“There has to be a way.” Murray came to stand alongside Terrier.
The former general’s forehead crinkled in thought. “Terrier’s right, they will kill her. Especially that prick Finn. I only stayed in charge so he couldn’t take over. The guy’s a monster.” He ignored Peter’s glare. “Maybe Samantha knows how to open the door. She was able to do it once when she tried to escape, and you rescued her.”
He was right—Samantha had done it once before. Terrier wasn’t sure. “That was before Advisor George messed around with the wires to override Afana’s system.” Terrier hung his head in disappointment.
General Murray shrugged. “She knew the numbers from watching, so maybe she was watching when Advisor George did the override. Worth a try, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is,” Mama Lou agreed. She joined the men in watching the ceiling. “Anything we can do to save Ryder’s life is worth a try.” She headed straight to the kids’ room and the men quickly followed.
Ryder didn’t have much chance on her own. She was a damn good fighter, one of the best Terrier had seen. However, Finn was a vicious bastard, one who served Afana’s evil will happily.
Mama Lou knocked on the door to the kids’ room, both because she didn’t want to startle them by marching in after the last few days, and also the door was locked as she’d requested. “It’s Mama Lou and my friends,” Mama Lou called.
Jasmine opened the door with her bed pole firmly gripped in her hand as though she thought a Mad would knock. She scanned behind Mama Lou and opened the door.
“Samantha, may I have a word with you?” Mama Lou asked gently, trying not to scare her. Samantha had been through a lot more than the rest of the kids. The child had witnessed some horrific sights on the higher levels when the outbreaks had happened.
Samantha gingerly walked over to Mama Lou with her head down. “You’re not in trouble. We need your help,” Mama Lou told her.
Samantha raised her tiny head, and her big brown eyes looked into Mama Lou’s. “M-my help?”
Mama Lou nodded and smiled at the little girl. “Yes, your help. Were you watching Advisor George when he was playing around with the wires?” Samantha nervously twisted her long brown hair between her fingers and Mama Lou patted her shoulder gently. “Really, you’re not in trouble. Ryder’s here and she wants to see us, but we can’t open the door.”
Samantha looked at Mama Lou oddly. “Mama Lou, you used the wrong word, silly. Ryder is a boy. You should be saying he, not she.” Samantha laughed, which warmed Mama Lou’s heart. She knew that Samantha would get through today and live a better life. Once they got her out of here, she’d be able to put it all behind her and not dwell on the past.
“Ryder was pretending to be a he so she could go outside,” Mama Lou explained, much to the joy of the children listening.
“I was thinking of doing that,” Rebecca announced proudly, “and he said it wouldn’t work!” She pointed at Luke, whose mouth fell open.
Mama Lou sniffed with emotion. “No one will have to pretend to be something they’re not once we get out of this level. Samantha, it’s really important. Do you know how to fix the wires?”
Samantha looked up at Murray with frightened eyes.
He knelt to be at Samantha’s eye-level. “I promise you won’t be in trouble, and that I will help you and your friends be free. I’m the one who should be in trouble for not helping you earlier. I’m sorry.”
Samantha stared at Murray like she was memorizing every wrinkle on his face. “Mama Lou says that if someone says they are sorry and they mean it, then you should accept it. I believe you.” She nodded. “And that if you make a promise, you can’t break it. Pinky promise,” she added, holding her finger out to Murray.
He remembered doing the pinky promise with Martin when he was little. The kids learned it down on Level Six, and they never forgot it.
General Murray’s stuck his little finger out, and Samantha wrapped her finger around his and smiled. “I know what Advisor George did to the wires, and I think I can show you how to fix them.”
21
The generals who had been tied up regained their confidence when General Finn took charge again. They gathered in front of Ryder, who turned to make a snarky comment to Carter and realized that everyone had gone to Level Four, leaving her alone with the generals. They looked pissed, and so was Ryder. Did they really think they could get one over on her just because she was alone and outnumbered?
Ryder went for her spear. “Shut the fuck up, Finn.” She’d wanted to say that to him for years. That sharp, pointy nose was stuck so far up Afana’s asshole that when the vampire opened his mouth, you’d be able to see the tip of it. He had just been waiting for a chance like this when General Murray wasn’t here, so he could step up and be the biggest jerk.
“Get her,” General Finn told the remaining generals. Now that the odds were a little more favorable, they actually listened.
Ryder boiled with anger. “Don’t you touch me.” She pointed at the generals surrounding her.
They looked at her warily, then at General Finn, whose eyes were bulging. “What are you waiting for?” The men tried to grab Ryder, but she was quicker than the generals. She punched the nearest one in the nose, wishing he was General Finn since she wanted to break his sharp nose. His time would come!
Ryder swung for the next general, who ducked out of the way. His didn’t miss and it connected with Ryder’s ribs, which were still burning from the fight with Sergei. She wasn’t going to let the generals know she was in pain. Her years in the bunker had taught her to hide any weakness that would get her killed.
Ryder returned his punch with another, this one was a better shot that landed in his ribs. The general was strong, and he wasn’t in pain like Ryder. He doubled and recovered, but Ryder had thrown that one as a distraction to get him looking down for a moment. Ryder scored another punch right in General Dickhead’s face, and Ryder knew that one stung him like a motherfucker. His jaw snapped sideways, but Ryder wasn’t done. She launched herself at him and followed up with more punches.
Hands gripped Ryder’s arms, stopping her from punching General Dickhead anymore. She fought against the generals who were dragging her back and kicked at General Dickhead. He was able to move out of the way, since unlike Ryder he wasn’t being held back by a group of overzealous men.
She thrashed, and their grips tightened. She sneered at Finn. “Hey, General Fuckface, getting others to do your work for you again? Why don’t you fight me on your own? Or are you scared?” One of the generals pulled her bow and quiver off her back and threw them across the floor. Those idiots! “You better hope you didn’t break my bow, asshole.”
General Finn moved closer to Ryder and narrowed his eyes, which were already mostly shut from the swelling in his ruined face. Ryder laughed at him. “How can you even see me?”
“I can see you well enough.” He grunted. “Let her go. She’s mine.” General Finn waved them off, and the other generals did as they were told.
Something—no someone—caught Ryder’s eyes. The men on Level Five, the ones she’d lived and worked with, looked surprised. They’d never seen Ryder as a female, and they’d never seen anyone stand up to the generals like she was doing. She wasn’t sure if they were going to be on the generals’ side or hers. Possibly neither, since they were just standing by and watching. One person wasn’t paying attention, Decso. He was pointing at the floor.
Ryder glanced to where Decso was looking, it was a pile of Mad bodies. Finn punched Ryder in the gut, sending her backward, and she gasped. A few men from her level cheered. Dammit, she’d known them all of her life, those jerks! Was Decso just trying to distract her to give General Finn an easy target? She’d finish Decso off after General Finn was dead.
She wasn’t going to let Finn throw all the good punches. “Is that all you’ve got?” She spat blood at him. “Fucking pathetic.”
“Hold her. Once we’ve gotten rid of you, we’ll move on to
your friends.” He grinned, looking down at the floor and then up at the ceiling. She had friends trapped on both levels now.
The generals came back to grab Ryder and she tried to get away, but she couldn’t. They had her.
“Hey, that’s not fair!” Decso yelled. “Look, they are cheating. They are holding Ryder’s arms stopping her from fighting.” A few were nodding with Decso, some were scratching their heads, and others were questioning how they hadn’t worked out that Ryder wasn’t a man.
While Decso was distracting General Finn and the other generals, Ryder looked to where Decso was pointing. He was trying to help her. By one of the Mad bodies there was a knife, which was hard to see because it was covered in blood and guts.
She needed to get to the knife.
General Finn hit her in the jaw, and she sagged in the arms of the generals restraining her as a black wave washed over her vision.
“The knife, Decso. Get me the knife,” Ryder pleaded between punches. Decso stared at her, scared. A part of him wanted to get it, but the other part didn’t know what to do. “Decso, please!”
Decso got a look of determination in his eyes. He was going to help, so she could take a few more punches. Decso moved to climb over the barricade to help her, but General Simon pulled him back. Simon was twice the size of Decso, and Decso didn’t stand a chance against him. Decso was thrown back down the tunnel.
There was no other choice. She drew in a breath between blows and screamed. “Leandro! Massimo! Help!”
General Finn sneered and drew his arm back again. “Your screams are futile. No one can hear you.”
Leandro leaped through the air at a Mad on Level Two. His teeth snagged the Mad’s clothing and pulled it back to give his Pops room to snap its neck. Massimo was getting weak. Leandro knew that his dad needed blood if he was going to win a fight against Afana.
“Leandro! Massimo! Help!”
Leandro and Massimo looked at one another. They both heard Ryder screaming for help. Leandro wanted to go but didn’t want to leave his Pops to fight the Mad on his own.
“Go, Leandro! Go!” Massimo yelled. “Ryder would only call for help if she really needed it.”
Leandro bolted through the door and down the stairs. He had to take out the Mad as he went, which was slowing him down. There was no way he could leave them to go up to Massimo, not a chance in Hell.
He bounded down the stairs two and even three at a time. Leandro wanted to shout that he was coming and for Ryder to hold on, but he couldn’t.
When Leandro got to Level Four, his friends were all there fighting against the Mad. They looked like they were winning. Why would Ryder call for help if they were winning?
“What’re you doing just standing there, Fluffy?” Carter yelled as he pulled his axe out of the head of a Mad and hacked at the next. He had to work not to slip in the blood and guts carpeting the floor.
Next to a bloody body was a familiar spear. Ryder? Leandro’s heart pounded hard with every step he took closer. The blood made it impossible to scent who was holding it. Is it Ryder? Am I too late? Pops could have handled the Mad on the steps. He’s a vampire, after all. I shouldn’t have waited... I shouldn’t have taken so long...
He gingerly headed closer to the spear. Leandro's eyes trailed from the hand clasped loosely around the spear and up the arm. The arm was tanned and long and had blood splatters. He instantly knew that wasn’t Ryder’s arm. Hers was pale and lean. It was Koda.
Koda's finger twitched on the shaft, startling Leandro. He was alive? Leandro growled at Carter.
Carter realized what was happening and called the others over to protect Koda from the Mad.
Leandro raced off to find Ryder.
Carter watched Fluffy head back to the stairs. He knew that Fluffy wasn’t scared of a fight, so where was he going?
Carter quickly followed Fluffy down the stairs.
“You fucking pussies,” Ryder snarled at the generals between punches. She wasn’t going to let them win. Every punch she took, Ryder made sure she was falling in the direction of the knife. If only she could reach it! But each time she got close, another punch would knock her in the other direction.
“Get off her!” Decso yelled. He was back at the front of the tunnel and already climbing over the barricade. “You don’t hit a woman!” He continued to yell as he forced his way over the barrier, slapping away the hands that tried to push him back. Ryder looked hard at each and every one of those faces. If she got out of this alive, they would pay!
Over the years, Decso had taken his fair share of beatings. Whenever Terrier or Ryder found it happening, they would stop the bully. Bullies always pick on the weak, which made Decso a perfect victim. He’d also never learned to shut his mouth. He always spoke before he thought.
Luckily for Ryder, today wasn’t the case of Decso running his mouth too soon. He made it over the barricade and lunged for the knife on the floor by the dead Mad.
“Get him,” General Finn snapped at the other generals. They headed straight for Decso, who paled. He’d actually thought that making a stand would stop them from beating Ryder. He realized that he hadn’t really thought this out.
A man shouted from behind the barricade, “Don’t touch Decso.” It was Paul, who kept to himself normally. It looked like today was the turning point for some of the men. Today they had the chance to be their true selves.
The generals stopped at Paul’s request. It wasn’t because he was bigger than the generals. No, it was more because of what Paul represented—the hunters. The men the generals had kept down. There were more hunters than there were generals, and the hunters knew the generals didn’t have any bullets in their guns—or Afana to back them up.
There was a tense standoff between the generals and the hunters. No one moved, and General Finn even stopped punching Ryder.
He turned and looked at the hunters and his generals, then at Decso. “We won’t hurt him,” General Finn told Paul. Then he hit Ryder again, and only Decso objected. The men weren’t going to help Ryder because she was a woman.
“Fuck you all!” Ryder spat through the blood and snot running down her face. “When I free this place you can all go die in the fucking woods with the Mad!”
Decso cringed.
“Not you, Decso,” she managed as General Finn punched her again.
22
Leandro and Carter bounded down the stairs and landed on Level Five, “Those fuckers!” Carter was in full fury, and Leandro was feeling the same thing.
Man and wolf headed straight for General Finn. When the general saw Carter swinging his axe in his direction and Leandro's angry fangs, he instantly let go of Ryder and fired.
General Finn wasn’t out of bullets, he had just been waiting for the right time to fire the gun. The bullet lodged in Leandro’s thigh. Even beaten up, Ryder wasn’t going to stand for that shit. No one shot at Fluffy.
The other generals had loosened their grips enough for Ryder to break free, and she took the chance and kicked General Finn right in the balls, then lunged and took him down to the ground. Ryder landed on top of him, driving the breath from his body. Ryder didn’t waste her chance. She rained punches on General Finn, smashing the hell out of his already-battered face.
She heard Carter fighting with the other generals. They’d gone back to being useless without a leader, and they didn’t know what to do with a wild man like Carter. She also heard Fluffy snarling and snapping, but he’d been shot in the thigh. A bullet wound wouldn’t stop Leandro from growling at the generals, however.
General Finn fought back against Ryder, or at least he squirmed fruitlessly while she pounded him. She couldn’t just punch him to death, though.
“Ryder, here.” Decso was in front of her with the bloody knife.
General Finn’s eyes bulged when he saw the blade. Now Ryder had the upper hand. She pressed the knife against his throat. “Tell them to stop,” she ordered.
He spat blood at her. “Never.”
> Ryder pushed the blade harder against his throat. The skin parted, and a small rill of blood trickled down Finn’s neck. “Tell them,” she warned, “or I cut your fucking throat and watch you bleed out.”
“Stop,” he whispered.
Ryder pushed a touch harder. “Louder, asshole!”
He yelled through gritted teeth, “Stop!”
As Ryder had hoped, the generals stopped. It was like they were programmed to follow orders. Ryder wondered if Massimo could reprogram them to not be jerks.
A noise behind Ryder made her turn.
Terrier and General Murray had made their way onto the level where Ryder was, General Murray by Terrier’s side.
Ryder thought that her head was screwing with her. Her best friend and the man who’d put her in here together? It can’t be. Ryder thought.
General Finn looked like he’d just shit himself, and rightfully so. Terrier was double the size of General Finn. He landed one punch on Finn’s chin, and he was out cold. The other generals stepped away from Finn. They didn’t want to be associated with him now.
General Murray went for the men around Ryder, and he didn’t even need to touch them. The anger in his eyes said it all. The men backed away as one.
“Who else did this to you!” Terrier demanded as he glared around the level growling like Fluffy at all of the generals.
Ryder was overjoyed to see Terrier. “Come here, you big lump!” She grinned and held her arms out.
Terrier peered at Ryder, and a grin split his face nearly in two. His arms went straight around Ryder, and he had to remember not to squeeze his best friend too hard and injure her further. Ryder rested her head against Terrier’s chest. She’d wanted to hug her best friend for years, but never could. Today she needed that hug more than ever. She let out the biggest sigh of her life. She’d made it.
Escaping Madness: Age Of Madness - A Kurtherian Gambit Series (Live Free Or Die Book 3) Page 14
