Grayson Ryder: A Thief's Thrill

by M. L. Giles

  Grayson Ryder

  -A Thief’s Thrill-

  By

  M . L . Giles

  Copyright © 2018 by M. L. Giles.

  Front cover artwork created and owned by Kasidej Hempromaraj. Artwork commissioned by M. L. Giles.

  All Rights Reserved. This book may not be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in whole or in part by any means, including graphic, electronic, or mechanical without the express written consent of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. All Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  To each and every single one of you reading this book, thank you.

  To Owen, for all the support and help you gave me.

  To Teresa, my grandmother, for being a true inspiration.

  To Maria, for all the encouragement in getting this done.

  And to Kaisidej Hempromaraj, for bringing my characters to life with his amazing artwork. (Check out his artwork at: www.galgard.tumblr.com)

  Warning

  This book contains scenes that some people may find disturbing. As this is both a deep romance and post-apocalyptic story, it will deal with some dark subjects, such as death and loss.

  If you are looking for a safe, fuzzy slippers kind of story, then it’s advised to not continue reading and go enjoy a nice cup of a tea while stroking a kitten instead. Thank you.

  Contents

  Copyright © 2018 by M. L. Giles.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Warning

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Epilogue

  Thank you for reading!

  Prologue

  Gloria.

  A Night I’ll Never Forget.

  “Forty… Forty-five… Fifty-three pounds! Not bad for a day’s ‘work’, considering how few people were around today,” I thought while counting the money I’d managed to pilfer.

  Being a thief is hardly glamorous work, but it does help support my sister and that’s the only reason I need. Okay, maybe that’s not the only reason I steal from people… It’s also a lot of fun! The rush of selecting a target, sussing out vulnerabilities and opportunities before, finally, going in for the money or whatever else takes my fancy.

  Nothing compares!

  After counting my earnings for the day, I unlocked the door to my sister’s two-bedroom council house and went inside. The place was just another basic, rundown, terraced house in a row of many other identically built homes.

  “Oooh, Gloria?” I called out, still removing my trainers in the hallway at the bottom of the stairs.

  It was late when I returned home. Unsurprisingly, all the lights were off. My sister was a fanatic when it came to saving money – I suppose one of us had to be.

  “Oi! Sis?!” I called out again, since I’d not had a reply the first time.

  “I’m in bed,” she weakly shouted back.

  Deftly, I ran upstairs, skipping a step each time. When I got to the landing I made my way into my sister’s room, flicking the light on.

  “Blimey! Someone’s still looking like crap,” I said the moment I saw her.

  “Nice to see you too, jackass,” Gloria responded.

  My sister was lying under a distasteful orange blanket on her double bed, looking more ill than when I had last seen her that morning before she had set off for work. Next to her bed, sitting on a bedside cabinet, was a clear plastic bowl. In that bowl was a small amount of saliva.

  “How was your day?” she asked, after I had jumped onto the bed next to her. “Did you go job hunting like I asked?”

  “Ooooh, you said ‘job hunting’… See, I only heard the ‘hunting’ bit,” I whipped out the fifty-three pounds from my jeans, proudly flashing my ill-gotten gains from that day.

  She sighed. “I bet you love that selective hearing of yours, Grayson.”

  “Of course! What’s not to love about me?” I asked rhetorically, smiling playfully.

  “You’ll never change, will you?” She smiled over at me. Some white, frothy saliva dribbled out of her mouth.

  “Highly unlikely. Also, ew.”

  “Yeah, well—ˮ Gloria plucked the cash from my hand, stashing it in her bedside cabinet drawer, “—we all have to do stuff we don’t want to do in order to get by. It sucks, but that’s how it is. You’ll need to get a job sooner or later.”

  “Awww! I wanted to use some of that money to get us a Chinese tonight.” I was joking. I knew from the start it was for the rent.

  My sister flopped back, letting her head slump into her pillow, coughing some more. “Lord, no! I can barely swallow my own spit, let alone noodles.”

  “Hmm, feeling worse?” I stroked her hair, which was the same shade of light brown as mine.

  “Yeah. You should’ve seen my workplace today! Half the people didn’t show up, and the ones that did all had the same symptoms as me. We got to come home early, at least. The only one who… who—ˮ Gloria took a second to spit into the plastic bowl next to her. “The only one who seemed fine was Liz, but even she left earlier than all of us. She kept moaning about not wanting to catch whatever we have.”

  “I did notice the town centre was looking pretty lifeless today… By the way, if you die, can I have this bed? I’m tired of my single one.”

  “Sure! Along with all the bills and responsibilities of the household.”

  We both laughed, although Gloria struggled to do so.

  “Ugh. Wish I knew what this is that’s going around.” She let out another deep cough. “If we had the internet, we could check out the symptoms. Oh well. I guess all we can do is wait for this bug to work itself out.”

  As I stroked her hair, I examined Gloria’s face closely. She looked pale, with bloodshot eyes and some white saliva on her lips. She was a grim sight compared to her usual magnificent self. My sister always did herself up with makeup and accessories; not that she needed it! She was young, beautiful, vibrant, and looked amazing in whatever she wore.

  Same as me, obviously.

  “You need anything, sis?” I asked, concerned about her current state.

  Gloria sat up and spat once again into the plastic bowl beside her. “A wet cloth would be nice. Oh, and a glass of water.”

  “I didn’t hear the magic word.”

  “Are you fucking kidding me, you little— ‘PLEASE’, my dear, sweet, caring brother.”

  “There we go!”

  I rolled off the bed and made my way to the bathroom. Once there, I grabbed a wash cloth and wet it, then emptied the glass we kept our toothbrushes in, rinsed it out, and filled it up with water. I knew she would complain about the glass, but I took it back to her room anyway.

  “Here we go.” I placed the glass of water on the cabinet next to Gloria, then handed her the wet wash cloth.

  “Our toothbrush glass? Seriously?! You couldn’t even be bot
hered to get me a clean one from downstairs?” she moaned.

  “Terribly sorry, your highness,” I mocked in a posh voice. “I shall have the butler bring you a fresh glass of mineral water immediately. Miles! Miles! Come hither at once!”

  “…Jackass.”

  Gloria wiped her lips with the cloth before trying to have a drink from the toothbrush container. She gagged as soon as the water passed by her lips, spitting it back out.

  “Shit, Gloria… Didn’t think it was this bad.” I took the glass away from her, placing it down on the floor beside the bed. “Should I call someone? Or do something?”

  “No point. Latest news was they don’t know what this is yet. Health officials are saying people should just go home and rest for now.” Gloria placed her head down on the pillow, closing her eyes. “Just turn the light off on your way out, Grayson. I’m going to try getting some sleep.”

  That night, with Gloria asleep, I opted to indulge in one of my favourite pastimes.

  Under the cover of darkness, certain men like to meet up at various secluded spots to have sex – I was one of these men. It was shallow but, after a heartbreaking split-up with my childhood boyfriend, Roman, I figured random sex with strangers would be safer for my emotions. Despite how sad and tragic that sounded, fret not! I’m totally over it.

  This act of meeting up in public places for sex was called ‘cruising’, and with no TV, internet, or video games, cruising was pretty much my only source of pleasure in life.

  Well, that and stealing.

  It’s not that I’m necessarily a bad or shallow guy, far from it! For example: I only steal from those who are better off than me, or those who piss me off. Which, admittedly, is a lot of people.

  See? I’m not so bad.

  It’s all for the thrill, really. I get a real buzz out of stealing and meeting random guys for a bit of fun! Although, the latter was starting to become stale lately.

  When I arrived at my local park at 11:30 in the evening, I waited around the benches of a picnic area for any guys to show up. Normally the place would have at least three or four guys hanging around, but that night it was just little ol’ me, sitting all by my lonesome – unless you count my magical meat sceptre in hand.

  A man’s never alone when he’s got his penis to play with!

  One guy (or woman, hard to tell) did run down a path behind some trees beside me, going so fast they were more of a blur than anything else.

  “Stupid bug…” I muttered to myself, after waiting for an entire hour for a playmate to come along.

  Perhaps it was silly of me to go out looking for some fun knowing so many people were ill, but hey, you never know.

  As I exited the park and started walking along the streets, I noticed something odd. At 12:30 in the morning you would normally find things quiet during the week, but tonight I could hear yelling coming from two or three different houses on each street I walked down.

  My sister and I lived in a run-down area with mostly alcoholics and druggies, so I put it down to the usual weekend idiots being loud during the week.

  I carried on home, ignoring the various sounds of those morons, retiring to bed for the night.

  Every morning before work, my sister would always wake me up by giving me a cup of tea, or a slap across the face if I’d done something ridiculous during the night. That morning, however, she woke me up by a very different means.

  It was her shrieking that caused me to wake so suddenly.

  The startling sound of my sister screeching in what sounded like agony caused me to sit right up in bed.

  “Gloria?!” I called out, but she only responded with more ceaseless cries.

  Fearing the worst, I quickly scooped up my boxers from off the floor and put them on, then raced down the hallway towards my sister’s room, stumbling tiredly in the darkness of the early hours of the morning.

  When I got to my sister’s room, the first thing I did was flick on the light. Before I could even turn to look away from the light switch, my sister leapt on me, sending both of us crashing to the ground.

  Gloria had me pinned to the floor.

  “What the hell, sis?!” I yelled at her.

  When I looked up at her face, I was met with an image that burnt itself into my very soul.

  My own sister was screaming down at me, with an abundance of white froth drooling out of her mouth and landing right on my face.

  I used my forearm to try and hold my sister up, but she constantly clawed and bit at me. Her long, yellow-painted nails scratched violently against my bare chest, taking the skin off.

  She was frenzied.

  “STOP!” I lifted my foot up, giving my sister a forceful kick to her stomach.

  Gloria was thrown back by the force of my foot, falling down onto her back. I took the opportunity to jump up and regain my composure.

  “What the hell is wrong with you? It’s just me!” I spat out angrily while rubbing my sore chest. When I looked down at my hands, they had smeared blood marks on them from the scratches on my chest.

  Winded and down, Gloria started to crawl towards me, taking swipes with the one arm not clutching her stomach. She threw her head up to look at me with wide, bloodshot eyes.

  “That’s not her,” said something in the back of mind – instinct, I suppose.

  Just before Gloria could reach me, I made a run for my bedroom, picked up my mobile phone, and made straight for the bathroom, locking the door behind me.

  Within seconds, my sister was pounding her fists repeatedly on the wooden door that separated us. As she did, I noticed that not once did she try to use the door handle, like any normal person would’ve done.

  Gloria continued relentlessly bashing away at the locked door as I dialled for the emergency services on my mobile phone. There was no answer. I hung up and tried to call a mutual friend of ours, but that ended up ringing out. The last call I made was to our cousin, which went to voice mail instantly.

  With no options left, and my frenzied sister still desperately trying to get to me, I pressed my back against the bathroom door and slumped down to the floor, holding my sore chest. My sister’s screams were so bloodthirsty… I grabbed a towel that was folded up nearby, placing it over my ears to try blocking out the sound.

  Eventually, Gloria stopped her assault against the door and ran off downstairs. With her wailing voice fading away, another noise started to become more audible to me – one just as, if not more so, frightening.

  Standing up, with the towel now slid back over my shoulders, I made my way to the bathroom window. Coming from beyond it were the sounds of many ferocious screams and glass shattering. With one hand, I flicked the latch on the bathroom window and pushed it open, just enough to peek through.

  The second that window opened, all the screams rushed in, causing the dark bathroom to echo around me. But it was what I saw that scared me more. People were out on the street, some were wearing sleepwear, some naked, yet all of them had one thing in common: they were all viciously, and literally, tearing into each other.

  It was a mass melee of people fighting. Men, women, children, even the elderly had gone mad. When someone was brought down in combat, the victor would pick a new, still-moving target, then charge for that person instead.

  I could only bear to look for a few moments before slamming the window shut. In a state of shock, I curled up into a little ball in the bath, with the towel held tightly over my head to block the chaos outside.

  The towel did almost nothing to help.

  For over an hour I lay there, confused and frightened by what was going on with the world outside, before falling asleep.

  The wails of the crazy killing each other acting as my lullaby.

  For the briefest of moments after I awoke, it felt like everything I’d experienced in the night had just been a terrifyingly realistic nightmare.

  Both the soreness of my chest and the fact I was waking up in a bathtub with a towel over my head confirmed it was no nightmare. />
  “…Gloria?” I whispered quietly, stepping out of the bathtub.

  With the quietest of movements, I unlocked the bathroom door, opening it slowly. Everything seemed normal at first glance. That is, until I went downstairs and discovered the large front window of my sister’s living room smashed.

  “Hello?” I spoke softly to see if anyone was nearby.

  No response.

  I crept to the edge of the window, listening carefully before daring to look out of it. Everything sounded so normal… Birds were chirping happily away, the wind was blowing, yet there was something so eerie about it.

  Bracing myself, I moved in front of the window to look outside at my street.

  Bodies was what I saw – not just five or six, but what looked like the entire neighbourhood. Some were slumped over hedges or walls, some lay on the ground, and some of them were torn to bits in pools of blood. All of them were motionless.

  Looking through the broken window felt like I was staring at a surreal painting. The stillness of the bodies so randomly placed around; the overuse of vivid red colouring against the greens and browns of a normal street; the sky so blue, with only a hint of clouds that seemed frozen in time; the magnificent sun rising over the houses, shining its light down on the aftermath of a great battle.

  There was something ever so serene about it all, like it wasn’t even real.

  That serenity did not last long, though. My heart jumped up to my throat, my breathing intensified, and my eyes welled up with tears as panic set in.

  “Gloria? GLORIA?!” I shouted, hoping for a reply.

  Eventually, I spotted my sister. She was lying on our driveway amongst several other bodies. In truth, I only recognized her by the pink shirt with a cat’s face on that she always wore to bed.

  I leapt out through the broken window, landing in a pile of glass shards and blood. Without even noticing that one of those shards had stuck into my hand upon landing, I raced over towards my sister, praying that she was all right.

  “Hold on, sis! I got you,” I sputtered out while dragging the torn-up carcass of our neighbour, Mr Ford, off her.