Red Eye | Season 2 | Episode 1

by Riley, Claire C.

  RED Eye

  The Armageddon Series

  Season Two: Episode One

  By

  USA Today Bestselling Author

  Claire C. Riley

  &

  Victoria Cage Author

  Eli Constant

  RED EYE The Armageddon Series

  Copyright ©2020 Claire C. Riley & Elizabeth Constantopoulos

  Cover Design: Wilde Designs Elizabeth Constantopoulos

  Editor: Amy Jackson

  Formatting: Claire C. Riley

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, without express permission from the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locals is entirely coincidental.

  About the episode:

  A zombie blood test? Bloody hell!

  ** Presumed safety in a government camp presents heart-pounding problems for the group—especially Sam, who continues to battle her affliction. **

  About the Series

  When Rose and Sam find themselves in a military camp surrounded by other survivors, they have no idea that the darkest days are yet to come.

  Rose, feeling more homesick than ever, looks to Nolan for guidance. With her plans of seeing the world now nothing but a pipe dream and her parents likely dead, she contemplates the bleak future ahead of her.

  It’s getting easier to kill, but harder to hold on to hope.

  Sam, still in shock over the realization that she’s probably becoming the very thing she fears, seeks reassurance from Barrett—the darkly protective criminal they freed from the airport jail. The end of the world is no time for romance, but he’s not the sort of man who takes no for an answer.

  She’s feeling anxious, confused, and she’s got a terrible craving for red meat!

  People used to say when life gets tough, there’s always tomorrow. But that was before the apocalypse. Now, life is a 24-hour cycle of hard knocks and who knows if there will even be a tomorrow.

  The unlikely pair thought 30,000 feet in the air was hell,

  but being on the ground’s proving no better.

  All they can do is stick together,

  focus on whatever lies ahead of them,

  and try not to die.

  *

  Start this epic zombie apocalypse thriller written by USA Today Bestselling Author Claire C. Riley and Victoria Cage Author Eli Constant.

  THE SERIES SO FAR:

  Red Eye Season One (four episodes) – OUT NOW

  Red Eye Season Two: Episode One– OUT NOW

  Red Eye Season Two: Episode Two – Coming January 23rd

  RED Eye

  The Armageddon Series

  Season Two: Episode One

  By

  USA Today Bestselling Author

  Claire C. Riley

  &

  Victoria Cage Author

  Eli Constant

  Prologue

  Nuns!

  Honest-to-Gucci nuns.

  I’d seriously thought my parents were kidding when they’d threatened to send me off to a convent for the summer if I didn’t “shape up.” A convent. Sure, my grades hadn’t been great last semester, but I still had senior year to get them up. I could easily pull a 3.0, or pretty damn close, if I tried hard enough. They were making a big deal out of nothing. I didn’t want to go to college anyways.

  Most of the kids at St. Bishop’s were orphans; they had an actual reason to be living in a shithole church with no cable and no Wi-Fi. I hadn’t been able to post a social update online in almost a week. It was driving me crazy!

  I smoothed the wrinkles out of my long skirt for the millionth time. It fell below my knees, which I hated. Mom had packed my clothes—nothing but the most modest, least fashion-forward outfits for this “vacation” to Bible land. Even the shirt had long sleeves and a neckline so high it kept rubbing across my throat and making me feel claustrophobic. Hot as hell outside and I looked like an Alaskan.

  “This way, children. The food won’t make itself.” Sister Mary Elisabeth waved us forward, toward the dilapidated shelter. The two other nuns who’d accompanied us were already inside prepping.

  I didn’t think any place could be worse than the chilly, sparsely decorated church, but Friendship Falls Center for the Homeless looked like it’d gone through a freaking war and was only standing upright thanks to prayer and luck.

  “Now, don’t be licking the plates, Princess. No matter how good it smells in there.” A cute guy I’d heard called Andy walked past me and winked. He wasn’t the only person at the convent to call me Princess. The nickname had started seconds after I’d walked through the door, my Prada-wearing mother and Rolex-flashing father in tow.

  It could have been military school. I’d have understood rich people paying for their problematic kids to go to boot camp. But I didn’t know God took donations from Fortune 500 CEOs.

  “Leave me alone,” I muttered a bit too late.

  The guy was already crossing the threshold, hands shoved into his pockets as he joked with another girl. He’s got swagger, I thought absentmindedly. The kind you get when you haven’t had a mom and dad taking care of you since day one. I wondered what I looked like to him.

  Well, I guess I knew, actually.

  I looked like a pampered princess.

  The smell of cheap food slammed against my face when I finally entered the building. I was the last one inside and goody-two-shoes nun was looking at me sour-faced. “We are here to serve others and gain perspective, Ms. Bradshaw. Please look alive.”

  I didn’t respond. I was too busy trying to figure out what I was smelling... Food just didn’t smell like that. Our cook used only natural ingredients. Organic. Non-GMO. My last meal at home was Kobe beef and mushroom risotto. Everything I’d eaten since being abandoned here by my parents? Seriously subpar.

  Moments later I was wearing a hairnet—perfect complement to my downgraded garbage clothing—and spooning canned green beans into a big pot.

  There were fewer people in the dining area than I expected, what with the loads of food we were heating up, and the men and women who were waiting for dinner looked…unhealthy.

  “Are…they okay?” I mumbled to the girl next to me.

  She looked up sharply. “I didn’t know princesses spoke with peasants.”

  “Cut it out. I just asked a simple question.” I was getting really sick and tired of the whole princess thing.

  “They’re homeless. Of course they’re not okay,” the girl said, her voice losing none of its initial irritation.

  “Sorry to bother you.” I focused back on the green beans. I wanted to go home. I wanted my own bed and cashmere blankets and I wanted to hug my designer bags and cry.

  A short line was forming now, the hungry boarders shuffling forward for a plate. I saw that boy Andy passing out napkins and forks.

  When the first person got to me, I spooned green beans with shaking hands and tried to smile like the sister had instructed me to. Service with a smile and a happy heart, or it does nothing for your soul, Ms. Bradshaw.

  When my eyes locked with the person in front of me, my hands stopped shaking. Or, rather, my entire body started vibrating with confusion and fear, so the sensation in my hands wasn’t important anymore.

  The person’s eyes were bloodshot. No, not bloodshot.


  They were crimson. They didn’t look human.

  Chapter One

  ~ Rose ~

  I swallowed.

  Then I swallowed again.

  Then I coughed.

  But the football-sized lump that was lodged so far down my throat that it was suffocating me, and putting pressure on my chest, would not go.

  “Well let’s get over there!” Karla laughed from the back, oblivious to the elephant in the room. Or should I say the possible zombie in the van.

  I glanced over at Nolan, but he avoided my gaze; instead he remained staring right through the window screen, his dark eyes watching the long queue coming from the testing tent. His hands were still frozen to the gearstick and the steering wheel, like he was ready to get us the hell out of there any second now.

  “Nolan, come on, man, let’s go,” Leon said, unclipping his seatbelt and leaning forwards.

  “Sit back down!” Barrett barked from his seat.

  “You can’t tell—”

  “I said, sit the fuck back down!” Barrett interrupted, and Leon sat back down.

  I turned in my seat and looked at our passengers, every single one of us having a completely different expression on their face, ranging from fear, anger, concern—and then there was poor Sam. She looked terrified. Utterly bloody terrified.

  I swept my tongue out to wet my dry lips, and I kept my gaze on her, our eyes connecting firmly, undeniably. “It’s okay,” I said, but she shook her head, tears filling her eyes. “It is, it’s going to be okay.”

  “What is going on?” Karla asked, getting anxious. “I mean, is there something we should know? Is there something I should know?”

  Barrett moved, his hand grabbing the door handle. He took a deep breath and readied himself to jump out of the truck.

  Sam reached for him quickly. “Where are you going?” she asked with total panic in her voice, the last syllable being abruptly cut off as he leaned over and pressed a hard kiss on her lips.

  “I’ll be back,” he promised as he pulled out of the kiss, and then he was opening the door and jumping down. “Get in the line and be ready.” And with that he slammed the door shut.

  Sam turned in her seat to follow him with her eyes, but he was already gone, lost in the masses.

  I reached over, having to stretch from the front seat, and grabbed her hand.

  She turned back to look at me. “Rose?” Her voice was brittle.

  “It’s fine, it’s totally fine,” I promised again.

  “Stop saying that!” she sobbed, finally letting the panic grip her. “You don’t know that!”

  I opened my mouth to reassure her again, but couldn’t find the words. She was right; I had no idea if things would be okay. If she would be okay. But I had to believe she would be. I simply had to. I’d shared a room with her the night before. Slept right above her knowing that at any point she could turn and tear my throat out while I slept.

  So yeah, I believed she would be okay…at least to some extent.

  But this situation? This was different, and I had no idea what we were going to do.

  I looked back to Nolan. He was watching me now, his mouth set in a hard, thin line, and for a moment I thought he was going to suggest throwing Sam to the wolves and telling the soldiers exactly what she was. But then his hand moved to mine and he gave it a small squeeze. He looked in the rearview mirror.

  “We need to go park up. We’ll decide from there what to do, but we can’t stay here.” He shifted the truck into gear and we began to move again.

  Leon and Karla had moved far away from Sam, not knowing what was going on with her but knowing that something wasn’t right with her. They shared a look between themselves, and I had no doubt in my mind that I would have to watch both of them carefully. They would, no doubt, sacrifice Sam for themselves without a second thought.

  Nolan pulled the truck into a small space between an army truck and a beat-up Ford that had blood smeared across the window shield. He turned the engine off before turning in his seat.

  “We stick together, watch each other’s backs, and wait for Barrett’s signal.”

  “I’m not going anywhere until I know what’s wrong with her,” Leon said through gritted teeth.

  I looked at him, nothing like the man I had first met only a handful of days ago. Gone was the carefree man with the happy eyes and kind smile, and instead an angry, bitter man sat in his place. It made me wonder if I had changed so dramatically in the preceding days since the plane crash. I felt the same, barring I was more cautious. But I wondered how the others saw me.

  “She’s sick,” Nolan said, and I felt my chest constrict even more.

  It was the first time he’d openly acknowledged it so bluntly. Probably the first time any of us had, really. We’d skirted around the subject, but here it was in black and white: Sam was sick.

  “How sick?” Karla asked, moving even further away. “Is it contagious?” I could see the horror on her face already. She’d let us stay in her sister’s house—in her nephew’s bedroom, no less. “Good Lord, please tell me it’s not contagious!”

  “Long-term illness, nothing contagious, but what if it shows up on their test?” I said, filling in for Sam since she was paralyzed into silence.

  Leon glared at me. He leaned forwards in his seat, his face mere inches from mine, his blue eyes boring into mine, until finally he leaned back and sneered. “You’re lying.”

  “I’m not!”

  “You are,” he replied with gritted teeth.

  “You are such a total wanker,” I snapped, feeling a chill down my spine. I wanted to punch him right in his throat and make him choke on his own tongue. I hated smugness with a passion, and his was oozing from him because he knew he’d caught me out in my lie.

  “A wanker that wants to know the truth,” he replied.

  I started to speak and he cut me off.

  “Not from you.” He looked at Sam. “From you. What’s wrong with you?”

  Sam’s gaze had fallen to her lap where her hands were. “I… umm, it’s…” She looked up and I gasped.

  Her eyes were red.

  Red red.

  Blood fucking red.

  Oh Jesus, this couldn’t actually be happening.

  “Sam?” I said her name as she closed her eyes, her hands wringing in her lap.

  “Coconut,” she breathed out, her voice sounding scared.

  “Coconut?” Karla replied, looking back and forth between me and Sam. “She wants a coconut?”

  Oh fuck! Fucking fuck!

  “Coconut!” Sam groaned, the singular word sounding painful as it left her mouth.

  “We ain’t got no coconuts, girl,” Karla said with sympathy, her eyebrows pulling in in concern.

  “No, she’s allergic to coconuts or something, right?” Leon said, not looking totally convinced. But the pain written on Sam’s face was hard to deny.

  “Yes, she is. Is someone eating a damn coconut?” I said, my voice raising higher like I was freaking out. Mostly because I was freaking out, just for a whole different reason than everyone else realized. “Whoever it is, get rid of it now! Fuck it, never mind. Let me get her out of here. The fresh air will help. You guys get over to the testing tent. We’ll be there in a minute.” I dived out my door, almost tripping over my own feet to get around to Sam’s door before she started chomping on Leon’s brains.

  I threw open her door and reached in for her. My hand barely touched her skin when she pulled her arm from my grip. “Don’t touch me, Rose!” she yelped, like I’d physically hurt her. Misery poured from her, her entire body trembling.

  Everyone was getting out of the truck now too, keeping a cautious distance from us. There was no way they believed this was an allergic reaction to a nonexistent coconut product, but neither Karla nor Leon called us out on it. Probably because the alternative was too horrifying.

  “All right, all right, let’s just get you away from everyone so you can breathe.” I stood behin
d her, one hand on her lower back to gently guide her away, and she thankfully began to move. “Seriously, guys, she’ll be fine. Go over and get yourself tested and we’ll meet you there.”

  “I don’t like this,” Leon replied.

  “I don’t care!” I yelled at him.

  “Something’s not right with her, Rose,” he said before pursing his lips.

  “So fucking leave, Leon. No one wants you here anyway.” I didn’t care about the hurt look that flashed across his face. All I cared about was getting Sam away from him and everyone else. Getting her to calm the fuck down and hopefully stopping her from eating these people and getting herself killed.

  I realized, with bright awareness, that I cared much more about her being killed than I did about Leon or Karla being eaten. Neither had done anything to warrant my feelings towards them, and yet despite Sam turning into one of the living dead, my loyalty was firmly in her court.

  “Fine,” Leon snapped, and turned and left, heading in the direction of the slowly moving line of people at the testing tent.

  “I’ll go see if he’s okay,” Karla replied, her cheeks flushing with her lie as she too turned and left, clearly wanting to get as far from us as possible.

  “I can’t breathe,” Sam sobbed. “Rose, I can’t breathe! There’s too many smells, too many people.” She gagged, saliva trickling from the corner of her mouth.

  I shared a look with Nolan but he thankfully didn’t say anything; instead he kept watch around us.

  “Just calm down, please,” I begged. “It’s going to be okay, just try to control yourself.”

  “I can’t,” she sobbed. She leaned over, putting her hands on her knees, and started to take deep breaths. “It hurts.”

  “What does?” I asked, my hand rubbing the bottom of her back.

  She glanced up at me, her red eyes wide with panic and fear. “The hunger.”

  An army guy started to come our way, his stance on high alert. “Everything okay with her?” he asked, watching Sam carefully, his gun in hand.