Ana, now backed up to the roof’s edge, called out, “Stop! Don’t hurt him. I’ll do whatever you want—just leave him alone.”
“You’ll do whatever we want anyway,” one of the men said, laughing and stepping toward Liam so he was standing beside the goateed man, aiming an energy rifle at Liam’s head.
Ana looked down from the rooftop, 14 stories to the street below. No way she’d survive. She remembered how the bandits were leering at her earlier, with such ugly looks in their eyes, touching themselves. While she’d never been with a man, she knew enough to know that you could short circuit their thinking by introducing sex into the equation. Or in this case, rape. She hoped that the men were more interested in having their way with her than exacting revenge on Liam. If she was to be their prize, then the only way to command their attention was to threaten whatever hell they had planned for her.
She shouted, voice faltering, “If you hurt him, I’ll jump. Let him go, or else!”
“You ain’t gonna jump,” one of the bandits said from behind an uncomfortable sounding laugh.
Ana stepped onto the ledge, nearly losing her balance as a gust of wind whipped at her.
She somehow managed not to fall, and looked back at the bandits, heart in her throat, “I’ll fucking do it! Let him go!”
She hoped like hell they wouldn’t call her bluff.
The bandits looked at Ana, hesitating, as if they were assessing her willingness to follow through.
Liam looked at her like he wanted to say no, like he wanted to fight the men and protect Ana’s honor, or commit some other atrocity of chivalrous bullshit. But he knew better; Liam was smart enough to take the chance for what it was. He could—and would—return to save her. Because that was Liam.
But I won’t need saving.
She would jump once Liam was gone.
Episode 4
CHAPTER 23 — LIAM HARROW
“If you hurt him, I’ll jump!” Ana screamed, “Let him go, or else!”
She teetered at the roof’s edge, insanity rimming both of her eyes. If Liam half-believed that she’d do it, the bandits must have no doubt. She was trying to buy him time to reach safety. Liam knew she wanted him to run.
But he couldn’t.
Liam stayed put, rooted as bandits looked from him to Ana, then back, clearly wondering what might happen next—and if Liam might be foolish enough to make a move with his silly crowbar.
If he ran now, he might get out alive. And if he were able to escape, maybe he could find a better weapon, then return with a fighting chance and save both of them.
But he looked around at the half-dozen bandits with their bloodlust and rape eyes, and felt hopeless. Even if he got away, it would take too long to find a weapon and get back. He didn’t dare leave Ana alone that long. Not with these men.
Liam had thought all was lost seconds after waking up that morning. But even with only a quarter of the attackers that they had faced at the tree’s base, Liam figured their odds were better earlier in the day. Then, the bandits were primed for attack, not seeing Liam or Ana as much of a threat. The few that were left were now angry. They had been outsmarted by their victims and pulled into pursuit, through the forest, into The Outback, and up 14 flights of stairs through a zombie-infested building, losing at least four more men along the way.
No, these bandits were out for blood … and more.
The world froze around him as he sized up the situation.
Of the six, three held guns. The one in front—the giant of a man with the thick black goatee—had picked up the wooden club he had dropped when struggling with Liam. The nails that were pounded through it glinted in the sun. Another held a spear. The third bandit without a gun, standing off to the side of the group, swung several feet of heavy chain, the links whistling with a mild scream as he swung it in wide circles against the whipping wind. Liam had nothing but a crowbar, two fists, and the willingness to die if it meant protecting Ana—who was still teetering at the roof’s edge.
Ana stared into his eyes, urging him to go. To flee. To leave her be. But Liam couldn’t, even with murder approaching from every angle. It was better to die than watch her die … or live with the knowledge of what they’d do to Ana if they caught her.
Because if she failed to jump, or they somehow stopped her, they’d take her as a toy, using her fast, brutalizing her body on behalf of their fallen brothers and their own sordid lusts. Liam had seen the atrocities leveled on women forced into The Games all too many times on TV. This wasn’t televised. God only knew how much worse they would treat Ana if given the chance.
He couldn’t let that happen.
Liam charged past Goatee and toward the bandit behind him—the one holding the spear—and tackled him hard with what little energy he still had. The move took the man by surprise, and Liam dropped him hard to the rooftop before he had a chance to raise his spear. The bandit scrambled for his spear, crawling on his stomach, his fingers touching the shaft …
Liam slammed the crowbar into the back of the bandit’s skull.
He wanted to go back for seconds, across the man’s face to make sure he didn’t rise as a zombie, but he heard footsteps approaching, and the sound of metal swinging. He glanced up just in time to see Chain Man running at him.
Liam managed to roll out of the way as the chain whistled and slapped the roof beside him. Liam sprung back up and swung the crowbar, taking aim at Chain Man’s kneecap.
The solid steel hit with a loud crunch, shattering bone. The bandit’s leg folded the wrong way, collapsing him to the roof in a scream. He bent over, clutching his bloody knee, dropping the chain out of reach.
Liam swung the crowbar into the top of the man’s skull, twice, killing his screams.
Liam had been expecting gunfire to erupt, but a shot had yet to be fired. He leapt to his feet—two down—then looked over at Goatee and saw why he wasn’t riddled with bullets yet: Goatee had his hands in the air, waving his brothers back. His eyes were as red as they were yellow, hungry for Liam’s blood.
Goatee took a step toward him, but Liam held his space, crowbar poised in front of him, ready to swat or swing or parry. Eager to kill. Goatee grunted and swung his club from what might as well have been a rooftop away.
Liam laughed, trying to get under his skin, rattle him.
Goatee swung his club again, this time coming a bit closer to Liam, but not close enough for Liam to launch a counter attack. He moved quickly out of the way.
Goatee was a strong and big, but lumbering. If his club struck Liam, it would probably mean instant death. But even exhausted, Liam was faster and lighter. If he could hang in long enough to get behind the man, or even just near enough to strike, he could take the giant down.
Liam didn’t dare move his focus off the big man. He could only hope no one else was taking aim. Hoped no one was moving closer to Ana. Hoped Ana was still on the ledge and hadn’t already jumped.
Goatee took two steps toward Liam, pushing him farther from both Ana and the other bandits.
Liam stepped back, holding the crowbar tight, watching the giant’s arm muscles to try and predict when he might swing again. He was too close, but Liam didn’t dare step back too fast or too blindly, lest he trip over decades of debris littering the roof.
Goatee snarled, jerked his head toward Ana, and said, “After I kick your body over the side, we’re gonna hold her down while the others take turns fucking her, one from each side.” He smiled, a gruesome sight. “I called pussy on the way over.”
Liam said nothing. He just kept watching Goatee’s arms and feet, and moving out of the way in response. He noticed that Goatee was growing more out of breath as he continued to swing the club.
What Goatee wasn’t tiring of was tugging on Liam’s nerves. “When we’re finished, we’ll take her back to camp and let everyone have a go. She’ll be begging us to kill her. But we won’t. We’ll use her up until she’s wide as a valley. Then we’ll flip her. Maybe even cut some new ho
les.”
Goatee expected Liam to charge.
But Liam wasn’t biting.
Instead, he picked up his pace, moving faster even though he was stepping back blindly. If he could move fast enough, Liam could tire the giant, and then make his move.
Goatee grunted as he took another swing.
This time, Liam dashed to the man’s right as the club went left.
Liam brought the crowbar up, hitting Goatee in the elbow with a satisfying crunch.
Goatee’s grip didn’t weaken on the club even as he screamed out in pain. His eyes met Liam’s, and Liam felt as if he’d spit on an angry bull.
The bull charged, faster than Liam expected. He realized that Goatee was feigning fatigue.
The club flew at Liam’s face.
Liam’s foot slipped on something and he fell back, smacking the rooftop hard and sending the breath out of his lungs.
Goatee was quick to recover. He lifted the club over his head, ready to deliver the death blow.
No way to deflect it …
His mind reeled, adrenaline coursing through his body. Before his brain found a defense, Liam’s foot responded, thrusting straight into the man’s right knee.
Goatee’s leg collapsed, just like Chain Man’s, twisting the club’s arch and causing it to plummet hard, just inches to Liam’s right.
The giant toppled, and Liam raised his crowbar, thrusting the sharp end into the man’s gut. Goatee fell forward, on top of Liam, driving the metal deeper into his own stomach even as he pinned Liam down.
The bandit screamed as his hot blood emptied onto Liam.
It bubbled from the man’s mouth, and his eyes rolled back, wide, scared, and angry. As the man’s blood frothed onto Liam’s face, Liam twisted his head away, closing his lips tight against the taste of warm copper.
“You fucker,” the man managed, as he brought his hand’s to find Liam’s neck.
Trapped, his arms pinned beneath the massive man’s weight, Liam felt the fear tighten its hold on him, just as the man tightened his hands around Liam’s neck.
Why won’t you just die?
Liam wrestled with the crowbar beneath the man’s weight, twisting and turning it as best he could, trying to do as much damage as he could to the internal organs and ensuring the man bled out quickly before Liam could be strangled.
Goatee’s hands didn’t slacken.
Shit!
Liam continued struggling with the crowbar, twisting and turning it, feeling even more of the man’s blood pour out, but he wasn’t dying. His grip was somehow growing desperately tighter.
Then it was Liam who felt himself weakening, struggling for breath as the man kept choking him. Liam struggled to keep his chin down hard on the giant’s hands, lest they completely close around his windpipe and collapse it immediately.
The man’s grip tightened, and Liam felt panic enflame his face as a lightheadedness began to take over.
No!
Can’t.
Pass.
Out!
Liam managed one last surge of strength, turning the crowbar up severely, until he heard an awful crunching sound and saw the man’s eyes widen.
Goatee’s grip, and body, went limp.
Fuck yeah!
Liam wanted to collapse as he felt air fill up his lungs again, but then he heard the guns blazing. Pieces of the roof flew up in chunks as the bandits opened fire.
Liam twisted the giant’s corpse to put it between him and the bandits, using it as a shield. It shook and jolted as bullets and energy blasts beat into it.
It was only a matter of time before something ripped through and found Liam.
He glanced up at Ana, still teetering at the edge, watching and waiting. She was see-through pale. Exposed, but reasonably safe until Liam was dead.
He wished she’d run while the bandits’ attention was on him. But she might have had no clear escape, or was too weak to risk running.
She had to keep suicide as an option.
Liam tried yanking the crowbar from the giant, but it was slippery and stuck.
Shit!
The bandits moved closer, firing.
Thankfully, most were shit shots, otherwise Liam would be dead. Of course, he might as well have been, with nowhere to run.
All he had was a fucking crowbar, which he couldn’t even pull from the giant’s corpse.
Amazingly the gunfire stopped as one of the men, Liam couldn’t see which, said, “Surrender now, and we’ll let you live.”
Yeah, right.
Liam didn’t dare peek over the corpse. Didn’t dare see what they were up to. But he couldn’t help but wonder why they’d stopped firing.
They easily could have finished him off right here. Just kept firing until they broke through his shield.
But they weren’t.
Instead, they were advancing.
There were three men left. The odds had shifted significantly, giving Liam a glimmer of hope that he might survive. But still, they had guns.
The wind picked up, making it impossible to hear their footsteps. But he could feel them coming.
Liam continued to wrestle with the crowbar, finally pulling it from the giant’s body. It was coated in a thick stickiness. He had no time for disgust.
No time for anything but to—
Then he heard footsteps running toward him.
Too late.
Hands pulled his hair and yanked him from his hiding spot.
A hard fist slammed in his back.
Liam dropped the crowbar.
He was helpless.
Liam struggled to turn and fight off the bandit, but the gun was already at his head.
He froze.
He watched as the two others approached, barely able to bury their rotten-toothed smiles behind their smacking lips.
“Well, well, well,” a tattooed man with long, dirty curly dark hair said. “Whatcha gonna do now?”
Liam looked past them and saw Ana, still on the ledge, staring and crying. As certain as he was just seconds from death, he was also certain she would follow.
The man with the tattoos turned back to Ana, “Don’t jump honey. We’ll let loverboy live, so long as you don’t fight us. Just step away from the ledge.”
Liam finally understood: he was their pawn to talk her down. After all they’d been through, to wade through the zombies of this building and city without any prize to show for it must have been crushing. All of this without Ana was just not an option.
For them, anyway.
“Don’t trust them!” Liam yelled. He didn’t want to tell her to jump. Couldn’t. But he didn’t want her to move away from the ledge, either. Jumping was her final card—she couldn’t just hand it over. “They’re going to kill me, anyway!”
“Shut up,” another of the bandits—a skinny rat of a man—said, grabbing the fallen Chain Man’s weapon. He slinked toward Liam, rat grin teasing intent.
He gripped the chain and said to Ana, “Get your little ass over here right now, or we start whipping your boy.”
“Stay there!” Liam shouted.
“Shut up,” Rat Man said and swung. The chain hit Liam in the back of his calves and dropped him back to the rooftop. Pain shot through both knees.
“Get over here, NOW!” Rat Man commanded, laughing as he walked behind Liam.
Liam flinched, balled his fists, ready to fight back, but then the bandit with the gun reminded him to sit still by shoving the energy blaster against his head.
“I’m gonna count to three!” Rat Man said. “One …”
Ana cried out, starting to step away from the ledge.
“Stay!” Liam said.
“Two!” Rat Man said.
Ana was frozen, shaking her head, her distress breaking Liam’s heart.
“Three!” Rat Man said and swung again, this time hitting Liam across his back.
Liam screamed, and fell forward, hunched over in pain.
“I’m gonna give you one more chance,
bitch!” Rat Man said. “One!”
“Stop! I’ll come!” Ana said, and started to step away from the ledge.
As painful as it was, Liam just couldn’t allow it. He had to make a move. He’d either take them down, or die trying. Either way, he’d force their hand before Ana got there.
Rat Man counted, “Two …”
Liam stood, pain like lightning through his joints.
“Get back down,” said the gunman to his left, pushing the gun harder into Liam’s head.
“No.”
“Three!” Rat Man said.
The chain started swinging.
Between the gunman and the chain, Liam was a dead man. There was nothing for him to do, and a third gunman behind them to boot.
This was it.
Two more bodies lost to The Outback.
Rat Man screamed as he swung hard. The chain came at Liam. He braced for impact. The chain was a split second from his chest when a bright blue light swallowed Rat Man. The chain, along with Rat Man’s entire body, vaporized into black ashes in a scream of crackling sparks.
What the hell?
Liam fell to the ground, instinct taking over, as the remaining bandits aimed their weapons around in search of the enemy.
A hunter orb screamed through the air, stopping on a dime ahead, then spun in an urgent circle, facing the bandits, its digital eye focusing on them.
The bandits fired their energy blasters.
The orb dipped and stopped as the energy blast went over its body. One shot hit the orb, but didn’t bring it down, only knocking it momentarily askew.
The orb calibrated, corrected its position, then fired another bright blue blast, with white heat following, turning the second bandit into molecules and memories.
The last bandit fired several shots in desperation. Taking advantage, Liam stood and limped, quickly as he could, toward Ana at the roof’s edge.
Ana met him halfway. He grabbed her hand, but she resisted, her feet stuck to the rooftop as she stared at the fallen bandits in shock. They were all gone.
All that was left was the orb, hovering and turning toward them.
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