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“What do you say, Doc?”
The man anxiously fiddled with his glasses, pushing it back up his nose only to have them sink back down.
“Definitely died from the acid rain. Recently, too,” Doc said. His eyes, once again, rested on my face. Unlike the lust and desire I could see swimming in the other three faces, he only regarded me with something akin to guilt and regret.
“So what do you say?” Tamson leaned back in the chair, his hand moving to my thigh. Even though the material of my pants, I could feel the heat his body emitted. His scent surrounded me.
Greg also leaned back in his chair, kicking his legs up to rest on a cooler.
“Let’s make a deal.”
* * *
Fallon
If there was one thing I had learned from my twenty-five years of existence, it was that I wasn’t allowed to kill people without a reason. Elena? She gave me a reason. The bitch had the audacity to look me in the eye and tell me that I would be better off without Adelaide. Honestly, if the others hadn’t been there, I might’ve snapped her neck. Female or male, no one was allowed to put my team into harm's way.
No one.
My hands were clenched over the steering wheel, knuckles white, as I maneuvered our van through the car-cluttered street. For the most part, the town was deserted besides the occasional Rager. It reminded me of one of those post-apocalyptic movies where everything was left behind on the state of an evacuation. Houses chipped away by vandalism and inconsistent weather. Bodies loitering the street. Cars with their doors still opened as people left in a haste. It was a gruesome sight, a sight that made my stomach drop and tighten. The dismal nature of the town was impossible to ignore.
I had one thought and one thought only.
Protect.
Fight.
Survive.
Calax turned towards me from where he sat in the passenger seat. Asher and Declan sat in the back, identical scowls contorting their faces.
“They’re fine,” Calax said. His low timber spoke the words with a sort of detached quality. He sounded as if he was merely reciting a fact, not assuring me that my family was safe. An involuntary snort escaped before I could stop it.
The brooding, angry bastard was comforting me. What has the world come to?
“She’s fine. I’m certain of it.” This was directed at himself as if he needed the reassurance more than I did. The man’s face was tight with an undefinable emotion, and his eyes had a feral glaze to them that hinted at an underlying tension. He was unhinged - a ticking time bomb just waiting to explode. We were similar in that respect.
Tick. Tick.
Boom.
“Holy shit,” Asher muttered, pulling my attention back towards the matter at hand. I followed his finger and felt my eyes widen as well.
Holy shit was right.
There were Ragers everywhere. Walking. Attacking one another. Eating the remains of numerous dead bodies. I didn’t know where to look. Their skin was beginning to deteriorate in some places and melt from the bones in others. The acid rain, which had the capability to kill a grown man, did not seem to deter them. If anything, it only gave them renewed vigor. It reminded me vaguely of a cone of ice cream melting on a hot summer day. That was what their faces reminded me of...a fact that sent pinpricks of aversion and fear down my spine and to the soles of my feet. I would never be able to eat ice cream again.
I had seen a lot of shit in my life. A lot of death. But this? This was something I couldn’t even begin to articulate into words. I only hoped that Tamson had shielded Adelaide from this sight the best he could. No person could face such senseless death and desolation and remain sane. My heart hammered through my ribcage as I watched a Rager - dark hair dripping down its back and black veins crawling beneath its pasty skin - bite at the neck of a different Rager. Monsters. The whole lot of them.
I wondered if this was a sign from God. Had we really fucked up so badly that he resorted to making us mindless beasts? I thought of my own transgressions.
Father forgive me for I have sinned.
The list was endless. Murder. Theft.
Adultery.
My self-loathing reached a pinnacle. Wave after wave of despair threatened to consume me.
I had never believed in karma before, but my perception on life and human nature was steadily changing. Bad things happened to monsters like me. It was a miracle that I was still alive and standing.
It was a miracle that I had been able to fall in love, though what I felt did not classify as the traditional “love”. I was too battle-worn and hard to feel such a mushy emotion. What I felt didn’t have a name nor was it an exact science. It justwas.A state of being some would say. A sensation. A need to protect.
Shaking my head to clear my muddled thoughts, I moved further and further away from the assembled mass of Ragers, all clawing ineffectually at the retreating car. Even from this distance, I could hear their incoherent yells and pleas.
Savages.
Monsters.
A physical representation of my inner self.
