And Hell Followed: A Horror Novel Read online

  Dozing in his arms as he sucked at my throat, I was jerked awake when the hunger struck every nerve in my body.

  Ryan pulled away, frowning at me. “Did I hurt you?”

  Unable to speak, a guttural noise was the best I could manage as my eyes locked onto his throat. The hunger knew how to make the pain go away. The hunger bared my teeth and reached up for his throat, but I wasn’t the hunger.

  Pushing Ryan back, I rolled off the bed and found my footing. I knew where food was and it wasn’t in this tent. I could eat the stew or find my backpack full of supplies. The hunger needed to be satisfied with something besides Ryan’s flesh.

  “What’s wrong with you?” Ryan asked, sounding more worried than angry which was probably a good thing for his safety.

  “I’m hungry,” I said, though I didn’t think the words sounded this way to him.

  Stumbling from the tent in my size too big boots, I saw no one at first. It was late, and most of the people were in bed. I could smell food, though. Derek might be waiting for me to submit so he could feed me.

  “Samantha,” Ryan whispered, following me outside while pulling on his shirt. “Please come back into the tent, and I’ll find you food.”

  Bowled over, I wanted to explain the hunger. If I ate something, I could regain control. My plan sounded so simple, but I made no sense to Ryan. My growling made me sound like an animal. Or a zombie.

  “What’s wrong with her?” Zippy whispered, appearing from a tent. She was pulling on her jeans while shoving her feet into boots. “Did you hurt her?”

  “No,” Ryan muttered angrily. “She’s hungry and maybe a little messed up in the head.”

  “She’s been living in hell and Derek starves her. He should have fed her and let her sleep before giving her to you.”

  “What do we do?” Ryan asked, pulling me away from the sounds of approaching people. “She’s acting weird, and we haven’t mated.”

  “I’ll grab food and meet you back at the tent. Get her away from Soren’s people, or you’ll never mate with her.”

  Zippy said she would find food and I told the hunger to be patient. I stopped heading for the red tent and turned to Ryan. When I spoke, though, it was only growling gibberish.

  “Samantha, you need to come with me.”

  “Maybe you’re not her type?” a voice asked.

  When men walked toward us, Ryan moved to stand in front of me. From behind, more men approached.

  “Trouble in paradise, Ryan?”

  “She’s tired and hungry and needs to rest.”

  The man was tall and had brown hair. Besides those two features, I couldn’t focus on him. My legs gave out, and I tumbled to the ground. Fearing I would lose consciousness, I mostly worried I wouldn’t wake up and be me anymore.

  The brown-haired man stepped closer and stared down at me. “Derek has a mate. His brother has a mate. Now his brother’s mate’s brother will get a mate while the rest of us must share Zippy. The Aussie can give great head, but she’s one chick in a camp of nearly fifty guys. Since we can’t share your preggo sister yet, we’ve decided to share this one.”

  “She’s only twelve.”

  “An old rule only Derek cares about. We’re not Derek.”

  Staring out past the fence to the dark woods, I imagined Daddy out there. Smiling, I waved at him. When I thought of how stupid I looked waving at nothing, I figured I was probably still sane. Before I tested this theory, the man yanked me up by my hair.

  “Keep your hands off her, Soren!” Ryan yelled.

  “Settle down. There’s only one of you,” Soren said to Ryan. “If you want to stay alive once Derek’s gone, you’d better play nice with the numbers. We are the numbers so stand down.”

  Soren had his arm wrapped around my waist at first, shoving up against my growling stomach. Moaning from the pressure, I fought to break free. Ryan moved to help me then I heard a grunt and saw him struggling with another man. As they fought, blood was drawn, and my stomach howled. Smelling the blood, I growled louder.

  “Man, she’s pretty,” said a man to my right.

  Soren moved his arm up around my chest. “Yeah, and we want her to stay pretty so we’re all going to be careful when we play with her, right?”

  “Sure.”

  “You rough her up like you did Zippy and this one is going to break. Little girls need gentle care. Don’t you, pumpkin?”

  Struggling to break free, I thought about Zippy finding food. If I could eat, I could talk again and calm down. Unsure what difference calming down would make in the enclave’s inner struggles; I wasn’t interested in their problems anyway.

  I did care about Ryan who was fighting against three men. Possibly I cared too much because Soren thought I was crying, so he shushed me. When he patted me on the head, I bit him hard, tearing into the flesh of his forearm. As my mouth filled with his blood, the hunger purred.

  Soren screamed then bit into my bare shoulder. I heard Ryan yelling along with the other men. It was all background noise, though. My mind only focused on the rapid beating of Soren’s heart.

  Pulling at the flesh on his arm, my teeth dug deeper, wanting more. Soren also bit down harder then I felt his teeth let go. Extending his arm, he tried to yank me off him. However, I refused to give up my food.

  Soren punched me in the face twice before I released him and staggered back. The third punch knocked me on my butt. Staring up at him, I saw Soren preparing to punch me again. Along with the other frenzied voices, Ryan yelled for Soren to stop. Some of the voices were confused, others were angry, and all of them hit a fevered pitch when Soren swung for the fourth time.

  Everyone fell silent after the gunshot.

  Above me, a wide-eyed Soren staggered before collapsing. His body twitched a few times and then stopped moving. Seeing blood from his head wound, my hunger told me to go to the body. Nearby someone screamed, and the hunger faded enough for me to avoid tasting Soren again. Crazed and afraid, I crawled away from the body without knowing where I was going.

  Everyone was running now. I heard them screaming about a sniper, the camp being under attack, and how the zombies would hear the noises. Chaos all around me, I crawled toward the smaller tents and then between them. All I could think about was how my mouth tasted of Soren, causing me to lick my lips. Despite my crazed state, my mind struggled to understand where the shot came from and why I needed to care.

  A trained sniper in the Corp, Daddy carried his favorite rifle with him everywhere. Claiming it was the son he never had, Daddy named the rifle William, and I called it Billy, my little brother. We laughed about the rifle, but it was a weapon of great power, able to kill from long distances when Daddy used it just right.

  Crawling away from the chaos and toward nothing, I needed the hunger to be quiet so that I could find the fence. On the other side, Daddy was waiting for me.

  Hands grabbed me and pulled me back into a small groove between four tents. When I growled, Ryan put his finger to my lips to shush me. I stared at his finger and opened my mouth to bite it. He watched me, and I watched him, but my teeth didn’t bite down. I pulled back the hunger, at least temporarily.

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” he whispered. “Don’t hurt me, okay?”

  Even nodding, I was still growling. I couldn’t form words, no matter how much I focused. They were in my head, yet when I opened my mouth, only random noises came out.

  “I know you’re sick,” Ryan said, his eyes flashing behind me before returning to my face. “I want to help you, but you have to listen to me. Okay?”

  When I nodded, he swallowed hard. “You have people out there, right? That’s who shot Soren.”

  I think I nodded but was shaking too violently to be sure.

  “If I help you get out of here, can we come with you? Me and my sister Morgan and Zippy. We want out of this place, but we don’t know how to live in the world anymore. Will your people allow us to come with you?”

  I nodded again while my body
shook so wildly I knocked over Ryan.

  “You’re hungry. That’s why you’re freaking out, right?” he asked, steadying himself. “Zippy was going for food, but she heard the shot. Everyone did, and she’ll go to our meeting spot. If you can pull yourself together and come with me, we can get there, and she’ll have food for you. Do you understand?”

  Seeing my eyes rolled back in my head, Ryan shook me. Focused again, I pulled at his hand to tell him to go.

  Remaining crouched, Ryan moved between the tents, his hand wrapped around mine as he tugged me along. After falling a few times, I crawled after him.

  Nearby men were calming the others so the zombies wouldn’t hear. I wasn’t sure where zombies were in relation to the camp since I hadn’t seen any since before sunset. The people were scared, though. So scared that they were being too loud.

  Daddy wouldn’t like all the noise the people were making. He said enclaves were dangerous because too many people meant too many opportunities for someone to mess up and get everyone killed. I hadn’t wanted to stay here, but my mind did return to the stew, and I remembered how good the shower felt. Enclaves were dangerous, but they had their perks too. Perks I wouldn’t enjoy again, and Daddy never experienced.

  I was thinking about Daddy when Ryan stopped moving, and I bumped into him. He turned around and pulled me into a sitting position next to a purple house. Zippy was there, crouched next to a girl who was around eighteen. I thought the girl looked a little like Kayla. Blonde and tall, tanned and athletic. I missed Kayla, but she was dead. Everyone was dead.

  Shaking my head to center my thoughts, I didn’t realize I was growling until Zippy shushed me. I showed her my teeth and the blood dripping from my mouth. Not even flinching, she shoved a piece of candy into my mouth and told me to chew.

  Jaws working frantically, I swallowed the candy. Zippy handed me a giant candy bar and a small bag of sunflower seeds. I didn’t even like sunflower seeds but ate the whole bag in two bites. My stomach made a weird howling noise then quieted. Thoughts clearing a little more, I sighed.

  “Thank you,” I mumbled, and Zippy nodded.

  “You’ve got people out there, baby? Is that who’s shooting?”

  An explosion startled Zippy so much she fell on her butt. Everyone tilted their heads around the house to look where the noises had come from. I noticed a small fire in the distance with smoke billowing into the once quiet night.

  “Will they come in and get you?” Zippy asked me.

  “No,” I whispered, and my stomach complained again.

  Zippy handed me another bag of sunflower seeds. Ripping it open, I leaned my head back and spilled the full bag into my mouth. Chewing wildly, I needed to quiet the hunger because I couldn’t concentrate when it was screaming.

  “Why is she eating so much?” Morgan asked her brother.

  “She’s sick,” Ryan said and then looked at Zippy. “Soren hit her. Bit her too.”

  A dark expression flooded Zippy’s features, and I saw dread in Morgan’s eyes too.

  “This is why we’re leaving,” Zippy said, checking my bloody face. “We need to get out of here, and Samantha’s going to help us. Aren’t you, baby?”

  Nodding, I wished I had something to drink so I might wash down the salt from the sunflower seeds. Clearly a mind reader, Zippy handed me a soda.

  “If we go through the back, do you know where to meet your people?” Zippy asked.

  “No, but my daddy always finds me.”

  Zippy looked at Ryan and Morgan. “If we leave, we can’t come back, not without suffering the consequences. Are you ready to do this?”

  Ryan looked at me then nodded. Morgan rubbed her belly, and I realized she was very pregnant.

  “Morgan?” Ryan said while his sister stared at the nearby woods.

  “Maybe things will work out, and we can stay.”

  “Derek and Jim won’t be able to protect you,” Ryan said. “They’re losing power. Once they’re gone, you’ll get passed around like Zippy. I’m not even sure they’ll let the baby live.”

  Morgan cradled her belly and looked at Zippy. “The world’s dead. How can I have my baby out there?”

  “I can’t make the decision for you. I just know things in the camp are changing. It’s been quiet for too long, and egos have gotten too big. You’re a prize to the men. Your brother is an obstacle. They’ll kill him.”

  “Soren’s dead, though.”

  “Soren is one guy, and it wasn’t one guy causing trouble in the camp. Even if Jim remains in power, he’ll keep you under his thumb until someone takes you away from him.”

  Morgan didn’t want to leave the safety and comfort of the enclave. I could see in her blue eyes how going into the dark woods and facing all the ugliness in the world was the last thing she wanted. I also saw how much she loved her brother. If Morgan stayed, Ryan stayed. If he stayed, he would likely be killed.

  “How do we get out?” Morgan whispered.

  “Just walk through the side gate,” Zippy said. “Everyone’s focused on the front of the camp where the shot and explosion came from. We can grab our things and go.”

  I assumed they would sneak off to retrieve their supplies, but they had them already stuffed in bags under the purple house. One of the bags was my backpack which Zippy handed to me. She also gave me a warm jacket and my small bag of weapons.

  “Your people won’t hurt us, will they?” Zippy asked. “We only need a little help getting used to being out in the world again. Just a week or so. Then if your people don’t want us around, we’ll go out on our own.”

  I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to tell them my people currently consisted of one amazing man. Seeing hope in their eyes, I’d never been good at stealing people’s dreams.

  Another explosion rang out closer to the camp. This one was probably near a road because Daddy was blowing up cars. He’d done it before to draw zombies away from where the group was hiding. This tactic was a smart way to make zombies crazy with curiosity and Daddy got the biggest smile whenever something went boom.

  We walked out of the side gate without anyone noticing. Overhearing many heated discussions from the men in camp, I suspected the enclave hadn’t been attacked before, and all their plans were theories. Daddy was right about complacency. People fell into it too easily.

  As we left the camp, my biggest problem was fatigue. I hadn’t slept for nearly twenty-four hours. Legs throbbing with every step, my back also crunched under the weight of my backpack. While I hadn’t noticed earlier, my left eye was swelling up where Soren hit me. My cheek and lip hurt too, but Daddy always said to focus on the injuries that’ll get you killed. My eye might be a problem.

  Pausing after a few minutes, I leaned against a tree and let myself think. I’d never been in charge before. While I thought I was ready, this particular morning was not a good time for me to get my big chance.

  Daddy was on the other side of the camp. The men from the enclave were focused on the other side of the camp. The zombies would be drawn to the other side of the camp. How would I find Daddy without getting killed by the men or the zombies?

  Mind focusing, I realized the men weren’t my concern. They wouldn’t shoot me, plus they were busy figuring out how to protect the camp. Even if the men stumbled upon our group, they’d simply force us to go back. Maybe they’d hurt Ryan, but standing out in the dark wasn’t protecting him either.

  “We need our weapons out,” I said.

  Checking the handgun Daddy bought for my tenth birthday, I stuffed the extra magazines in my pockets. I didn’t use the gun much, but noise wasn’t a concern tonight. I just needed to make my way toward Daddy which meant I was bound to confront a few zombies. Killing them quietly wasn’t an option with my eye messed up and my body exhausted. I also couldn’t trust the others to help me, leaving the gun as my only choice.

  Ryan and Zippy were holding rifles. While I wondered how safe they were with those weapons, I didn’t have time to ask. Daddy mi
ght be on the move, and I needed to catch up to him.

  “We’re going this way,” I whispered. “We walk in a diamond formation. I’m in the front and watch the front. One of you is in the back and watches the back. One on the left and right, get it? Only watch your section, so you don’t miss anything.”

  The others glanced at each other and then nodded.

  “If you see something, don’t freak out and start shooting. Don’t say anything either. If we’re paying attention, a zombie shouldn’t sneak up on us. If you see something, make a clicking sound with your tongue and stop walking. I’ll decide if the zombie is close enough to worry about. If it is, we’ll see if we can kill it without using the guns. After all the noise Daddy’s made, we can’t keep zombies from coming toward the camp, but we can avoid wasting bullets. They don’t grow on trees, you know.”

  Zippy smiled, but Morgan looked scared while Ryan stepped back to watch the rear.

  In charge of them, I needed to show confidence and pretend like I had things handled. Though I was never in the lead before, I had been separated from the group a few times. I’d stayed alive then, and I could do it again.

  Walking steadily, I changed directions a few times when the woods grew too dense to move through. Every time I switched directions, I waited for someone to complain. Instead, they were relying on me to save them. The added pressure was daunting, but then Daddy blew something up, and I regained my clarity.

  Keeping a distance from the fence circling the camp, I slowly headed to where Daddy periodically sent signals for me to follow. He was also testing the camp’s responses. Attacking the camp itself to rescue me would be suicide, though. Normally, I wouldn’t worry about Daddy resorting to such a desperate choice, but I remembered his reaction when he thought I was dead.

  I knew I was getting close to where Daddy had been when I spotted zombies. A dozen spread out as they stumbled through the woods. They followed the noises and scents of the fires, hoping for food. Sooner or later, they would find the camp.

  In the woods with only the moon as lighting, they had trouble seeing anything. Daddy said most zombies couldn’t hunt well at night. However, the ones in better shape saw as well as a human, so I should never assume anything.