The Preston Six Collection: (Book 1, 2 and 3)

by Ryan, Matt

  Joey glared at Genter and he saw Poly tense up as well. The man wanted to use them like some bargaining chip for his redemption. The temptation to tell Genter that they’d killed Simon was almost unbearable.

  “If any of you give me the slightest of trouble, I’ll execute one of you. Understood?”

  Joey pulled at his shirt and wanted to tell the man to go to hell, but he swallowed his words. The man had them trapped and held.

  “Fine, but you might not like what you find when we get there,” Lucas said.

  Does he know something?

  “Good, we’ll leave as soon as we fuel up the trucks.” Genter left and locked the door.

  He left the windows open on the doors. Big enough to get a cat through, but not even Poly could squeeze through that space.

  “I say we fight them. When they are moving us, we can make our move,” Poly said.

  “If given the chance,” Joey said.

  A half hour later, the door to the jail cell hallway opened. The same men as before marched in with guns pointed. They had all decided it was the best to go along with the transport and try to get to the stone as one cohesive group. Joey didn’t want to be separated from his friends again.

  Even as they stuffed him and Julie in a separate truck, he felt better than he did without the Six together. Grimy faced man sneered and kept the hand gun pointed at him and Julie.

  “So, where we going?” Julie asked.

  “You just shut that mouth, missy.”

  Over the next four hours, no one really said a word. Joey spotted New Vegas in the distance. Lucas must have been guiding Genter in the lead truck. Joey sighed and hoped Lucas was saying the right thing and not trying to send them on some wild route for the fun of it. Ryjack wasn’t a place to get lost, or take joy rides. Poly had told him about the hordes of grinners they encountered and he wanted to avoid those at all costs, especially as he sat in the backseat of a beat up truck without a gun.

  “How’d it go with you, Poly, and Samantha in that MM bunker?”

  Grimy faced man raised an eyebrow at Joey but didn’t make any of the usual snide remarks. Maybe he wanted to hear some gossip, or maybe he was as bored as they were. The driver hadn’t said a single word.

  “It went fine,” Joey said.

  Julie raised her eyebrows and rolled her eyes. “Really? I think I know them well enough to know something’s going on. You hurt Poly didn’t you?”

  Joey hated talking about it, but Julie’s stoic expression left little wiggle room. He glanced to grimy man, but he looked interested in the conversation and didn’t appear to be stopping it anytime soon.

  “Okay, so it was awkward.” He struggled to find a way to explain something he didn’t understand. “Poly walked in on Samantha and I . . . making out.”

  “You son of a—”

  “I thought you were all dead! I really thought it was just Samantha and I, alone in the world.” Joey spit out the words fast.

  “Please. . .” Julie fumed.

  “Max said he shot down your plane. I saw it explode over the ocean.” He felt like he was digging a grave, and getting deeper with each word. “He even did a dance in his excitement.”

  “We lived. You know Poly didn’t go a day without mentioning how she promised to get you back. . .” Julie took in a deep breath and crossed her arms.

  Joey’s mouth hung open and grimy-faced man looked thrilled at the conversation, grinning his brown-toothed smile. Joey felt his heart pounding in his chest as he thought about the promises they each made to each other. He knew he hurt Poly, but he couldn’t have known she was alive and would walk in the middle of him and Samantha. Now, he was stuck in the middle. They hadn’t said much about it since the kitchen table sit down, but the tension was there and building. Julie must have picked up on it.

  “Listen, Joey, this is important. If you have an unselfish bone in your body, you’ll take heed. If you pick one, it’s going to send a rift down the middle of the six. I already feel the tension between Samantha and Poly.” Julie moved closer to him. “I don’t want us ever to be apart again. You have to let them go.”

  Grimy faced man said, “Oh come on, he can take them both. One of those menagerie twats. Times aren’t like they were when I was your age. In these end times, you can have it all.”

  Julie looked as if she might vomit at the man’s comments.

  “I never wanted to hurt either of them.”

  “Then why did you do what you did?”

  “Before any of this stuff happened, on our birthday, I made a move on Samantha and she was—to my surprise—receptive. Then, we were separated and I got to know Poly on another level, and we formed a strong connection. Look . . . when I thought she was dead, I gave up on living. I wanted to die, until I saw Samantha. She gave me a purpose for living, something to keep fighting for.

  “We spent a lot of time together in that scene generator. During that time, I felt comfortable with her, yet never had the feelings I shared with Poly. I even told Samantha about my relationship with her, but we had to put on a show for them, make them believe we were together, that we were falling for each other. When I saw Poly that first night when she joined us, it was the best and worst moment of my life. She was alive, but that meant I had been with a person I would’ve never been with if Poly had been there.”

  Julie blew out a long breath and shook her head. “You see the problem though? Samantha is in love with you. I see it in her eyes, she looks at you when you aren’t looking. You may have thought you were only getting close for Marcus’s sake, but she fell for you. It’s freaking killing me to see this going on because I see the way you look at Poly. You are going to end us, you know that right?”

  “I don’t want to hurt either of them.”

  “Oh no, you’d just rather hurt us all.”

  “No—”

  “Sometimes in life, you have to hurt those that you love most.” Julie said.

  The more he dwelled on Julie’s words, the more he understood her. He should end things with both of them, for the sake of the Six. He felt tears building in his eyes as he thought of losing Poly.

  “Are you gonna cry?” Grimy man said with a smirk.

  Joey turned and faced the desert moving by. He and Julie didn’t speak any further, but it was all he could think about. He wanted to challenge Julie’s logic, but his rebuttal was only filled with emotion so he held it in and stared at the crumbled remains of a hotel pass by.

  Another ten minutes and the truck stopped. Joey used this as a chance to glance at Julie’s face, searching for answer, but she only stared at the casino valet parking. Grimy man kept his gun pointed at Joey with a scowl across his face.

  “There’s Lucas,” Julie said.

  Lucas laughed and slapped Genter’s shoulder. How did he find a way to charm Genter? Lucas amazed him sometimes. Two more men moved to their truck and opened the door on Julie’s side. The man grabbed Julie’s arm and she hopped from the truck. Joey slid across the seat and hopped on the thin layer of sand slowly overtaking the casino’s valet. It hit him like Déjà vu. Except he was a completely different person than he’d been stepping from the Hummer.

  “Get over with the others.” The man used his rifle as a pointing stick, showing them the direction to their waiting friends. Julie hugged Samantha and Poly. She took Lucas’s hand in hers and hugged him with a kiss on the cheek.

  Joey moved closer to Poly and Samantha but with Julie’s words still fresh in his mind, he felt his hands shaking and lost any meaningful words, so he stood there, awkwardly avoiding each of their looks. Did Samantha really love him in that way? She was adamant in telling Poly how their romance was a show for the higher ups. Was she just placating Poly? If he got Samantha alone, he’d know, he’d see the difference.

  “Enough with the PDA, let’s get back home,” Genter said.

  The Six formed a tight circle with five gunmen behind them and four up front. Joey gazed at the glass doors ahead. He hoped the men around
him knew how to use those guns.

  They entered the grand entry to the hotel.

  “Where to now? And don’t try anything stupid. We could all be killed in a second in a place like this,” Genter said. His gaze darted around and his hands fidgeted with his guns. Good, the man knew the danger of being there.

  “If we cut across the casino floor in silence, and I do mean silence, we can go through the kitchen service staircase to the basement levels,” Lucas said.

  “Silence. You all hear that?” Genter commanded.

  Like Joey needed a reminder. Poly moved next to him. “The crap’s hitting the fan on this one. Remember this place last time?”

  “It was mostly clear when we came back through here,” Julie said.

  Mostly didn’t describe a safe environment. Joey itched his side for a gun. “Hey, how about giving me a gun? You’re going to need an extra hand when those things come.”

  “Shut up,” Genter hissed. “Not another word or misplaced step until we are on the stone.”

  The gunmen walked into the service door at the back wall. The double doors swung open and they held it in place as everyone moved into the hallway. The two men holding the door walked in and let them close slowly.

  Genter held a finger to his mouth and stared at Lucas. Lucas pointed down the hall and Genter nodded. They stepped toward the end of the hallway and past another set of swinging doors. Genter’s Panavice shined down the large staircase beyond the door.

  The door had smears of black on them and the smell of rotting meat and mildew wafted up from the stairwell. They were down there, Joey felt it more than anything he’d ever known. Could be thousands, lined up, waiting for a meal to fall into their net. He would grab his friends and run. Their only chance would be fleeing, they could outrun them.

  WHEN THE STAIRS ENDED AT the flat concrete, it meant they were on the bottom floor. A grinner groaned as it neared them through the darkness. Joey stared at the gun on Genter’s hip. If he could get to it, maybe they had a chance. Genter handed Lucas his bow and took out one arrow. Lucas pulled back on the string and Genter raised his light. In the distance, maybe a hundred feet, stood a grinner, stumbling in their direction.

  Lucas fired his arrow and the whoosh of air bounced around the concrete and steel. Joey sucked in a breath of air, he’d seen Lucas strike the chest and necks before and if he hit the beast and it called to its friends, they’d all be dead in a matter of minutes. The arrow struck the grinner in the head—it collapsed to the ground in silence.

  Lucas jumped and fist pumped the air. He kissed Prudence as Genter held out his hand. Lucas begrudgingly handed it back to Genter. It was like watching a silent movie, everyone had over animated expressions to prove their intended points.

  Genter motioned them to move on. He held the light near the floor and the same feeling Joey had last time remerged. The feeling of eyes in the darkness beyond. He kept Samantha to one side and Poly on the other, Hank and Lucas stood on each side of Julie. If anything jumped from the darkness, his life and the life of his friends were in the hands of the surly looking men with guns.

  Genter picked up the pace to a light jog. Their feet resonated small thumps against the concrete floor. How much further? He didn’t remember such a distance with Harris. Then he saw it. The group stopped on the edge of the hole Hank had previously hammered out. Grinners floated in the water below. He shined the light on the stone poking out of the water in the middle of the pit.

  They froze at the sound of metal thumping down the hall.

  Genter frantically pointed at a man holding a bag. He pulled out a rope, with tied knots on it. He pointed to Hank and Hank grasped the rope. Moving his hands and trying to get everyone to speed up. He and the rest of them kept glancing into the darkness as another sound came from the depths, a groan.

  Lucas jerked his head behind him and put his finger over his mouth. His hand moved rapidly, asking for his bow. Genter handed him the bow and Lucas pointed to the right. Genter leaned forward, searching the darkness as he raised his Panavice’s light inch by inch.

  Joey saw the feet staggering their way. Grinners, a dozen, fifty feet away. Lucas pointed down into the pit and Julie climbed down the rope Hank held. Genter gestured to the grinners with an animated hand as he stared at the men with guns. He stabbed the air with his knife. Grimy face shrugged his shoulders and fired into the group with a loud shotgun blast. The enormous sound hit Joey’s eardrums. The silence had forced his ears to stretch into peak mode and the blast sent him stumbling backward.

  “You idiot,” Genter said.

  “You told me to,” Grimy said.

  “I told you to stab them.” Genter formed more protests, but the sound of grinners yelling filled the void. He shined his light into the oncoming throng. Mangled hotel workers and men in lounge suits, women in cocktail dresses moved toward them with snarling mouths. “Now you can fire,” he directed.

  The five men behind him shot into the crowd, mowing down the front line. They were good shots, he was glad he didn’t run. They would have killed him even at a hundred yards.

  “Guys, get down the rope,” Lucas said.

  Joey moved behind the men shooting into the grinners when a grinner reached for him from the left side. Joey yelled and kicked the grinner in the chest. Genter turned and shot it.

  “Both sides,” he called out.

  Four more grinners moved in from the left side and grabbed at two of the men, plunging their black mouths into the flesh. The men screamed and the others scattered around, shooting in both directions.

  Samantha and Poly climbed down the rope. With gunfire sounding off all around him, he sped down the rope and jumped the last few feet into the water. The horrid smell of rotting bodies soaked in water wafted around him. He wanted to gag.

  “I think I’m going to be sick.” Samantha turned away and threw up into the water. After she darted away, her vomit spread out on top of the water.

  Lucas jumped down the hole and landed on a floating grinner, splashing the putrid water around.

  Flashes of gunfire lit the area above as Genter, with Panavice and gun in hand, jumped into the water. He kept his gun trained on Lucas. “Get us to Vanar, now.”

  Lucas glanced at the gun flashes above.

  “Do it now, or I’ll kill her.” Genter pointed his gun at Julie.

  Lucas rushed to the stone and pressed his fingers around it. The dome hummed and the gun fire ceased.

  This is it. They were going straight into the den of the devil. Marcus would have all six of them and Harris would be the only one left to save them. Would he even bother?

  THE FRONT WINDSHIELD CRACKED FROM the impact of the ocean. The water surrounded the car and pushed against it as it descended. The restraints pushed against Harris’s body as the car rocked hard under the water. The air bubbles trapped in all the recesses of the vehicle kept the car buoyant for a moment before the water pushed the air out and claimed the car.

  After twenty feet down, the cars back end moved down and the windshield faced the surface. The sunlight danced around in the water as the remaining air bubbles raced to the surface. He glanced in the rearview mirror but below him was only darkness. He welcomed the depth, he needed the car to go deeper if they had any chance of living. Could the car hold up under the pressure of sixty feet of water? The car creaked and the crack in the windshield spread around to the edges of glass. Harris pressed the dome light on.

  Jack had passed out on the impact. Good, he’d probably be screaming if awake. Harris took slow breaths in through his nose. He knew the risk of panicking but being in a small capsule floating to the bottom of the ocean would give any man the jitters. The sunlit surface faded into darkness as they descended. He couldn’t see the bottom, but he took off all the restraints and braced himself for the impact. He took deep breaths, expanding his lungs with oxygen, if the cars back window broke on impact, he’d only have a split second to react.

  The back of the car crashed against the
ocean floor.

  The jolt knocked him hard into the seat and he sucked in all the air he could, but the trunk of the car absorbed the damage and left the back window intact. He exhaled and glanced at Jack. If the back window broke, there would have only been time for one of them to escape.

  “Jack.” Harris shook Jack’s shoulder. “Jack, wake up.” He slapped Jack’s face and he stirred awake.

  “What . . .” Jack looked around the darkness outside the car. “Are we . . .” His gaze darted around and he thrashed at the restraints in his seat.

  “Jack.”

  He didn’t listen and continued to remove the restraints from around his chest and lap.

  “Jack, you need to listen to me if you want to live.”

  His attention turned to Harris. “We’re at the bottom of the ocean—”

  The darkness of the ocean above them lit up in a brilliant light. Harris covered his eyes as the light from above penetrated through the darkness and lit the dark gray landscape around them. The grass swayed on the ocean floor and a few fish darted around and hid in the swaying sea grass.

  Harris pulled the chest strap under his arms and over his chest. “Buckle up, but keep a hand on the release button.”

  Jack’s shaky hands struggled with the strap. Harris peered at the bright light above. The top of the water would be boiling at this point, the city would be melting, people dead before they even had a chance to see the second sun ignite over their city. Emmett had done the unthinkable, the forbidden weapon from the Great War. Are we deep enough?

  Jack clasped his strap and his hands held the sides of his head as he breathed rapidly. Panic. Harris didn’t have words to comfort the young man. Saying anything except they would most likely be dead soon would be a lie.