Plague World (Ashley Parker Novel) (31 page)

How big is this place?

I moved slowly and quietly, pausing to peer into the cells. Each had a utilitarian cot, but other than that, they were empty. As I neared the next turn in the hallway, I heard something, and stopped short. Then I inched up to the turn, heart hammering my chest so loudly it almost drowned out the voices coming from a cell around the corner. Stealing a glance, I saw a door about twenty feet away. It was partially open, and I could smell the hot copper odor of fresh blood, along with the sharp tang of sweat and unwashed flesh.

“Sooo good. Fresh and tasty.”

“Please… stop. No more.” The voice was so twisted with pain, I couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman.

“Shhh… just relax. It’s just a little piece.”

“Nonononononooo!” The rising wail of agony in that cry got me moving again. Switching the Glock to my left hand, I unsheathed the katana and crept toward the cell. Whoever was inside was far too occupied to hear me approach. They also didn’t hear my horrified intake of breath when I reached the door and looked.

The room was splattered with gore, looking like a modern art major had taken a can of red paint and Jackson Pollocked the place. Several dead and naked bodies, missing large amounts of flesh, lay in one corner, crumpled as if tossed aside. The smell they gave off was truly foul.

Two more people, also stripped of clothing, were strapped to cots by their wrists and ankles, more restraining straps around their waists, necks, and across the thighs. Both were bleeding from gaping wounds all over their bodies. I recognized them both—Carl and Red Shirt. Carl was dead, his eyes staring sightlessly off into the distance, a frozen scream testifying to the horror and pain of his death.

Red Shirt was still alive, screaming in agony as someone slowly and methodically carved a piece of flesh from her thigh with a wicked sharp blade, the kind my dad used to gut fish.

That someone was Jake, a man who had been bitten and then trapped in a cabin with his wife and daughter during the outbreak in Redwood Grove. Like Gabriel, he was a half-deader, which meant he was partially immune to the virus, but still needed to eat human flesh in order to stay alive. His sanity went on permanent vacation after he’d eaten his wife and child.

I wanted to feel sorry for him. He hadn’t asked to be turned into a monster. But something about him repulsed me on a visceral level. There was no fixing that kind of crazy.

Jake had the same placid smile on his face he’d had when we’d caught up to him in a swank cabin above Redwood Grove. He’d lost all concept of right or wrong, and was feeding off of several women, only one of whom made it out alive. He’d gone missing during the fire that nearly killed Simone, and most of me had hoped he’d died.

Red Shirt’s scream broke in the middle, dissolving into gulping, hopeless sobs.

I gripped my katana with my right hand and pushed the door further open with my left so I could slip inside. One quick cut and it would be over.

I froze as Jake suddenly turned. His gaze fell on the door and slipped past it as he held out the piece of flesh to someone out of my sight line.

“Want a bite?”

“No,” the unseen speaker said, voice so low and guttural that at first I couldn’t identify it.

“Awww, come on! You have to eat, right? And she’s sooooo fresh and tasty!” The cajoling in Jake’s voice was horrible, a parody of a mother trying to get a fussy child to eat its vegetables. He wiggled the thing, blood dripping between his fingers. “It’s wa-ah-fer-thin!”

“Get that the fuck away from me!”

My heart stopped.

Jake giggled and tossed the divot of flesh toward the speaker. It landed with a splat on the ground, right in front of a pair of black combat boots, the type that I wore… that all of our team wore. There was a metal cuff around one ankle, attached to a chain.

Oh no no no no… please no.

My gaze traveled slowly up those boots to unwashed black BDUs crusted in gore and dirt, then to a black thermal, equally filthy. Slowly, reluctantly, I forced myself to look at the hollow-cheeked, jaundiced face above the shirt—denim-blue eyes sunken into the sockets. His mint-gold hair was lank and dull against his scalp. His wrists were shackled against the wall.

“Gabriel?”

I said his name before I could stop myself.

Both of them looked at me, Gabriel’s head snapping around so quickly I could hear his neck crack. The horror in his eyes broke my heart.

“Oh my god, Gabriel…”

“Hey!” Jake’s smile widened with genuine pleasure, like a host greeting a new guest to his party. “Ashley, right? You’re here for dinner, and right on time!” He approached me, bloody hand outstretched.

I extended the point of the katana toward him.

“You want to back the fuck away, Jake.”

He shrugged and stopped.

“Sure, whatever. Just hurry up or it’ll get cold.” He grinned over at Red Shirt, still sobbing hopelessly as she lay there, waiting for more pain and death. “Don’t want it to get cold, right?”

Giving him as wide a berth as possible, I cautiously stepped further into the abattoir and moved toward Gabriel, my heart pounding in my ears.

“Stay away from me,” he rasped.

“I’m here to get you out,” I said as gently and calmly as I could under the circumstances.

“Just get out of here.” His voice became a thick growl, somehow less than human. The smell of sweat and despair rose from his body.

“Gabriel…”

“No!” He shook his head fiercely.

“I’m here to help, Gabriel.”

“No!”

I held out my free hand pleadingly, my focus on the man I was pretty sure I loved.

Bad mistake.

Jake barreled into me, knocking me sideways into the wall. My head hit the concrete with a dull crack. The last thing I heard was Gabriel yelling my name as the lights went out.

“I’m sorry… so sorry.”

A voice whispered in my ear as my consciousness tried to swim up to the surface against a tide of pain and dizziness.

“I’m so sorry, Ash… so sorry.”

My eyes fluttered open as I recognized Gabriel’s voice. His face was right above mine, looking blessedly normal.

I smiled up at him through the throbbing in my skull.

“Sorry… so sorry.”

Why are you sorry?
I wanted to ask, but I couldn’t get my voice to work. I couldn’t move my arms or legs either.

Something shiny moved into my line of sight. A sharp blade, glinting in the fluorescent lights.

Gabriel looked down at me sadly. “I’m really sorry… so sorry…”

He lowered the knife and sliced into my forearm.

* * *

I jerked awake just as the knife bit into my flesh, the pain excruciating. A scream ripped through my throat. The blade cut deeper, then leveled out, oh so slowly moving down my arm until it finally dipped up and out, taking a piece of me with it. I felt the warmth of my own blood running out of the wound, cold air stinging the raw meat left behind.

“Sorry, so sorry,” a voice whispered.

Not Gabriel
, my pain-fogged mind told me.
Thank god…

Jake crouched next to me, tears streaming down his face as he shoved the piece of me into his mouth, rocking back and forth and muttering the same words he’d said when I’d found him eating the remains of his wife and child.

I tried to sit up, but as in my dream, I couldn’t move my arms and legs. They were secured tightly to one of the cots, another strap around my waist making sure I wasn’t going anywhere. I also became aware that my Kevlar armor was gone, as were the rest of my clothes.

Naked, tied to a cot and being snacked on by a crazy man. My day had officially reached its nadir.

I thrashed for a moment, the metal frame creaking loudly as I tried to wriggle out of it, but Jake—crazy as he was—had done the job well. Maybe if I wasn’t so sick and dizzy with pain I could have broken at least one of the restraints, but for now I wasn’t going anywhere.

Jake abruptly stopped rocking and a smile curved his mouth, the tears drying up as if he’d turned off an internal faucet. He turned and crooked a finger in a “come here” gesture.

“Your turn,” he said brightly.

“Fuck off.”

If I craned my head, I could see Gabriel a few feet away from the foot of my cot, hands bunched into fists as he glared at Jake. If it was possible, he looked even worse than he had before Jake had bushwhacked me. Sweat poured down his face, and his body shook as if racked with chills.

“Don’t be stupid.” Jake frowned. “You need to eat, and this one’s even better than the last. She didn’t have much staying power. But this one—” he patted my bare thigh, “she’s really tasty.”

I suddenly realized Red Shirt’s sobs had stopped. Turning my head to the side, I saw the cot on which she was lying, still strapped down, and most certainly dead.

“I will fucking
kill
you, you crazy son of a bitch!” I thrashed against the restraints again, rocking the entire cot back and forth in my effort to get free.

Jake grinned down at me.

“And she’s stronger, too. She’ll stay fresh for a
long
time.” He slid the blade into my skin again, the other arm this time, slicing through skin, fat, and some muscle, taking his time.

I will not scream, I will not scream, I will not scream…

I screamed.

“Stop it, God damn you!”

Chains rattled as Gabriel lunged toward him, only to be brought up short by his shackles. He grunted in pain as the metal dug into his wrists and ankle.

Jake shook his head sadly.

“You need to stop that. You’ll hurt yourself.”

“Stop hurting her
,”
Gabriel growled.

Jake sighed. “Look. I’ve told you. They don’t feel it. They’re not like us.” He punched the knife tip in and out of my left thigh so quickly I didn’t register the pain until a few seconds after he’d withdrawn it.

Then it hurt like hell. I managed to hold back all but a small whimper.

“I will kill you, you son of a bitch…”

Jake giggled. “Sure! Maybe a piece of you will go down the wrong pipe. It could happen.” He held up the last filet of Ashley he’d sliced off, and let it slide down his throat like an oyster. His eyes closed in bliss.

“Seriously, Gabe, this is quality meat here.”

The knife dipped down toward my stomach.

This can’t be happening
, I thought. I did not survive all the shit the world had thrown at me, just to end up as steak tartare for a nut job.

Then that sharp blade cut into me an inch or two to the left of my naval. The pain was excruciating. I didn’t even try and hold back the screams. They were the only release I had.

When Jake finished with his latest slice, he cocked his head in Gabriel’s direction.

“Seriously. You need to eat. They told me to get you to eat. And if you
don’t
eat, that means no more fresh meat for me, unless I find it myself.” He looked down at me with what I can only describe as a fond expression. “It was really nice of you to find me instead, Ashley. That’s probably going to make you my favorite meal ever.”

“If I eat… will you let her go?” Gabriel got to his feet slowly.

“Gabriel, no!” The words wrenched themselves from my throat, which was already raw from screaming.

“You want me to let her go?” Jake looked at him indignantly. “I mean… are you crazy? That last one was plain old ahi.
This
one is
otoro
. You just… seriously, check it out.”

Jake slowly approached Gabriel, holding out the strip of flesh he’d just carved from my stomach, like someone trying to tempt a feral cat.

“Just smell this,” Jake whispered. “Soooo good.”

He held it up to Gabriel’s nose.

I watched as Gabriel, almost against his will, inhaled. His eyes shut for a moment, his expression that of a connoisseur smelling a particularly good wine.

Jake smiled happily. “I know, right?”

Then he stepped just a little bit closer.

“Now you gotta taste it.”

Jake brought my flesh up to Gabriel’s mouth and touched it to his lips, all the while talking in a singsong voice, as if to a child, “Tasty tasty tasty treat, open up, it’s fun to eat!”

He rubbed the meat—I had to think of it that way, or I’d go crazy—around Gabriel’s mouth, smearing blood on his lips and chin. Gabriel jerked his head to one side, then the other. His hands strained against the metal holding him to the wall. Jake giggled and then popped the piece of flesh into Gabriel’s mouth.

No no no…

Gabriel’s mouth went slack. His tongue crept out to taste the blood. His eyes opened, blazing with a feral desire that terrified me.

Spit it out
, I thought.
Oh god, please spit it out…

Gabriel swallowed.

“Good, huh?”

Jake and I both watched the rapturous expression on Gabriel’s face as he savored the taste sensation of human flesh. It might have been my imagination, but I could have sworn his color improved almost immediately.

“More.” Gabriel looked at Jake, then over at me. The feral hunger in his eyes terrified me. Blood and saliva trickled from the sides of his mouth. “I want more.”

Jake beamed. “Sure! Hang on, I’ll throw another shrimp on the barbie.” He raised the knife and headed back in my direction.

“No.” Gabriel licked his lips again. “I want… I want to do it myself.”

Jake looked as though he was going to cry, a proud father watching his son catch his first big fish.

“Sure. Okay!” Pulling a key out of a blood-encrusted jeans pocket, he eagerly unlocked the shackles holding Gabriel’s arms to the wall. They fell off his wrists with a metallic clank. He then handed Gabriel the key so he could undo the ankle shackle himself.

He did so clumsily, rubbing his wrists to restore circulation.

I wondered how long he’d been chained up in here with Jake trying to change his diet from vegan to cannibal. It didn’t take him long to recover his balance, and he moved with terrifying purpose across the room to where I lay strapped on to the cot.

Jake dipped a finger into the raw wound he’d just inflicted and popped the tip into his mouth, licking the blood with a rapturous expression. Then he set the knife on top of my bare and bloody stomach, grinned and stepped away with a little bow.