Sergei threw his bottle to the ground, smashing it. Massimo chose to ignore it and continued walking.
The men whispered to one another, which Massimo could hear with his heightened abilities. “We’ll follow until he stops. That’s where he’ll be keeping the rest of it.”
“Good idea, Sergei.”
“What about Ryder?”
“We’ll get him after we’ve had a drink.”
29
After trying for more than an hour, Leandro finally changed back into his human form, and he let out a sigh of relief. He’d really thought he was going to be a wolf forever. He had no idea why he hadn’t been able to change, but now that he had, he had other things to worry about.
He was now buck naked, and he needed to get into Leeming’s. He peeked around the store’s wall. There was no one on the street. He picked up a stone from the ground and paused. He really didn’t want to smash in the front door. It had taken him months to find it. Massimo said it wouldn’t be right not to have a glass door, that it would spoil the look of Pinewood.
Fuck it.
He threw the rock through the glass panel, then slid his hand through the hole and opened the door. He quickly closed it after him, making sure he didn’t stand on the glass fragments because that would hurt like a sonofabitch.
He looked at the clothes in the store, which were nothing like what he usually wore.
Leandro usually got his clothes from the abandoned mall, but it wasn’t close by, and he had to cover his bare ass now. These clothes would have to do, so he picked up a pair of pants and a shirt. There were no damn shoes in his size, so he’d have to go barefoot. He’d come back tomorrow and fix the door. Once he was dressed, he left for the bar.
Music was booming out of the Old Dog, and it was full of people who were leaning on one another, wasted, or crying on each other’s shoulders, or all three. Some were dancing, and some were singing along to the music. It was definitely a wake. Leandro couldn’t see his dad anywhere, so he headed to the bar.
“Where’s Pops?” Leandro asked Kelvin.
“He headed home.”
“What happened?”
“There was some type of disease outbreak,” Kelvin said. “We lost a few folks.”
“What, really?” Leandro couldn’t believe what he was hearing. First, Ivan from the bunker, then the parents in the Bora mountain settlement, and now, it was here.
Kelvin nodded. “It got Scott, Annie, Andrew, and Vicar Jason. Massimo took care of it. You should be proud of him. He stopped it from spreading.”
Leandro and Kelvin looked at the people in the bar. Massimo did have a way of helping people get over the hard parts in life.
“How does the disease spread?” Leandro asked. He wanted to find out if it was the same as the other cases.
“Massimo said they were trying to bite him,” Kelvin explained.
Damn, it was the same. Whatever it was that had infected Carter’s village was spreading. This is bad, he thought. Really fucking bad.
“Thanks, Kelvin,” Leandro said, composing himself. He wanted to catch up with his dad. He needed to find out what the hell was going on.
“One for the road?” Kelvin asked as he passed Leandro a beer. It was funny how Kelvin used phrases from movies he hadn’t seen. Massimo had been determined to make Kelvin the best barkeeper on the planet. Which wasn’t hard, since he might be the last barkeeper in the world today.
Leandro had gotten thirsty from sprinting down here. “Sure.” He took a long sip of the beer, which was really good. “I’ll come back to help clean up tomorrow.”
Leandro walked away from the bar. He placed the bottle in the doorway and took off running. He wanted to get home. He wondered how he was going to explain to Massimo that he’d spent the time with Ryder but hadn’t spoken to her yet. He knew Massimo would give him hell.
Leandro heard someone call him and looked back. It was Kelvin, yelling at him for wasting a beer and saying he’d be sure to tell Massimo tomorrow.
“You just go ahead,” Leandro called back over his shoulder. Then, he slammed right into Ryder. He grabbed her arm, trying to stop her from falling.
Leandro felt a cold blade against his neck which had to be Carter’s. Douche.
He was just taken aback by her. She was smaller than he had thought because now he was looking down on her instead of being a wolf looking up.
She was still breathtaking.
Carter said something, breaking Leandro’s stare at Ryder. Leandro mumbled something to Ryder. He wasn’t sure what came out of his mouth because he was too focused on assessing the other man.
Leandro felt he was way better looking than Carter, as well as taller, and had more muscle. If Leandro hadn’t been in a hurry to get home and there wasn’t a blade against his throat, he might’ve smiled. Instead, he quickly flipped his wrist, and Carter’s blade fell into the former wolf’s hand.
Part of him hoped his cool move had impressed Ryder. He returned the knife to Carter. “I think you dropped this, mate,” he said with a wink before he took off running.
Ryder and Carter stopped at the edge of the forest to look at the town, since neither had seen anything like it before. The buildings were made of stone, and some even had windows. At the end of a street, there was a white building with a cross on top, with smoke coming from behind it.
Music was playing in one of the buildings, and people were hanging around there like it was the place to be. She hoped there were some civilized people here. Ryder looked at Carter as he picked at his teeth, then looked at whatever he pulled out and ate it.
Please let them be more civilized than him.
“Here goes nothing,” she said. They eased their way into town, not quite sure what to make of it. Ryder’s hand hovered over her knife. She looked down for a brief second, and a man slammed into her and grabbed her arm.
“Get off her, or I'll slit your throat,” Carter said, pressing the blade to the man’s neck.
The man instantly let go of Ryder and raised his hands. His breath smelled of beer. “It was an accident. Sorry, Ryder. I'll explain later.”
Wait, what did he say? Ryder looked at Leandro like she’d never seen him before—because she hadn’t. How did he know her name? Was he from the bunker?
The man made some cool move, and Carter’s knife was in his hand. He flipped it around and gave it back to Carter, and Ryder quickly grabbed her knife. That was some fast shit. She wouldn’t let him take hers.
“I think you dropped this, mate.” After he returned Carter’s knife, he took off.
“Who was that freak?” Carter asked as they watched the man run off barefoot in clothes that were clearly too small for him.
“Who the fuck knows. At first, I thought he was from the bunker, but he doesn’t have the tattoo on the back of his neck. Everyone gets the tattoo.” How did he know me? “Come on. Let’s find Fluffy.”
Terrier looked into all the rooms again with Mama Lou. There was still no sign of any more infected, so they came back to check on Natalie and the kids. He knocked on the kids’ door gently, trying not to scare them.
The door opened, and Natalie peeked through the gap.
“How are you feeling?” Terrier asked.
Natalie opened the door fully, looking relieved to see him. “I’m doing okay. I feel better now that the kids are all settled. That’s the best part of the day. When they are sleeping, I mean. Kids are exhausting.”
Terrier was a little surprised at her statement since she normally acted like she loved every minute with the kids.
Natalie noticed Terrier’s shock and decided to have a little bit of fun with him. “Every day I feel like I’m living in a damn madhouse that’s run by a tiny army. Every time I say no, I can hear the kids whisper, ‘ask again and again until she says yes.’”
Terrier’s face was a true picture of worry, like he thought she might have actually lost her mind.
Natalie couldn’t hide her laughter anymore. “I�
�m just joking with you. It’s all true, but I wouldn’t change them for anything.” Natalie cradled her swollen belly. “I just wish they could be free.”
He nodded. “Me too. Ryder will be back for them. He’d never leave them.”
“Do you really think he’ll come back?”
Now Terrier wanted to laugh. “One hundred percent. He’ll be out there trying to build an army to get the kids out. And if that fails, he’ll come charging in with all guns blazing.”
Part of Terrier didn’t want Ryder to come back, but he knew that wasn’t how she was. She didn’t stand for injustice, and she would never be able to rest out in the world knowing that people were still trapped in the bunker.
“I hope he gets back soon.” Natalie yawned. She covered her mouth quickly. “Sorry. It’s just been a long day.”
“I’ll watch over the kids while you rest,” Terrier told Natalie. She nodded, and he walked her to her sleeping area nearby.
The women’s sleeping area was in worse condition than the men’s, but unlike the men, the women did their best to keep it clean and fixed the parts which were broken.
Terrier was just thinking how quiet things were when something slammed against the glass floor above them, scaring the piss out of him. Natalie grabbed Terrier’s arm, and he instinctively wrapped it around her, pulling her close to protect her.
The thud had come from a man. It was Coby, and he was lying flat on the glass, his mouth opening and closing in a scream they couldn’t hear. They didn’t need to hear it. The fear on his face said it all. Coby tried to grip the floor, but there was nothing to hold on to. He was being dragged backward by his thrashing legs.
A man Terrier recognized as Neil leapt on top of Coby, his eyes glowing red. He was clearly infected with whatever madness was going around. He bit Coby’s neck, and blood dripped from his mouth. Neil had gone mad like Ivan.
Terrier banged his axe into the ceiling, trying to draw Neil’s attention from Coby. Neil reached down to get them as he’d hoped, and his hand slammed into the glass like he actually thought he could smash through it.
Blood dripped from his mouth and splashed onto the glass, the too-bright spatters looking like some kind of sick art, blocking his view of Terrier. His attention was jerked back to Coby. No matter how hard Coby tried to get away, he couldn’t. Neil was too strong for him.
Terrier protected Natalie from the sight above them, pressing her face against his chest. He continued to watch, forcing himself to see what they were up against. In a few moments, Coby’s body was still, and Neil was gone.
The Madness was spreading on Level Five.
Ryder and Carter pushed open the wooden doors to the Old Dog. The music was loud, and the bar was a lot nicer than the one in the bunker. This one had men and women mixing together and having a good time. People were singing and dancing, and everyone knew the song, except Ryder and Carter.
They’d never heard anything like it. In the bunker and the mountain settlements, music came from people singing and playing instruments. This was coming from a machine.
Ryder felt like they’d stepped back into the past. “Hopefully, some of them will help me,” Ryder said to Carter, but he was no longer by her side. He was at the bar getting a drink, for fuck’s sake.
Ryder strode toward Carter and pulled his shoulder back. “What on Earth are you doing?” she whispered to him.
“Making friends.” He smiled, holding up his drink.
He works fast.
“Hey, miss, I’m Kelvin. Would you like a drink? It’s on the house tonight.”
Ryder stayed him with her hand. “I’m good, thank you.”
“Yes, I’ll take another please,” Carter grinned. Kelvin quickly slid him another drink and moved to the other end of the bar to serve someone else.
“You need to lighten up,” Carter told her. “People aren’t going to help you if they don’t know you.”
Ryder knew that he was right, but she wasn’t going to tell him. She took Carter’s second drink and downed it in one gulp. The beer quickly hit her stomach and quenched her thirst.
She raised her hand and called to Kelvin. “Actually, I’ll have another one.”
Ryder knew that drinking this was like someone else drinking water, since alcohol had no effect on her. But Carter didn’t know that. Ryder winked at him, enjoying how impressed the bearded wonder was by her drinking abilities.
“Why are the drinks on the house?” she asked Kelvin when he returned. She’d learned a long time ago that you never got anything for free. There was always a catch.
Kelvin shook his head sadly. “There was an incident today, and we’re trying to cheer everyone up.”
“What type of incident?” Ryder asked.
“There was a disease outbreak. We lost a few people. Ugly stuff.”
Carter took a big gulp of beer. “How does the disease spread?”
Kelvin leaned closer to them. “We think you get it from being bitten. So, if you see anyone acting weird, keep your distance.”
Ryder and Carter looked at one another.
“Now that you mention it,” Carter said. “We had the same problem yesterday at the settlement. We call them ‘the living dead.’”
Kelvin clinked glasses with Carter. “To the living.”
“To the living,” Carter repeated.
30
Massimo led the hunters away from his home and away from Pinewood. He didn’t want three trigger-happy idiots near his people. He felt weak from being outside in the sun so much today. He hadn’t eaten his rabbit, and he was emotionally drained as well as physically, but he still had the energy to give these three numb wits a beating they’d never forget. He would knock them into next year and make them think twice about ever coming near his town again.
They’d whispered the whole time they followed him. Well, Yegor had, and the others kept telling him to shut up. He was the runt of the pack, Massimo guessed, and he’d be the first to run away when Massimo turned vampire on him.
The larger one, Sergei, was the leader. He’d try to shoot Massimo, which was why he’d get the beating of a lifetime first, before he could do that. Then, there was his fake friend Pavel. Massimo knew he’d have to take care of him second, since he would shoot as well.
When Massimo reached a turn in the path, he prepared himself to attack. Just after the turn, he quickly stowed the cart behind a tree because it wasn’t like he could pop down to Home Depot and get a new one.
His fangs protruded, and his eyes turned red. Even though he’d not done the eyes part for years, it was just like riding a bike. He was good at being a badass vampire when he needed to be, and he was going to have some fun with these inbred intruders who looked like they’d stepped off the movie set of ‘The Hills Have Eyes.’
Branches crunched underfoot, and he knew it was time. Massimo jumped out at the men in his best, pissed-off, scary vampire pose: mouth open, fangs bared, and eyes glowing red. The hunters, or rednecks, as Massimo thought of them, recoiled in horror.
Yegor pissed himself and took off running, just as Massimo had predicted. The high-pitched whine coming from him as he fled was a little more than Massimo had anticipated. He restrained himself from bursting into laughter at the sight.
Sergei reached for his gun—again as predicted. Massimo darted out of the line of fire and punched Sergei in the jaw, knocking him out in one shot. Sergei’s gun went off and the bullet hit a tree. Massimo moved on to Pavel, but Pavel’s behavior took Massimo by surprise.
He didn’t fire. He just laid his gun on the ground and stepped away from it.
“I... please…” The words caught in Pavel’s throat. “I don't want any trouble.”
He backed away and ran off.
Massimo was a little disappointed. He’d geared himself up for a good fight. Well, that was anticlimactic, he thought.
Pavel took off running as fast as he could away from the vampire, but if he was anything like Afana, running wouldn’t save him.
Sergei had been a cocky shit as always, thinking he could fight a vampire. There was no way that fool could win.
Good riddance, Pavel thought. He’d only put up with Sergei because it was easier than arguing with him.
Now that the vampire had taken care of Sergei, he could find Ryder and take his head back to Afana. He’d get the bounty instead of Sergei, who always got it. It was his turn, and he was going to take it.
Pavel looked over his shoulder a few times to see if Sergei or the vampire were coming after him, but neither came.
A man bolted past him in the opposite direction. He looked like he could run faster than Pavel, which was saying a lot since Pavel was one of the fastest men in the bunker.
The man didn’t stop, to Pavel’s relief. There were a lot of fucking weirdos out here, outside the safe walls of the bunker. He didn’t like it one bit. Pavel had been born and raised in the bunker, and that was all he knew. Sometimes in the past, he’d dreamed of more. He’d wondered if life away from the bunker was better.
Now he knew the answer.
Fuck the outside world, he thought. Pavel was getting pissed off that he was even out here, so far away from home. He directed that anger toward Ryder. He’s the reason I’m out of the bunker.
Pavel was out of breath by the time he got to the edge of town, but he was healthy and was soon able to catch his breath. Now, he was ready to catch his prey.
He wished he hadn’t laid his gun on the ground, but that might have saved his life. Pavel still had his knives, and he’d have better luck with blades anyway. He’d hunted with them all his life.
Smoke was rising from behind one building and music was playing in another. He could also hear voices coming from the building with the music. If he were Ryder, that was where he’d go, so Pavel headed toward the music. He kept his hands poised over his knives.
He was ready to get Ryder’s head and get the hell out of here.
Madness Unleashed: Age Of Madness - A Kurtherian Gambit Series (Live Free Or Die Book 1) Page 17
