’s like the weight of the whole train bearing down on me. It wasn’t one of Kelly’s Rippers that knocked me down; it was Ellis. There’s a glint of pity in his eyes, but it’s Kelly’s chuckle that really gets under my skin.
“My, my. I don’t know where you came from, but I want what you have. What is it and where can I get my hands on some?”
The edges of Ellis’s lips tug, the whisper of a sneer. “Trust me. You don’t want it.”
I’ve heard the word impasse before, but I admit, living my life in a compound with zero free will, I’ve never found myself in a position where opposing wills were slammed up against each other like this. Where there’s no way forward… and no way back. We all stare at each other, nobody moving a muscle.
“Now what?” I ask, before mentally slapping myself. Shut up already! You’re no leader, I remind myself. Let someone else deal with this shitshow. The only problem is that nobody else seems all that eager to step up, which just leaves me, I guess. “What exactly do you want, Kelly? You wanted on the train, so congratulations, you’ve achieved your goal… but now what?”
I expected her to declare she was going to kill us all, but she surprises me by saying, “We’re coming with you.” She offers up a shrug as if this is the most natural thing in the world. As if taking a trip across the continent in a train is as casual as walking to the cafeteria for breakfast.
My mom shakes her head. “What, you’re just going to catch a lift with us? No, it’s not that simple.”
Kelly offers her sharp-toothed grin. “Obviously. We happen to know a little bit about where you’re going, and I have to say, I’m intrigued. I mean, it’s pretty clear that our food sources have become a little scarce around here, so I wouldn’t say no to venturing into some new hunting grounds, but it’s more than that… I’ve heard the whispering about a cure.” Her look turns shrewd. “Is there any truth to the rumor?”
Hope. I see just a flicker of it in her eyes. She doesn’t want to be a Ripper any more than I do, and I don’t know how I feel finding any common ground between us.
There’s a chasm slowly opening up beneath me. I’m a Ripper… but I’m also not. I used to be human, and as apart from my humanity as I feel, I’m clinging to it with both fists—desperately, ferociously. Before me stand two groups, all of them monsters to varying degrees, and I feel myself being torn between them. Fractured mirrors reflecting back the pieces of myself that I try to ignore. The hunger, the rage… the hope.
My mom keeps her eyes blank. She’s not sure how to play this. Trail Kelly along with the hope for a cure? Ally ourselves with them? Or somehow try to wrest control and kill the lot of them. In the end, she opts for honesty. “There might be a cure… maybe… but no promises.”
Kelly seems as surprised by her candidness as I am. “Fair enough.” She gives a slow nod and signals to her goon. He releases his grip on my mother’s throat, though he keeps a hand on her shoulder.
“Let’s wait and see then, shall we?” Kelly says, though I’m not sure who she’s addressing, us or her own pals, but it seems to be the beginning of a truce of sorts. A call to lay down arms.
An uneasy calm falls over the train car. Ellis helps me to my feet now that the immediate threat seems to have passed, and I brush my hands off against my pants. The train rattles on, rocking and clattering along the tracks, but I can still feel the strain, the tension, crackling against my skin. What exactly is the protocol to deal with a situation like this? Make idle chitchat? Try to gain her trust?
But as I take in the female standing in front of me, memories flit through my mind. Our last interaction was brief but memorable, to say the least. Running for my life through the department store, the trip wire, the fire, fleeing all the way to the hospital… the repeated attempts on my life. She wanted me dead. She wanted to tear the flesh from my bones and drink my blood.
All of that is obviously in the forefront, but there’s one other memory that stands out…
“Kelly, what happened to Bob?” She had bargained with the other Rippers for his life, for his human life. They could have us, as long as they didn’t kill her father. It certainly seemed like he was important to her then, but priorities change. I know that as well as anyone, especially now that the hunger tears at me from the inside.
Kelly’s eyes dart up to mine. “Dad’s fine,” she says simply before looking away.
“That’s it? He’s fine?” I drawl out. “Tell me… is he still human?” I’m not sure why it matters to me, but it does. He’s certifiably insane, but there’s something about the loon that endears him to me.
She lifts her chin defiantly. “He is.”
“And is he on the train somewhere, or did you leave him behind?”
“After everything, do you honestly think I would leave him behind? Do you think he would stand for that?”
No, I don’t think that at all, but there’s a creeping unease skittering through me like a swarm of spiders. “Where is Bob, Kelly?” I ask, a sharp edge to my voice.
“Why, he’s getting to know the good doctor, of course. I’m sure they’ll be the bestest of friends.”
“Kenzo?” I pant. My hands do their best to ball into fists, my claws gouging against my palms, and I see Ellis tense beside me. He’s prepared to stop me from another attempt to hurt Kelly, but he doesn’t for a second see my real intent.
I pivot and throw myself out of the train car… just as I hear the explosion of a gunshot.
KENZO
* * *
“Long time, no see!” the strange man says, approaching me with his arms flung wide, as if for a hug.
I take an involuntary step back, my limbs tight and my nerves frayed. What the hell is going on? One minute Howell and I are sitting in the dark, our backs to the wall, then suddenly the door flies open and shadowy figure moves in.
And now, there’s some weirdo trying to hug me? “Who the hell are you?” I spit out.
“Aww, don’t you recognize me?” he says, his shoulders sagging in disappointment. It’s too dark to see his features clearly, but I am absolutely certain that I would remember this lumpy boisterous man. It’s not like my social circle was ever that large, and after I released the virus, that circle has only shrunk even further, especially when it comes to humans.
“Look, I don’t know you, and I don’t know how you managed to get yourself onto a moving train. How about some answers.”
Howell, for all his posturing, is cowering in the corner, a rifle in hand. He’s much braver when he has a thick bunker surrounding him. Now that he’s out in the open, he’s nothing more than a scared man-child.
The man standing in the middle of the train car offers a shrug and paces back toward the open door. “No gratitude,” he mutters. “No manners.” The moonlight offers a brief glimpse of his face, ruddy and pinched, but then he turns back to me, a grin widening along with his eyes. “I’m Bob!” he shouts, extending a hand. “Nice to meet ya.”
“Kenzo,” I say in return. He approaches me once again, looking to shake my hand. My muscles lock up, my brain reeling to catch up. He doesn’t seem like he means any harm, but he definitely isn’t someone from the compound. I take a peek at Howell; I hope he’s willing to use that gun if this all goes to shit.
I tentatively reach out and take the hand being offered to me. “Nice to meet you?” I don’t mean for it to sound like a question, but I can’t help it. There’s too much I don’t know.
“Sure, sure,” Bob says, shaking not just my hand but my whole arm with his enthusiasm. “Us humans have to stick together. Am I right?”
“You’re not wrong,” I admit slowly. Because he’s not. Humans are a dying breed, no thanks to me. There’s a certain truth to the saying, strength in numbers. Although, look at how quickly I had turned our whole existence on its ear, me, just one man against an army.
I try my best to bury my guilt down deep in my gut. Yes, I altered the humans in the compound, but if it weren’t for me, they’d all be dead. Being a Shredder has to be better than being a corpse… right?
“So, Bob,” I start, and try to extricate my hand from his sweaty grip, where he’s still shaking me. He just doesn’t seem to want to let go. “You didn’t say… how did you get on the train? Was it when we were stopped back there?” Shit… is he part of the reason there was debris across the tracks? I give my hand another tug, but his grip tightens.
“Oh, yeah, that. My new friends helped me out with that. Bad back, you know how it is. I couldn’t haul myself up onto this train for the life of me.”
“What?” I gasp, a fresh wave of unease jolting through me. Bob gives my arm a jerk, pulling me close and directly between himself and Howell’s quivering gun barrel.
“We’re gonna be the best of friends.” Moonlight glints off his bared teeth, but it’s the glinting moonlight behind him that draws my attention.
Eyeshine in the shadows. Like liquid onyx, shifting and rippling. Bob clamps his second arm around me in some mutated version of a hug. He hisses in my ear, “Don’t fight it, Doc. It’s better this way.”
Adrenaline floods my body in a wave. I pull and thrash, trying to get free, but Bob has me in a vice-like grip, there’s no getting out. Not in time…
“Move out of the way!” Howell shouts. He’s on his feet now, panning the gun back and forth across the shadows.
I try to do just that. Left and right, I throw my body against the cage of Bob’s grip. A gunshot explodes behind me, the muzzle flash too bright, momentarily blinding me… but not before burning an image into my mind.
Three Shredders. Closing in.
They’re not military. They’re not compound civilians. These are unaffiliated Shredders. Wild Shredders. And if there’s one thing I learned from my experiments with the virus, it’s that a Shredder without an emotional attachment will only see humans as one thing.
As prey.
Another blast of the gun. It’s impossible to hit them, they’re too fast, and it’s too dark to see where they are. As if that would matter. Unless Howell’s aim is so good that he can put a bullet through their eye socket, there’s no point. He’s just wasting bullets. He’s just as likely to hit me.
But Bob… he’s not bulletproof.
In a last-ditch effort, more instinct than planned thought, I slam my head forward, my forehead connecting with his nose. He cries out in pain. I see fireworks, but his grip loosens just a bit. Enough? Almost. I stomp my foot down onto his toes and he loses his balance, tipping me back. I lean into it, bringing us both down to the floor in a tangle of limbs. Bob’s full weight drops straight into my gut, and the air explodes out of my lungs.
“Shoot!” I gasp at Howell, straining to catch my breath.
The train car becomes a shooting gallery. He angles his shots back and forth, blindly. Sounds like wood splintering are interspersed with a more substantial thunk as bullets are clearly hitting something… but it’s not enough.
<
br /> There’s a snarl and I hear Howell cry out. I wrench my head around to see where he is, but my eyes are still a blur of burned images from the muzzle flash, my pupils nothing but pinpricks, too contracted to see in the dark. I whip back around when Bob’s weight is lifted off of me.
“No!” I shout, gripping his body, trying to use him as a shield.
This is it. This is where I die. Lori, I’m so sorry, I tried.
I close my eyes against the inevitable, against the pressing darkness, and I wish the fading image of the Shredder wasn’t the last thing I’m going to see.
A snarl comes from the right, and then a roar. Something slams against me, sending me rolling, the back of my head knocking against the side of the car. I hear a scuffle, a snarl, tearing… and then… silence. Panting…
“A-Amos?” Bob whispers, stuttering. “Derek?”
“Hello, Bob.” Am I imagining the voice? Am I already dead? I never for a second expected to go to Heaven, but there’s no way this voice belongs in Hell.
I lick my lips and taste blood. “Lori?” I gasp. “How—what—?"
Her skin is rough but gentle as she runs a hand over me, checking to see that I’m intact, I guess. “You’re okay?” she confirms, her voice shaking. “I smell blood.”
“Pah! That’s mine,” Bob warbles. “Your mad doctor decided to get physical.”
We both turn to take in the man left standing in the center of the space. I realize with a sharp jolt that he’s the only one left standing. On the floor at his feet are the Shredders, their corpses twitching, their pooling blood from their ruined eye sockets like ink in the darkness. I’m suddenly very glad I can’t see the details in the darkness. Howell is a limp ragdoll, but I can hear his rasping breath. Alive, then.
The Shade Chronicles | Book 2 | Predator Page 8