The Hunger (Book 5): Decayed

by Brant, Jason

  Brandon glanced through the door as it swung closed.

  The tiny window shattered as another shot rang out.

  A muzzle flash illuminated Bill’s face. Rage twisted his features.

  Brandon glanced at the stairs, realized he’d slid past the descending portion. He stood in front of the steps heading up. Even though only a few feet separated the flights of stairs, he didn’t have time to cross them. Bill would be on him in an instant.

  Going up was his only chance.

  Brandon took the stairs two at a time.

  The door burst open behind him.

  30

  The weather shifted again as Cass climbed in behind the wheel of an old pickup truck. The ice that had fallen throughout the afternoon had finally eased. Heavy, wet snow replaced it. Because the temperature had changed so rapidly, the ground wasn’t cold enough for the snow to accumulate.

  Yet.

  Cass cursed the incessant precipitation as she cranked the key in the ignition.

  The truck wheezed to life.

  Lance shoved Magnus King into the back seat beside Emmett. Both of them jammed their guns into King’s sides, making him squirm against the cushions.

  Megan climbed into the passenger seat. “Let’s go.”

  As Cass’ hand settled on the column shifter behind the wheel, she wondered what had happened to Greg. She’d spotted him following them, but hadn’t seen him since the fight with Higgins started. “Has anyone seen Greg?”

  “Not since I left The Light,” Megan said.

  Lance and Emmett shook their heads.

  “Damn it.” Cass’ hand hovered over the shifter. “Where the hell is he?”

  Guilt washed over her as she realized they’d have to leave him. Higgins already had a massive lead. If they didn’t haul ass back to The Light, they’d never have a chance to catch up with him. Searching for Greg, when he hadn’t reappeared for quite a while, would cost them too much time. But leaving him alone in the city when he’d already been shot was a terrible decision. He could bleed out.

  “We’ll come back for him.” Megan pointed through the windshield. “If we don’t get going right now, we’re all screwed. I know that sounds harsh, but we don’t have a choice. We both saw him walking around, so he might make it back on his own. Maybe we won’t have to come back for him at all.”

  Even though Cass knew Megan was right, it didn’t assuage her guilt. They were leaving a friend behind to fend for himself. They were trapped by an impossible decision.

  “She’s right,” Emmett said, his voice soft and guilt-ridden. “Even though this will be the second time we’ve left him behind today. We’ll have to come back for him.”

  Cass looked at Lance in the rearview mirror.

  He nodded back.

  Knowing they were all in agreement didn’t make the decision any easier.

  “The ice is going to make this a real pain in the ass.” Cass yanked the transmission into drive, eased her foot off the brake.

  The tires spun for a moment before getting traction.

  “Been a long time since we’ve seen this kind of weather.” Megan thrummed her fingers on the dash. Nerves made her leg jitter. “Definitely didn’t miss it.”

  “This is a perfect time for it to fall, too. It’s not like we’re in a hurry.” Cass let the truck coast as they approached an intersection, glancing both ways. “I have no idea which road to take.”

  “You’ll never make it in time.” King laughed. “Your families will perish under the fang and claw of—”

  Lance elbowed King in the stomach hard enough to knock the wind out of him. His mouth popped open, eyes bugging, before he hauled in a gargled breath. A coughing fit followed. When he finally got himself under control, it seemed as if he wanted to say something else, but when he saw the way Lance eyed him, he kept quiet.

  Cass watched them in the rearview mirror, wishing they’d left Magnus at the van. He’d be nothing but a nuisance. They turned left, heading south. Their back end swerved out from behind them, the tires fighting for purchase. She had to let off the accelerator until she was able to regain control.

  At their current pace, they’d be lucky to reach The Light by nightfall, let alone before Higgins.

  “Damn it.” Cass slammed her hand off the steering wheel. “We could run faster than this.”

  “Just get us there as best you can.” Emmett put a comforting hand on Cass’ shoulder. “Everyone at The Light is armed to the teeth. They can fend off a few armed rednecks while we catch up.”

  The windshield wiper left a long, untouched gap on the glass as it cleared away some of the snow. Cass had to lean to the right and hunker down to get halfway decent visibility.

  “Goddamn it!” Cass hit the wheel again, harder this time. Her palm throbbed. “Couldn’t you idiots have found a better car? I’m surprised we didn’t have to crank the engine to start this piece of crap.”

  “The material comforts of the meek and pathetic are of no interest to the enlightened.” King stared at her in the mirror, his smug expression making his destroyed face even harder to look at.

  “How much practice did it take to learn to speak like such a dipshit?” Lance asked. “Did you listen to Rosetta Stone Moronish while you were driving around, slinging pizzas?”

  “You mock me.” King gave him a sideways glance. “But at least my vocabulary is above that of a frat boy.”

  “Ohh, sick burn.” Lance jabbed him in the ribs with his pistol. “Seriously, though. How does someone with the intelligence of a dung beetle teach himself to speak like a fourteenth-century jester?”

  King mumbled to himself, but looked away, his courage wilting under Lance’s blazing stare.

  “Damn.” Lance snapped his fingers. “I already made a jester joke about you, didn’t I? Guess I should work on my vocabulary so I can insult you from different angles. The whole jester thing is just so easy though, you know?”

  Cass ground her teeth as the truck threatened to slide off the road again. She slowed them down without using the brake, knowing that would make their traction even worse. Growing up in the mountains of Pennsylvania meant she’d learned to drive in the snow at a young age.

  Even though she’d spent more than a decade driving during inclement weather, she’d been out of practice for the past few years. She hadn’t sat behind the wheel of a car in a long time, let alone in the middle of an icy snowstorm.

  The dread nibbling at her mind made her want to speed up, to do everything she could to catch Higgins. She knew how stupid that would be, but she still struggled to stay rational. If they crashed into a parked car and totaled their piece of shit vehicle, they’d have to walk the rest of the way.

  Considering her injuries, she figured it would take her hours to get that far on foot. At best. Judging by the darkness creeping over the city, Cass didn’t think they had hours to get back to The Light. Night would fall soon.

  And the Vladdies would come out to play.

  They passed road signs for the exit ramps to the beltway and Interstate 95.

  Cass said, “I have no idea where I’m going.”

  “Keep heading south, I think.” Lance leaned against his door, looked out the window. “We’ll figure it out as we get closer.”

  “We don’t have time to figure it out.” Eifort leaned so far forward she was practically on the dash. “We can’t keep—”

  The shriek of a nearby Vladdie cut her off.

  Even with the windows up and the old engine puttering along, the cry was surprisingly loud. Every time they heard one of the beasts during the day, Cass felt a shiver run up her back.

  Daylight was supposed to be their time, not the Vladdies’.

  The beast roared again, closer this time.

  Cass couldn’t tell if it was racing along beside them or if they’d driven close to a nest. The wail sounded as if it were just a few feet away. She took her eyes off the road for a moment to scan the nearby buildings, half expecting one of the infected to
leap out a window onto the hood of the car.

  “Anyone see it?” Lance’s breath fogged his window.

  “Nothing,” Emmett said. “But it’s damn close.”

  “Turn right here,” King said, the edge in his voice gone.

  “What?” Cass turned her attention back to the mirror.

  “Turn right here, moron!” King leaned forward. “This is the fastest way back to your stupid building.”

  Cass glanced at Lance. He shrugged. Taking her foot off the gas, she let the car slow down, even though she feared the Vladdie hiding in one of the buildings. “Are you conning us?”

  “No! Speed up!” King shifted in his seat, back straightening, eyes widening. “Get us out of here before the King catches us!”

  Hoping she wouldn’t regret following the directions of a psychopath-turned-cult-leader, Cass did as he said. They drove down the middle of the next street, the path ahead mostly clear of abandoned vehicles. With few obstacles, she managed to goose their speed a little higher.

  “Now you’re afraid of the Vla—” Lance caught himself midsentence. “Of the demons? Why?”

  “Because I promised you to the Demon King. If I don’t deliver you today, he’ll eat me alive.” King hung his head, chin resting on his chest. “If he found me tied up in this truck…”

  Cass noticed Magnus King’s speech didn’t seem quite so flowery when he was scared out of his mind. The way his verbal diarrhea changed from one moment to the next would have proven funnier if she didn’t want to kill him.

  “The sun isn’t down yet,” Lance said. “And we haven’t seen any demons wearing pelts in the city. The ones who protected themselves from sunlight were all north of here, in the nest by Valerie’s camp.”

  “You’re all fools,” King whispered. “You have no idea.”

  “Then tell us.” Emmett turned to King. “What is this Demon King? Why are you more afraid of it than the others?”

  “Because he’s different, you idiot.” King sighed. “The infection didn’t change him the way it did the others.”

  “He can still speak,” Lance said.

  “That’s not all he can do. The sun doesn’t hurt him. Whatever it is that makes them allergic to sunlight doesn’t affect him.” King’s eyes nervously darted around the city. “He’s uniting the nests, creating a great army that serves him. We’ll either live in the shadow of his boot or die under the heel.”

  “He’s organizing the infected?” Megan asked. “You’re sure?”

  “Why am I even bothering with you pathetic underlings?” King snapped his mouth shut, focused on the floor.

  Cass had more questions, but she didn’t know if she could stomach talking to that human waste of space anymore. He’d killed their friend, almost sacrificed her husband. The fact he was still alive, let alone in the same car as them, bothered her. Speaking to him almost made her gag.

  What he’d said chilled her to the bone, though.

  If the supposed King of the Demons was real and organizing different nests under his rule, then they were in even more trouble than she’d thought. Higgins, Magnus, and Valerie were bad enough.

  An intelligent, sunlight-resistant Vladdie was nightmare fuel.

  They’d encountered signs over the years of the beasts growing smarter, but nothing so advanced. Considering Lance had actually spoken to the damn thing, she had to assume Magnus King wasn’t lying.

  To top it all off, Lance had wounded the beast.

  If the Demon King were anything like a human, it would want revenge.

  With how poorly everything had gone since their arrival in Baltimore, Cass figured it was just about time to leave. The last thing they needed was a quarrel with a day-walking Vladdie.

  Megan turned around in her seat. “How did Higgins get a freaking APC?”

  “A what?” Lance asked.

  “APC. Armored personnel carrier. The crazy vehicle they’re driving around the city.”

  “Our buddy Earl, the dipshit who caught us, said they’d raided a base around here.”

  Cass said, “And we found two IDs on Joe Bob that said Aberdeen Proving Ground on them. Do you know what that is, Megan?”

  “I’ve heard of it.” Megan shook her head. “But I don’t really know anything about it. I don’t think any soldiers were stationed there, but I couldn’t say for sure.”

  “Something is there if Higgins managed to get an APC.” Cass wondered what else the Bandits had taken from the proving ground. “And a lot of military-grade rifles.”

  “And explosives,” Lance said. “Can’t forget all that crap we found in that bag.”

  “You can’t beat him.” King finally lifted his head. “He’s a merciless lunatic.”

  “Takes one to know one, eh?” Lance pointed over Cass’ shoulder. “See it?”

  The Light rose into view above the rooftop of a tall apartment building. It was barely visible through the heavy snowfall, but she could just make out some of the details on the outside. Snow clung to the hunks of sharpened metal welded between the windows.

  “Got it.” Cass felt her heartbeat quicken. “Everyone ready for this?”

  “No,” Emmett said. “Not really.”

  Megan reached behind her seat, her hand open.

  Emmett took hold of it. “No one is going to hurt our children.”

  On the roof of The Light, Cass spotted movement. “You see that?”

  Lance said, “Yeah. Looks like someone is waving their arms to get our attention.”

  31

  An overwhelming dread settled upon Lance as The Light came into view. With Eifort and Doc Brown in the car with them, there wasn’t anyone in the building he trusted to protect his child.

  He wouldn’t ask Liz and Paul to watch over a pet hamster, let alone his only child. Lilith could babysit while they were out on a short scavenging trip, but Lance wouldn’t expect his tiny, pregnant friend to save his kid from a swarming horde of Vladdies.

  Or a megalomaniac in an APC.

  When he spotted someone on the roof flagging them down, he knew things were about to go from bad to worse. Though he had no idea who it was, or what they were attempting to convey, he knew it couldn’t be good.

  Cass managed to keep them from crashing into anything as she navigated around a few cars in the middle of the road. As they approached a roadblock limiting access to The Light, she tried to ease them to a stop.

  Her knuckles had blanched from holding the steering wheel in a death grip. She’d contorted her body at an odd angle so she could see through the snow-covered windshield. The movement didn’t do her back any favors.

  The tires slid on the slick surface, ramming into the middle of the barricade, jarring everyone in the old truck. Lance and Emmett bounced off the seats in front of them. Megan caught herself on the dash. Cass held onto the wheel.

  No one bothered catching King as he flew through the empty space between the front seats. He cracked his head off the console. The radio turned on, blaring static through old speakers on the dash.

  “Oops,” Lance said. “Sorry about that, pizza king.”

  Blood trickled from King’s nose as Lance grabbed hold of his bound hands and yanked him back. He spit a glob of red-tinged phlegm on the floor before glaring at Lance. “Assholes.”

  “Let’s move.” Cass threw her door open, struggled to swing her legs out from under the wheel. “I think we beat Higgins here.”

  As if on cue, the heavy machine gun on top of the APC opened up.

  Lance would forever remember the distinctive whump coming from the barrel.

  “No!” Megan leapt from the truck.

  The streets filled with the staccato drum of the shots, making it hard to tell exactly how far away the armored vehicle was. Lance hopped down to the street, ignoring the twinge in his knee.

  “Get out of the truck, asshole!” Lance waved at King with his pistol. “Now!”

  King shimmied across the seat on his ass, glaring at Lance. “If we run out there,
Higgins will cut us down, you idiot.”

  “Shut up and move.” Lance grabbed King’s shirt collar. Yanked him from the car.

  King staggered out of the truck, shoes skating on the snowy street, and fell to his ass.

  Megan and Doc Brown were already crossing the barricade, sliding across the cars. Cass followed as best she could, her labored movements slowing her down.

  “Hey, don’t worry about me,” Lance hollered. “I’ll get the pizza boy. Don’t wait or anything. It’s cool.”

  No one even spared him a glance.

  Keeping a firm grip on King’s collar, Lance dragged him toward the barricade. “Pick up the pace.”

  “Why? So we can be shot?”

  Lance didn’t answer—just shoved the cult leader onto the hood of the first car. He wanted nothing more than to leave the idiot behind, run ahead with the others. Having King run around the city, unchecked, would likely prove a catastrophic mistake, though.

  The automatic gunfire paused for a few seconds.

  Lance felt his muscles unclench as he hoped someone had managed to take out Higgins. Knowing the kind of damage the massive gun atop the APC could do to The Light had his entire body tensed. If left alone, Higgins could destroy most of the building with that single weapon.

  With King in no hurry to confront the Bandits, Lance had to push, prod, and shove him across the roadblock until they were on the other side. By the time they were on the road again, he couldn’t even see the others ahead of him.

  They’d left footprints in the slush, leading around a corner and disappearing to the left.

  “Damn it.” Lance broke into a hobbled jog, dragging his prisoner beside him. He wasn’t paying as much attention to King as he should, and he half expected the pizza boy to kick at his bad knee.

  If King did anything to slow him down, Lance resolved to simply shoot him and keep going. He’d deal with the aftermath with Doc Brown later.

  When they reached the end of the block, Lance shoved King against the wall, glanced around the corner. Cass and the others were fifty feet ahead, crouching behind another building. Eifort was on a knee, aiming her rifle. Emmett stood behind her, motioning for Lance to catch up.