“Hey, you just cursed!” she accused.
“These space slugs know more curse words than me, and clearly you,” Carter said, wiping away his tears as he smiled through his matted beard.
I wonder what he looks like under the beard? Oh, shit! Ryder realized that she’d been staring at Carter too long. Blokes didn’t stare at other blokes.
“What have you got in your beard?” Ryder asked in her deepest, manliest voice.
“Braids. Jessica is the best in our settlement.” A young girl with braided hair beamed at the compliment. “Not that you’d need her skills, since you’re as bald as a baby.” Carter tried to knuckle the top of Ryder’s head, but before he could, she gripped his wrist and twisted it. Leandro growled by her side.
“Hey,” Carter protested. “Relax.”
Ryder released his hand and pushed him away. “Don’t touch me,” she spat. “How far is it to town?”
Carter shook his head. “You really need to work on your people skills. I’m not sure what Afana taught you, but you should be nice to people who are about to help you. You’ve got about fifteen minutes to make it up to me.”
Carter was right, and Ryder knew it. She had to play nice. Well, as nice as she could.
“Next time you touch me, I’ll set Fluffy on you.” Ryder smiled, and Leandro growled. He really didn’t like that name.
Carter winked at Fluffy. “Nice. You’re getting it! You’re lucky that I’m one of the best teachers in the settlement. We’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
If he’s the best teacher in the settlement, is there any point in going, or are they all going to be overgrown kids? she wondered as she marched on.
Robert Moss left General Murray and Jerkins in the lab and went to wake Afana. Robert had never in all his years had to wake Afana, and he wasn’t looking forward to the task, but he knew he had no choice.
Afana had his own private wing within the bunker. Robert was the only advisor with the authorization to enter his quarters for situations like this. When Robert pressed his hand onto the reader, a red beam scanned it, and the heavy, silver metal doors opened.
His heart beat harder than it had in years, so hard that he thought he was having a heart attack. Even if he was having a heart attack, he still needed to wake Afana. It was his job to keep the bunker running, no matter what.
Afana’s quarters were like a high-end hotel suite—everything he needed was there. Afana’s TV filled a wall and had a deep sofa in front of it.
Robert didn’t have time to take in the details of the rooms. He walked to a door at the back and placed his hand on a second scanner. The door opened, and Afana was asleep inside a white pod with a front glass panel and deep pink lights.
Robert knew Afana’s schedule. He was only awake during the hours of darkness. He slept through the day.
Robert thought about stalling and not waking him up, but he knew that Afana would find out he’d delayed and kill him for it. Robert’s hand was shaking as he pressed the control panel to open the pod. The glass door opened with a gush as air rushed out of the pod, and he stepped back at the sight of Afana.
Even asleep, he was terrifying.
Afana’s fangs protruded, and his skin was tough like armor. His glowing red eyes flashed open, startling a little squeak out of Robert. If he hadn’t been close to having a heart attack before, the sound of Afana’s gravelly voice was enough to give him one now.
“Why did you wake me?”
Robert lowered his head. “My Immortal Leader, I received a man’s severed head that looked infected with some kind of disease. Like nothing I’ve seen before. Its eyes were red, and I was informed that the man was trying to bite people. The bunker has been placed on virus alert as a precautionary measure.”
Afana got to his feet. He towered over Robert, staring at him. Robert clenched his buttocks, not trusting his churning bowel not to betray him.
“Is the head inside the bunker?” The smell of death was on Afana’s breath from his last meal.
Robert nodded, trying not to let his disgust at the rancid odor show. “Yes.” His voice was quiet and weak, and he knew Afana didn’t tolerate weaknesses like that. “Yes,” he repeated, more firmly this time.
Afana’s chest expanded as he breathed in and out, and Robert thought Afana’s black shirt was going to rip off.
“Show me the head.”
19
General Murray had never felt like a small man before, but then, he had never met Afana. The ancient vampire made Murray feel like a child when he stood near him.
Robert was still beside Afana, but he didn’t look happy about it. His white face now had a sickly, greenish tint to it, and fat beads of sweat rolled down his bald head.
“Immortal Leader, this is General Murray.” Robert turned to address Murray. “General, I have informed Afana that you brought the head to Advisor Jerkins. Afana would like to know more about how you acquired the specimen.”
Murray’s clammy hands were behind his back. He stood at attention in front of the monster and told him everything he knew; that Tank and Knuckles had brought him the head, that he hadn’t asked if they were the ones who took it—since he hadn’t needed to know at the time—and that now, he regretted not asking since that information would have helped Afana.
Afana wasted no time in acting on the information that they did have. He pressed a button to open the door and headed for it. The men in the room didn’t know whether they should follow him. As if sensing their hesitation, Afana paused and turned to face them.
“Meet me on Level Six,” he told them. Then, he was gone.
The men followed Afana’s command and hurried through the lab. They saw how Afana had disappeared so quickly. A circle door in the glass floor had opened, and he’d jumped all the way down through the floor holes to the bottom level, where he was greeted by shrieks.
Afana laughed as his cattle ran away from him. He trailed his tongue along his fangs, savoring the instinct to hunt them all down one by one gave him. He hadn’t hunted properly for centuries, and he missed it desperately. But he didn’t have time to give chase now.
Maybe when this was all over with.
He marched toward Martin, general Murray’s son. “Where are—” he stopped. Afana felt ridiculous saying their names. Tank and Knuckles. He regretted not giving these people numbers instead.
He could have branded the numbers into their flesh like farmers did to their cattle. He would have to think about that later when he had time.
“The two guards that General Murray sent down,” Afana finished. “Where are they?”
Martin gulped. He opened his mouth to speak, but fear trapped the words in his mouth. He’d never been this close to Afana, and he’d certainly never spoken to him before.
Afana could feel his rage boiling over inside him. Martin could see on his face that he was about to explode, so he spoke quickly. “They are down here, sir. I can show you.”
Afana nodded curtly. “Show me.”
Martin led Afana down one of the tunnels. Afana had never been down here when there were people inhabiting the space. He’d visited it when it had been completed, and he remembered being surprised by how much room there was. Being down here now, he realized there was a lot of wasted space. The hunters needed to go on a cattle acquisition trip soon.
Martin stopped in front of one of the closed doors. “One of them is in there, and the other is next door.”
Afana slammed the door open.
Tank’s swung his head around to the door, a half-formed snarl on his lips as his naked ass paused in the air mid-thrust. “Get the fuck out of here!” The snarl turned to a whimper when he saw who had intruded.
Before Tank could fully turn around, Afana threw him across the tiny room. He slammed into the wall, crashing clean through it and landing on Knuckles in the bed next door.
Sarah, the woman Tank was with, screamed and covered herself with the bedsheet as she scrambled off the bed and huddled in the
corner. Afana glanced at her, feeling the old familiar craving rise up in him. He suppressed the urge. He didn’t have time for a snack right now.
“Stay there,” he commanded.
Afana crashed through the hole in the wall. It was a little small for him, but his powerful body tore through the remaining cinder blocks like tissue paper.
Knuckles was trapped beneath Tank’s unconscious body. The woman he was with had managed to squirm free, and she cowered silently on the edge of the bed.
Afana pointed at Knuckles. “Did you cut off Ivan’s head?”
Knuckles shook his head, his naked body trembling.
“Speak,” Afana said from the pit of his stomach.
“No, I didn’t. It was the hunters. They cut it off. We took it from them.”
“Which hunters? Where are they?”
Knuckles rattled off the names. “Sergei, Pavel, Yegor, Nestor, and Terrier.”
Why is he keeping a name from me? “And the sixth? There are always six people hunting together.”
“Ryder was the sixth. I just forgot about him because he wasn’t with them…” Knuckles trailed off, suddenly realizing his error. Not omitting the name of the sixth member of the hunting party, but the fact Ryder had never come back to the bunker. He sighed like a man accepting his fate. “Ryder wasn’t with them when the hunters returned.”
Afana kicked Tank’s body away, and he grabbed Knuckles by the throat, lifting his naked body off the bed. He looked like a little boy compared to Afana. “You let a traitor leave?”
Knuckles’ face turned red. He didn’t know what to say, so he said the first thing that came to his mind. “Sergei and the others didn’t mention anything about Ryder turning traitor. I thought they had killed him, or that he’d been killed hunting.”
“There was no head!” Afana spat. He flung Knuckles to the cement floor and exited the room. Martin was standing outside, wondering if he should have left.
“Where are Sergei and the others?” Afana asked.
Martin panicked. He didn’t know where they were exactly. They could be anywhere on Level Six. Afana stepped closer to Martin, pinning him with his gaze. The smell of death on his breath terrified Martin to the core.
Martin began to shudder as he tried to answer, but he didn’t know what to say. Meanwhile, Afana was getting even more annoyed. These damn imbeciles!
Fluffy growled and ran ahead of the group.
Ryder heard gurgling, like someone was gagging on their own blood. There was something ahead of them, but Carter and the kids didn’t stop. Can’t they hear it?
“What’s that sound?” she asked as she stopped walking. She wanted to know what she was walking into.
“Don’t worry,” Carter told her. “They’re caged.”
Ryder pulled Carter to a stop, and he looked down at her hand on his arm.
“What?” he asked. “It’s okay for you to touch me, but not the other way around?”
Ryder rolled her eyes. “What’s caged?”
“The living dead.”
“What?” Ryder asked.
“People who got all grumpy and tried to eat everybody and can’t die.” Carter’s eyes were still fastened on the path ahead. “That type of living dead. It started yesterday morning. It was like a switch flipped inside them. One moment, they were fine, and the next, they got crazy. I was asked to keep the kids occupied while the problem got sorted out.”
Ryder’s mouth fell open. No fucking way! The same thing had happened to Ivan, and at the exact same time.
What the fuck was going on?
“Why do you keep them caged?” she asked.
He looked at her like she was an idiot. “Duh. Because if they were free, they’d try to kill us.”
She couldn’t argue with that. Panic flared inside her. She’d been in contact with Ivan. She thought back to the fight she’d had with him. Did he touch me?
“How the fuck do they turn?” she asked.
Carter leaned away from Ryder and swept his gaze up and down her body. “You’ve been in contact with one of them, haven’t you?”
Carter’s playful tone had gone serious, which Ryder didn’t like one bit. She felt the kids staring at her as they also moved away.
She nodded. “I have. Ivan, our cook.”
Carter looked at Ryder intensely. “Did he bite you?”
“Fuck, no, he didn’t bite me. Why? Is that how they infect you?” Ryder’s heart raced as she waited for him to answer. She chided herself for cursing in front of the kids, but she couldn’t help it.
Carter eyed her warily. “Are you sure he didn’t bite you? Not even a little?”
“Yes, I’m fucking sure. He didn’t bite me!”
Carter stayed quiet for too long, and Ryder started to feel uncomfortable.
“So, am I good or what?” she finally asked.
“Well, there are many definitions of good,” he snickered.
“Don’t be a—” she stopped, biting back the litany of vile insults that formed in her head. The children didn’t need to hear any of them.
“Don’t be a fartface,” she teased. It was the best she could do on short notice, although the children’s giggling told her she hadn’t gone tame enough. Next time. “I’m not going to turn into the living dead, am I?”
“I am not a fartface,” Carter huffed, sounding deeply offended. “And if you’re telling the truth, you should be fine. So far, it seems like it can only pass to you from a bite, except for the first people that turned. No one bit them—not that we know of, at least.”
“Why don’t you just kill the affected people?”
Some of the kids’ eyes widened with fear. I didn’t swear, so what did I say now?
Carter shook his head. “Because the affected people are their parents.”
20
Massimo left the side room of the church, slammed the door closed behind him, and entered the sanctuary. Andrew still sat in the pew, and he turned jerkily to face Massimo.
Except he was no longer the Andrew Massimo knew. His eyes glowed red and ugly sores oozed fluid down his face, blending with the blood which stained his mouth.
Andrew rushed Massimo with his arms raised out in front of him, reminding Massimo of a zombie. At that moment, Massimo’s reaction was disappointment, not fear. He had a stack of classic zombie movies that he loved back home. Now that he was facing the real thing, he wouldn’t be able to enjoy those movies because they would just seem fake.
He sighed. Rest in peace, my movie collection. Yet another tragic victim of this zombie outbreak.
Andrew swiped his clawed hand at Massimo, but the vampire was too crestfallen to fight. His fist darted out lightning quick and snapped Andrew’s neck. His lifeless body slumped into the wooden pew, and Massimo took a seat beside him.
Killing sure took a lot more out of him than it used to. If he was going to protect his town, he was going to have to be stronger than this, and there was only one way to do that. Massimo’s nose wrinkled in displeasure.
He would have to drink human blood.
Ryder and the others got closer to the growls of the kids’ living-dead parents. Carter was by her side. He hadn’t stopped talking since they’d first met. It didn’t matter to him that Ryder wasn’t responding. He seemed to like the sound of his own voice.
She did like how he chatted with the kids. In that way, he reminded her of Terrier. As the undead noises got louder, Carter spoke to the kids even more. Ryder knew he was doing it to distract them, and it worked until they were in front of the cages and the sound got too loud to block out.
The wolf growled at the cages of people, and Ryder understood why. She wasn’t a fan of what she was seeing, either. “Holy shish-kabob!”
Carter didn’t laugh at Ryder’s choice of words. His focus was the kids.
“Come on, no dilly-dallying,” Carter said as he urged the kids to move forward. Jessica, the Braid Queen, walked toward a woman with her arms out between the wooden slats of the cag
e. The cages rocked from side to side, and the people in them started to go crazy as Jessica got closer to them.
“Are you sure they can’t get out?” Ryder asked in a whisper.
“No, they can’t escape. The cages were the best we could do on short notice, but they’re sturdy enough.” Carter headed toward Jessica and placed his arm around her little shoulder. She jumped. “Jessica, one of the bows fell out of my beard. I need a new one.”
Jessica didn’t answer. Instead, her eyes were locked on the woman—her mom. The woman’s eyes were glowing red, and she had bite wounds on her arm.
The other kids paused for a moment to look into the cages and then moved on, not wanting to see what had happened to their parents.
“Hey, Jessica, could you braid my hair?” Ryder felt stupid for asking it, but she didn’t really know what else to say.
At least it caught the girl’s attention. Jessica turned and looked up at Ryder. “But you don’t have any hair.”
Ryder brushed her hand over her buzzed head. “What? Where’d my hair go?” Ryder pretended to be surprised and put on the best bewildered face she could manage.
“Oh, my gods!” Carter said, playing along. “Where has it gone? I’m sure it was there a minute ago. This is magic. Let me rub it and see if it grows back.” Carter went to rub the top of Ryder’s head, and she let him since it was making Jessica smile. “It’s growing back! I’m the greatest wizard in the world!” He scooped Jessica up in his arms and put her on his shoulders for a ride. “You are the queen of braids, and I’m the king of wizards. We’re an unstoppable force. Ryder, what’s your special power?”
“Putting up with you,” she told him with a crooked grin.
Carter laughed. “Oh, that is a rare power. You are truly an uncommon one, especially with your Fluffy sidekick.”
This time, the wolf didn’t growl at Carter. The whole time he’d spent with him, he’d wanted to rip Carter’s throat out, but he decided to give him a pass this time.
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