RED Eye
The Armageddon Series
Season Three: Episode Two
By
USA Today Bestselling Author
Claire C. Riley
&
Victoria Cage Author
Eli Constant
RED EYE The Armageddon Series
Copyright ©2020 Claire C. Riley & Elizabeth Constantopoulos
Cover Design: Wilde Designs Elizabeth Constantopoulos
Editor: Amy Jackson
Formatting: Claire C. Riley
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, without express permission from the author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
About the episode
** The truth will come out…no matter how hard you try to lie. Barrett continues to keep Sam and Rose apart. Nolan teeters on the edge of death. **
About the Series:
A new location brings new terror as Rose and Sam find themselves at the mercy of Barrett’s crew, The Sins.
Now separated from both Sam and Nolan, Rose is a caged animal, terrified but determined to find the people she cares about the most. But how much can one person take?
More than ever, Rose would give anything to be sat in a boring office back in England right now.
Sam’s secret is never safe; that’s a reality she’s learning to live with. Barrett has protected her up until now, yet surrounded by his so-called family, she wonders how long it will be before he turns on her…
Sam longs for the days when her biggest problems were a failed relationship, too many carbs, and a sprained ankle.
Life has never been easy, not before the zombies and certainly not after. But even with the dead rising, it is the living that causes the most problems. It’s the humans that elicit the most fear, that make the apocalypse bloodier, that kill anyone necessary to survive.
Between humans, zombies and the desire for brains,
the world’s getting darker by the hour.
And the two unlikely friends,
need one another more than ever.
That doomed red-eye flight seems a lifetime ago…
*
Start this epic zombie apocalypse thriller written by USA Today Bestselling Author Claire C. Riley and Victoria Cage Author Eli Constant.
THE SERIES SO FAR:
Red Eye The Armageddon Series - Season One – OUT NOW
Red Eye The Armageddon Series – Season Two – OUT NOW
Red Eye Season Three: Episode One – OUT NOW
Red Eye Season Three: Episode Two – OUT NOW
Red Eye Season Three: Episode Three – Coming October 29th
RED Eye
The Armageddon Series
Season Three: Episode Two
By
USA Today Bestselling Author
Claire C. Riley
&
Victoria Cage Author
Eli Constant
Prologue
It was too hot to be inside.
Swiping the sweat from my forehead with my gloved hand, I sighed and continued crushing the little white pills in the bowl with the pestle. It was my job to turn them into white dust ready to be passed over to the kid next to me. His job was to mix some other powder with it. I didn’t know his name. I didn’t want to know it. We weren’t here to make friends. I couldn’t rely on any of these kids to help me if I needed it, and vice versa. That’s what the world had turned into.
Dog eat dog.
Every man, woman, and kid out for themselves.
And right now all I wanted to do was sleep, but I had a good couple of hours before I’d be allowed to do that yet.
My hand ached from the constant grinding motion, and I put the pestle down and rolled my wrists, glancing briefly at the red blister that had formed on the palm of my hand. It had already popped, and if I was at home, my mom would have put some stinky antiseptic stuff on it and then a Band-Aid. But there was none of that here. No antiseptic stuff, no Band-Aids, and no mom.
I rolled my shoulders and glanced to the covered-up window. I wished I could see outside, but all the windows had sheets pinned to them to block out the sunlight. Still, if I closed my eyes, I could imagine what it was like outside. I could feel the sun on my face and the water from my pool on my body. I could imagine what I would have been doing if I were still at home and the zombies hadn’t come.
Mom would be calling me in for a snack—probably homemade cookies that I’d bitch about because they didn’t have enough chocolate chips. My stomach grumbled at the thought of them, my mouth watering as I imagined the taste. I always gave my mom shit for making those dumb cookies, when in reality I loved them. And I loved her. I just hated the way she babied me.
Man, what I’d do to be babied by her now.
Instead she’s lying on our kitchen floor with a carving knife stuck in her forehead, courtesy of one of our crazy neighbors and the freaking zombie apocalypse.
Still, it was better she be dead than here. I’d seen what they did to women here and I wouldn’t want my mom to have to go through it.
“Psst,” the kid next to me said, and I glanced at him with a frown. He looked over to one of the guys that were at the door. I couldn’t remember what he’d said his name had been—doubted it was his real name anyway. He was tall and lanky but with a mean right hook. He was currently taking a snack break while staring outside through a crack in the doorway. Looked like he didn’t want to be there any more than we did.
I looked back at the kid next to me and shrugged.
“If he catches you slacking you’ll be in for it,” he whispered, his words muffled by the shitty facemask. He was around my age, I thought, no older than fifteen for sure, with dusty blond hair and brown eyes.
I shrugged like I didn’t give a shit, but I picked up my pestle, wincing as it touched the popped blister on my hand. The kid next to me nudged me, and when I looked over with a scowl he handed me a strip of dirty material.
“For your hand,” he mumbled, holding up his own hand and then gesturing at his torn T-shirt.
I was still frowning, wondering why he was helping me, when I noticed the crinkle around his eyes. I couldn’t see his mouth, but I guessed he was smiling.
“Thanks,” I mumbled back, tying the material across my hand and covering the worst of the blister. I tried not to wince again, knowing the kid was watching.
The door clicked shut and I glanced up briefly, watching as what’s-his-face came back in, his beady eyes going over us all, and then I got back to work.
Chapter One.
Rose
I woke with a start, hissing in pain as my shoulder bumped up against the cage. I flinched away from the edge and subsequently knocked my head on the low ceiling before wincing again. My eyes were still adjusting but my ears had already heard Nathan chuckling at me from his desk across the room.
“You okay down there?” he asked with another chuckle of amusement. He didn’t give a damn how I was. I was in the cage, my heart thumping erratically. A wild hare caught in a snare, waiting for the death blow. I rubbed at my eyes, the low scrape of his chair moving along the floor making me aware that he was getting up. Moments later he crouched in front of the bars, staring in at me. “Wondered when you were going to wake up. D
idn’t realize that you were so sleepy, little Rose.”
I moved away from him, pushing myself far back against the bars at the opposite side of the small cage as I looked up at him through my lashes. I didn’t want to cry—didn’t want to give him the satisfaction—but I couldn’t stop the quiver of my chin.
Nathan sighed, feigning irritation with me. Arsehole! I watched the amusement in his eyes glow brighter as I trembled, and the small tilt of his mouth upwards when he gripped the bars and I whimpered involuntarily.
“Are we about done with all this now?” Nathan asked, one hand gesturing around me like me and the cage he’d locked me in again was an array of messy toys on the floor and I was a toddler having a tantrum. His other hand scratched away in irritation at his bristly chin where the hair was coming through. It clearly bothered him, and that was good, I decided. He wasn’t like the others here that were embracing the end of days and trying to make a living off the misery of others. He’d made a living off the misery of others previously, so this was nothing new to him. It was more of an inconvenience. He didn’t care about anything but his own survival, I realized as he continued to scratch away. He may have been a narcissistic pig, but he hated this apocalypse as much as I did. And that was something I could use.
Be a good girl, Rose, I told myself.
I nodded. “Yes.”
Nathan smiled. “Well all right then, that’s what I like to hear.” He stood up and retrieved the key for the lock before unlocking it and opening the small hatch. He helped me out and I tried not to throw up when his hand locked around my waist and he pulled me to him. I was still only dressed in my underwear, and his hands on my body set something alight inside of me, making me want to fight him again.
That was the old saying, right? Fight or flight. Right then I was in full-on fight mode, and while that terrified me, it also grounded me. Because it meant he hadn’t taken that from me yet. I gritted my teeth and curled my hands into fists so I didn’t lash out as I waited for him to say or do something.
“So I’m thinking, little Rose. A woman like you, she might be too good for what I first had in mind. Maybe a woman like you deserves something better.”
His face was close to mine, his hazel eyes focused solely, intently on me. He was looking at me like I was lunch, a prime cut of steak that he would like to take a bite of. I swallowed and tried to hold my nerve when my mind was screaming at him. Thank God he couldn’t read minds, because he’d no doubt have slit my throat for the things I was currently thinking about him.
“What do you mean?” I asked cautiously.
His hand trailed down my back, across the tender bruised welts from his belt, and I whimpered and involuntarily pulled away from his hands, pushing myself against his chest further. He smiled, happy with the response.
“I’m thinking a woman like you, with all that fight in her, deserves something better than whoring herself out for a meal.” Nathan watched my face, but I shared nothing as I waited for the rest of his sentence. “Not gonna lie, Rose, I like your British spirit, all feisty-like”—he chuckled—“and seeing my good friend Barrett settling himself down with one woman, well, it got me to thinkin’, wonderin’ really, if that was something I could ever do.”
My ears pricked up at the sound of Barrett’s name. Barrett had a woman…that woman could be Sam.
Sam.
Oh my god, she was so close.
I wanted to cry. I wanted to cheer. I wanted to run around and scream her name, because she wouldn’t let this happen. If she knew I was here she would do something, make Barrett do something.
But I stayed mute and trembling in Nathan’s arms, waiting, compliant.
He ran the back of his hand down the side of my face and I lifted my chin to meet his stare, refusing to back down. I’d be compliant, all right—I wanted to stay alive—but I wouldn’t let him think I enjoyed it, that was for damn sure.
He smiled. It made me feel sick. “Yes, I think we’ll give it a go. Gotta repopulate the earth at some point, right?” He laughed and my stomach flipped over. “Got a little job for you before we settle down and get all cozy-like though. One job to prove you can hold your nerve, and then I’ll take the for-sale sign from around your neck. What do you think? That sound like a good deal to you?”
I frowned. “What job?” I asked, my voice soft and hesitant.
He let go of me and walked to his desk, leaning back on it like we were having a business meeting and I wasn’t his almost-naked prisoner.
“Got another fight coming up later, and I need a girl to hold the round sign up for the crowd.” He shrugged.
“You want me to be a ring girl?” I frowned harder. There had to be some catch. “And?” I prompted and he laughed.
“And nothin’. That’s it. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.” He smiled wider, his eyes trained on me as he watched the emotions cross my face.
I wasn’t even sure if I could do it—if I had it in me to watch one of those fights. I’d completely freaked out the first time, the scent and sound of the vivacious hunger for blood and death rife in the air making my head swim. And then there had been Nolan… He’d be dead now. He had to be.
I closed my eyes briefly and tried to calm myself down before I completely lost it. He’d be dead now. He had to be. Nolan was strong, but who could survive against the monsters like that? Trapped in a fighting pit with no weapon but your own hands. But he wouldn’t have been scared. Nolan would fight as hard as he could for as long as he could. Right until the very end. I took that with me and held it close. He’d have been brave right until the end. And now I had to be brave, just like him.
“Okay,” I finally replied. “I’ll do it.”
Nathan stalked forwards, his hand reaching out to grip my chin and squeeze as he tipped my head up to him. “You gonna be a good girl for me this time, little Rose?”
For now, I wanted to say. For now I’d be a good girl, and then when the time was right I was going to slit his throat and get the hell out of here. The stark thought shocked me.
I shook my face out from his grip and he smirked. “Yes,” I replied. “I’ll be a good girl for you.”
*
Dressed in a low-cut dress that covered my back but left little to the imagination at the front, I paced the small space beside the ring. I could already hear the cheering and chanting. The call for death. For murder. For killing.
I placed both hands on the wall and closed my eyes, breathing deeply so I didn’t lose my shit completely. I felt sick again, and by God I wished I would just puke and get it over and done with so I could stop feeling like that, but nothing would bloody come. Even when I stuck my fingers down my throat to force it to happen, all I did was gag and smudge my cheap mascara.
I could do this, I told myself over and over.
I had to.
Nathan wouldn’t forgive me a second time and I wasn’t ready to die yet.
The scratchy material of the cheap dress rubbed against the welts on my back, but each flit of pain gave me strength, fueling my fire to be strong and make Nolan proud.
A voice from the doorway had me turning around. Stood by the entrance were two men leering in, their hazy gazes moving over my scantily clad body.
“Eyes are up here,” I snapped, my voice coming out loud and clear. Way clearer than I thought it would be.
The men laughed heartily like this—like I—was the biggest joke ever, and it only made me madder.
“Nathan said to be a good girl,” the shorter one with a droopy left eye said, his fat tongue darting out over his lips.
The other man, taller and with a perfectly round gut that was completely out of proportion to the rest of his body, elbowed the other one in the ribs as if telling him to shut up, and that made me breathe a sigh of relief.
“You ready?” big belly said seriously, nodding down to my Round 1 sign.
I shrugged and picked it up, not ready in the slightest, but I replied, “Sure.”
“This way.” He smir
ked and they both headed out with me trailing after them. “It’s gonna be a bloodbath out there today. Hope it don’t scare you too much.” He glanced over his shoulder, his smirk still in place and telling me that he hoped it would scare me.
What was it with this place?
It was like they got all the arseholes in the world and put them in one place!
“Nathan said if you fail him you get a fancy neon sign,” the other one said, and I frowned, wondering what he meant. He spun to face me, his hands in the air opening and closing like a light going on and off. “Sale, sale, sale,” he laughed, and I shivered with fear, finally getting his meaning.
If I fucked this up, my deal with Nathan was off and he’d make sure every man got a piece of me. Bile climbed my throat, but I pushed it back down and willed my trembling knees to stop knocking.
“Come on,” they laughed, and carried on walking.
As we walked, the cheering of men became louder, but so did the low growl of zombies. The sounds made my skin crawl like hundreds of spiders were making webs across my flesh, and I whimpered involuntarily.
Come on, you can do this, I coached myself with every step.
I took a deep breath as we reached the entrance to the arena. The wave pool’s safety signs were still tacked to the wall just outside, a stark warning for anyone who wasn’t a strong swimmer to not go in. I wished it were that simple.
Each man gripped one of my biceps and began to pull me forwards as I lifted the Round 1 sign above my head and began to walk, blinking against the bright daylight. My gaze moved to the cages of men and women locked up, and then to the cages of bloodthirsty zombies reaching through the bars to get to them.
I scanned the crowd, seeing crazed face after crazed face, all of them just as hungry as the zombies—more so in some cases. The women I’d been with earlier were sat with Nathan. He had his arm slung around Destiny and she was smiling like the cat that got the cream. He sat up straighter when he saw me, nudging the huge fat guy next to him and saying something, all the while his gaze on me. Warning me.
Red Eye | Season 3 | Episode 2 Page 1
