The Scourge Box Set [Books 1-6]

by Maxey, Phil

  A pool of blood had formed in front of Bill’s body, and Josh sunk to the floor and started lapping it from the splinter-filled wood. As he drunk, he noticed the bulge in the dead man's backpack.

  “It’s there… that powerful thing. The monster of machines!”

  He crawled forward towards the pack, and reached out—

  A man with human eyes held the ancient tablet in his hand. The last thing he remembered was the small damp bedroom. He could hear the others talking in the main room. He could feel the hunger and anger mixing inside producing a toxic cocktail of hate that wanted to be released. And now here he was on the floor, holding the tablet, but…

  The metallic smell of blood was overwhelming.

  “No… what have I done… not again…”

  Out of the corner of his vision, he could see the pants leg of Max. He raised his head and gasped at seeing him dead, his body pale. He went to move towards him when his senses stopped him. There were more dead in this room with him.

  He whipped around.

  Bill… and Rachel… I did this… the thing inside me… the other me… I did this…

  Rachel’s eyes were open and wide, her face frozen in pain.

  Josh looked down at his fingers and the blood covering them and dropped the tablet.

  Now there was only numbness within him. He could not feel his arms or legs, nor the world around him. He looked across at the old oven.

  Fire…

  He reached again into Bill’s pack and pulled out a small flask of spirit that the old man kept there.

  Not enough…

  He poured it over his clothes anyway, then got to his feet, picking up the nearest candle, and proceeded to walk around the forgotten place, setting light to anything that would. It wasn’t long before the flames were climbing the walls.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Joel could see the blaze in the distance as he was driven by a soldier along a long straight road. All he had been told was there was a fire at one of the places that ‘his’ people were staying at. He was also told the fire was too intense even for hybrids to get inside, and the small structure had almost completely collapsed.

  The fire lit up the clouds above it. A beacon which would be seen for miles around.

  He wondered if whoever was inside the inferno had managed to get out. If it was hybrids living there they would have all gotten to safety but if it had been humans…

  He didn’t want to think about any more of the people under his ward dying. Not after all they had survived.

  The green sedan turned left and right onto roads which were more rural than town, and then back to another straight road, but this one the car bumped along. Up ahead were more military vehicles, a Humvee, an army truck, and he counted at least twenty soldiers, some of which were officers.

  The car stopped.

  The general was standing with two more officers he didn’t recognize. They looked at him with faces devoid of emotion. He couldn’t tell if their expressions were ones of anger or pity.

  As soon as he opened the car door he could feel the heat and smell the smoke. The air was thick with it. His hybrid senses also picked up another smell, that of burning meat. People had died.

  He walked over to the general, trying to pull his eyes away from the flames.

  “I got some bad news for you, Joel,” said Galloway.

  As he stood there listening to what she said next, he became detached from the world as if he was witnessing himself standing there listening to her.

  “The names we have are Rachel Frost, Bill Sawyer, Josh Coffey, and Maxwell Cousins—”

  She went on to say that she and her officers did not understand how a hybrid, Josh, could have gotten stuck in a fire, and therefore they think he must have been the one that started the fire and possibly…

  He turned from the general before she finished and walked up the muddy bank towards the flames. It was raining again, and the fire was beginning to dull its fury.

  He needed to know if the general's words were true.

  Different scenarios ran through his mind, none of which made any sense.

  Josh would have pulled them out.

  It was a small place, why couldn’t they have just run out of the door?

  Different questions, with no answers, came and went until one thought coalesced in his mind.

  Josh killed them.

  He was now standing close enough to feel the heat singeing his skin.

  Josh killed them.

  He went to speak. His mouth wanting to cry out to those that were now in the past. His friends now memories. He wanted to run into the burning wood and somehow pull them back.

  A number of car doors slammed behind him, and a roar of vocalized pain filled the night.

  Marina and Anna were struggling to hold Evan back from plunging into the fire.

  Joel snapped out of his own head, and ran forward, helping them.

  Evan sunk to the ground, holding his head in his hands and sobbed.

  *****

  Carla and Joel sat in the general’s office. It was still dark outside, but the hints of morning were making themselves known to the east. The human and hybrid had not talked much since they both arrived.

  He sensed she was annoyed. Annoyed that his people had already created a mess that she was going to have to help clear up.

  He didn’t care.

  The door opened and in walked the general with a jug of coffee.

  “Despite my need for blood, I still enjoy a hot mug of the brown stuff at this time of day. The fire had vamps coming from all around, attacking the walls. My people tell me none got inside, but we have to stay vigilant until the sun’s fully up.”

  Carla nodded, Joel remained motionless.

  Galloway put the jug down, then pulled a plastic cup from a drawer. “Anyone want some coffee?”

  “I could do with some,” said Carla.

  Joel shook his head.

  “So, Mr. Garret, any explanation on—”

  Joel’s mind jumped back to Evan’s face when he, Marina, and Anna led him back to the car. He oddly looked older, but more innocent at the same time. The past and future were crashing together in the young man's mind.

  “— How one of your hybrids decided to kill those that were meant to be his friends?”

  Joel’s mind was still on the events a few hours earlier. “What?… oh… umm… I don’t know what happened in that house.”

  “It’s still too hot to sift through the remains, but we’re hoping the tablet survived.”

  The tablet… Joel hadn’t given it a second thought. Max and Bill had it. Would it survive a fire? He somehow thought it would.

  “Yeah.”

  Carla looked at him. She wanted more. Maybe an apology. When one wasn’t forthcoming, she volunteered one anyway. “We’re sorry for what happened. We had no idea Josh was like—”

  An idea snapped in Joel’s head. He was back in the motorhome near the diner. Inside a deranged mind. A broken psyche. Could it have been Josh that killed the old lady?

  He looked at the general. “We had no idea.”

  “You got any other killer hybrids tucked away somewhere I should know about? I don’t need to tell you, if he had decided to go down swinging, he could have caused a shit ton of problems for us.”

  Back at the prison, they had created sixty-six new hybrids. Joel thought they had gotten a handle on their new selves, it never occurred to him that the process would break any of them. Especially not Josh.

  “Stupid,” he said to himself.

  “What?” said the general.

  “We can’t know. I guess we should keep them under guard for a bit. See how they are over the coming days.”

  The general frowned, shaking her head. “As if I haven’t got enough to take care of. Now I got to babysit sixty-something super-powered serial killers?”

  Carla leaned forward. “If you got a large building to house them for a few days. We will look after them. None of your pe
ople have to be involved.”

  Joel knew what Carla was worried about. That she, the hybrids, everyone that fought to make it to the camp would get thrown back out into the wilderness. Part of him didn’t care. Part of him did.

  The general sat back. “I was kind of hoping to start putting your people into the field. There’s a mission we’ve been planning for a while which you could be useful for.”

  “Myself and a few others will look after the hybrids. Carla’s people can be free to do your mission.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Evan sat on the church roof, facing the east and the orange burning disc. In his hand was a blood bag. His ‘present’ for the death of his grandfather. He knew he was only given it because they were worried he would flip out and start trying to eat humans. They were probably right.

  Memories of Bill, the man that had helped keep him tethered to himself since the first reports of the Scourge started appearing on the news, kept nudging into his mind, and he kept doing his best to push them away. It was too soon for memories. Before then he needed to be angry, to hate the man that he didn’t have much contact with but presumed was on their side.

  I’m alone.

  That was the first thought that struck him when he saw the blaze from the car, and the selfishness of the thought made him feel sick. The man had just died, and his first inclination was to be scared of being alone.

  A snigger bubbled out of him, which instantly threatened to become a sob, but he swallowed, then brought the bag to his mouth again. As the blood eased into his throat and the feeling of elation filled his every fiber, he focused on the helium crushing star in front of him, and wondered that if he sat there long enough, would the burning heat eventually consume him? Was that the destiny for all vamps, hybrids or otherwise?

  “We will all die by fire, Grandfather,” he whispered to himself.

  A smell drifted on the morning mist towards him. A human was approaching the white wooden structure.

  Food.

  He swung around, ready to jump down and have more of the red stuff when instead he froze. Shannon looked up at him. She was red-faced.

  “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. This camp is bigger than it looks,” she said between breaths.

  He turned back to the sun which was turning every light-colored building a shade of pink.

  “Hey, you gonna help me up there? I can’t fly or something… like you can.”

  He wasn’t sure if he wanted her near him. What if anger got the better of him? Is that what happened to Josh?

  “Well?”

  He sighed and crept down the wooden boards, then leaned lower offering his hand. Effortlessly, he raised her up and onto the roof. “There. Now you’re up.”

  He walked back to the top and swung his legs back to the sunrise again.

  After a few unsteady steps, she was sitting next to him.

  He presumed she would start talking. An endless barrage of pointless words that wouldn’t help. But instead, they both sat in silence watching a new day break.

  *****

  Amos sat in the small cafe drinking coffee. It wasn’t particularly good coffee, but it was all they had, so it was going to have to do. Around him sat humans, most of which were in uniform, making the place feel more like a military base than a camp.

  They were aware he was an outsider, and he was aware of that because he was reading their minds.

  Some of them saw the fire from their homes, but only one of them knew who had died. He was a sergeant who had been at the house when it was announcing the camp’s location for miles around. Amos wasn’t going to be losing any tears over the dead scientists though. Scientists like to keep people like him caged up. They were not his favorite kind of people.

  He felt bad for Evan. He hardly talked to his grandfather, but when he had been close enough to read the old man’s thoughts, he seemed a good sort.

  The cafe door opened and two more outsiders appeared that drew the attention of those inside.

  Dalton sat opposite, while Kizzy sat to his right.

  “Why didn’t you wait for me?” she said.

  “Needed time to think,” said Amos.

  She picked up a laminated menu, which had three items on it. Coffee and water were two of them.

  She eyed the third choice. ‘Eggs.’ Turning, she tried to get the attention of the waitress who briefly looked at her then went back to talking to the two young soldiers close to her.

  “I want eggs before the big meeting…” said Kizzy disappointed at her exclusion.

  “You see the fire?” said Dalton to Amos.

  “Nah. Heard it got the scientists and the other old guy though.”

  “Yeah. Looks like the hybrid scientist went nuts and killed the others and himself.”

  Amos was surprised he didn’t need to read the big guys mind to see the surprise on his face.

  “Sheesh, that’s terrible,” said Kizzy.

  “Some folks can’t take the change. Makes them crazy,” said Dalton.

  Amos’s mind floated back to the journey down to the camp, and his brief vision of a disturbed mind. He wondered if it was the crazy hybrid scientist that he had glimpsed, or maybe another hybrid? He nodded. “Yeah.”

  Kizzy was still vying for the waitresses attention.

  “Hey!” shouted Dalton to the young woman across the room, making everyone jump a few inches off their chairs.

  The waitress frowned then walked over to their table.

  Kizzy’s expression widened, then took her time pondering the menu. The waitress rolled her eyes.

  Just as Kizzy went to speak, everyone started getting to their feet and the waitress walked to the counter, pulling her apron off.

  “I wanted eggs!” said Kizzy.

  “Looks like it’s time,” said Amos.

  All three stood and followed everyone else outside.

  The sky was gray and overcast and the ground wet. The main square was only a hundred yards away and people were streaming towards it from all avenues.

  “I wonder how often they have a big meeting,” said Kizzy.

  “Once a week usually,” said a uniformed woman behind them. “But if something important has happened it can be anytime.”

  Kizzy smiled in reply.

  They were soon at the edge of the square, entering it from the east. Amos figured there were already five to six hundred people gathered closely together. Unlike the last time he was in the square, everyone was facing the old courthouse. He noticed a few officers standing on the white stone steps.

  As the three of them walked forward, a Humvee entered the square from the north and parked at the bottom of the steps. They were surprised to see Carla get out alongside the general and walk to the top of the courthouse steps.

  An officer handed the general a megaphone.

  “I’ll be making this short because we all got jobs to do,” said Galloway. “As many of you know, a new group came into the camp last evening. A number of them were hybrids like me. Now, you know I don’t bullshit you. Never have, never will. One of those new hybrids went crazy and killed some of the others that he traveled here with—” A ripple of discomfort ran around the crowd. Amos tried to get a take on the crowd but there were too many minds to keep up with. The general briefly raised her hand. “— But that hybrid died in the fire. So that threat no longer exists. As for the other hybrids that came with the group, they have been taken to the old warehouse on Illmer Street, a mile outside the eastern wall, and are in lockdown. When each and every one of them has been assessed we will let them out under supervision. The other thing that needs to be said is that some of the group are other kinds of vamps…” More sounds of disconcertion filled the morning air. “Some of you have your own stories of seeing strange things. Such as wolf-like creatures, and other things. Well, we have some of them with us right now…”

  “Shit…” said Amos.

  The general was looking at the three of them which was followed by the uniformed
crowd doing the same.

  Kizzy straightened her back and stood taller.

  Dalton grumbled something under his breath.

  “Don’t be shy!” shouted the general.

  “Shit…” repeated Amos.

  “Come on up here!”

  The crowd started to part, leaving a channel open to the steps.

  Kizzy leaned in to Amos. “Err… how do they know about us,” she whispered.

  “Someone told ’em,” he whispered back. He looked up at Dalton. A frown was plastered across the big guy's face, but he started walking forward anyway. Amos and Kizzy followed.

  As they moved through the crowd, Dalton and Kizzy caught whispers close by, but Amos caught their thoughts, and they weren’t exactly in their favor.

  They all walked up the steps and stood near the general.

  She looked up at Dalton. “Right, from right to left. This guy’s a werewolf. The girl is some kind of super gymnast—”

  “Err…” said Kizzy.

  “And the boy at the end. Well, I hope those of you standing near him when he passed you were thinking good thoughts because he can read minds.”

  Gasps broke out amongst the soldiers.

  The general raised her hand for a second time. “And before all of you get your breeches in a twist. Ask yourself this, would you rather have them on your side, helping keep this place going, or on the enemy’s side?”

  The crowd quietened down.

  Amos looked across at the general. He was starting to like her.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Marina looked at Joel. She was sitting on a wooden crate near one of two exits from the warehouse. He was standing by a guardrail on a balcony which hovered twenty feet above the floor. He seemed to be looking at the sixty or so hybrids that were sitting, talking, and sleeping below him. She wondered what he was thinking. Part of her wanted to feel sorry for him. He no doubt blamed himself for the deaths. More blood on his hands.

  But a larger part still wanted him to suffer. She was beginning to hate that part.