All The Broken People (The Dread Series Book 2) Read online

  Wade gave no such order, instead he hurried with the rest of the group in Taylor’s wake.

  Noises past the screaming were coming from the dark building, something akin to the sound of snapping bones and breaking glass. The lights inside the structure flickered once, then went out all together.

  Taylor caught Melissa before she could hit the ground. “Melissa, what’s going on? Are you hurt?”

  Taylor’s eyes scanned the woman but none of the blood on her appeared to be her own. Melissa was babbling things with a gaze fixed a million miles away. Taylor was able to make out a single word.

  “Run.”

  ***

  Taylor was still processing Melissa’s warning when Jason yelled, “The building!”

  Rifles and handguns snapped up along with everyone’s eyes. Two silhouettes were standing at the door, what looked like a woman and a man. Taylor’s breath caught in her lungs as she locked eyes with Valery Spear. The doctor was still recognizable but changed enough to warrant a double take. Her dark hair fell behind a stature that was now a foot taller than she had previously stood. Blackness consumed her pupils and what used to be the whites of her eyes. A wide jaw opened to a set of long, pointed teeth. A black ink-like substance oozed from her eyes and mouth.

  The man beside her, if it was a man at all, stood back just out of the light. Taylor lifted Melissa and carried her to where Wade and the rest of the group waited. “Still want me to surrender?” she asked a white faced Wade Treadstone. “We’ll need the captain for whatever it is that comes next.”

  “Yes, yes of course,” Wade said, producing a key from his pocket and freeing the captain from his cuffs. “Wh-what is she?”

  Taylor looked back at whatever it was that used to be Valery. “I don’t know. If I had to bet I’d say whatever she is, it’s not going to be good for us.”

  As if to give weight to Taylor’s words, the two figures moved forward, followed by a mass of humans huddled inside the research building.

  They were all infected, all changed by the darkness. That was clear. How was a question that would have to wait, if they survived through the night. Taylor studied the silent group. There were five lab-coated technicians that had served under Valery. All of them stood shoulders hunched, eyes dead, suffering from myriad of wounds, clearly infected with the darkness that had claimed so many before.

  The only ones that were different were Valery and the creature that stood next to her. He was hunched forward nearly on all fours, unnatural muscles covering his upper body and legs. His skin was shiny like scales reflecting off the light from the stars and moon as well as the compound floodlights mounted strategically in the Ark.

  “The truth is unfalteringly simple, my dear friends.” The words came so clear from Dr. Spear they contrasted with her outward appearance to the most extreme degree. She sounded just as she had before, if not more eloquent. “You will all serve the Dread in one way or the other. We have grown in number to such a degree we do not require more soldiers. Our evolution is producing leaders, now we only need slaves. Surrender your arms and submit yourself to our rule.”

  The only response to Valery’s words were Taylor’s boots on the dirt ground. She stopped halfway between both parties. Taylor fought back the fear she felt. The last thing she wanted to do was confront the group of monsters that stood before her, not because she was a coward, but because she knew there was no way this confrontation would end without the loss of life. “Valery, what happened to you?”

  “I’ve been enlightened by the Dread,” Valery said with a wicked smile. “It’s more than knowledge, it’s truth. And it has chosen me as a lieutenant, ushering in the new world that is to come. In the future there is a place for you all, if you would only bend your knee.”

  One thing hadn’t changed; despite all of Valery’s enhancements, she still liked to talk. Taylor decided to play along with this twisted version of the doctor she once knew. Perhaps she could finally get some answers.

  “You called the darkness the Dread,” Taylor said. She had known for a while now that this was the name that was correct for the spreading darkness but how she knew was still lost to her. “Why is it so bent on destruction?”

  “You call it destruction,” Valery said with a raised eyebrow. “I call it natural order. The Dread is the intangible evil that lives inside the hearts of all men from their birth until the day they die. It’s the oldest force there is. You see, it’s very simple; people are born into a dark world meant to do dark deeds. It’s only those who fight against their nature, those who perversely cling to the light, that are any different. The Dread is simply reverting humanity back to the state it is most comfortable inhabiting.”

  “Vanidrum was the catalyst,” Taylor said, squeezing Valery for all the information she could. “Now a change is coming over the infected. They’re getting smarter, they’re…you’re changing.”

  “Adapt to survive,” Valery said, stretching her arms and twisting her neck from side to side. “We will continue to change and evolve until every human being is either one of us or submits to our rule. You must understand this fight is already lost. The few who remain will be enslaved or killed, yourself included.”

  “So there are some who still resist. You sound so sure of yourself when you speak,” Taylor said. “But I resisted the Dread. The serum that was made was enough to help me withstand becoming one of you. I wonder if a similar cure couldn’t be found to alter the already infected.”

  “Do you think I don’t know what you are doing?” Valery said, all hints of humanity leaving her voice as her tone rose in pitch and volume. “Do not think me so stupid. I’m only entertaining your questions because in a few minutes you’ll be too dead to use any of the information you’ve gained. It’s true the serum aided you when you were making the transformation. Nonetheless, it only succeeded because you were willing to fight. More light than darkness resided in you. But you are one and we are many. The serum is gone now, there is no way to turn back those already gifted with the darkness, and I am bored with this conversation.”

  With one hand Valery motioned the group of turned technicians behind her. “Open the gates, your brothers and sisters are waiting to get inside.” With her other hand she motioned for the creature who had remained still by her side. “Kill anyone who tries to stop them.”

  There was only one thought that crossed Taylor’s mind as chaos broke loose inside the grounds: Stop them. You have to stop them.

  The group of standard Dread foot soldiers ran for the front gates as commanded. The creature that had stood motionless until now was bounding toward Taylor at incredible speed. It was faster than anything she had encountered thus far. The monster tackled her, sending them both skidding across the ground. The air was pressed from Taylor’s lungs as the beast landed on top of her. All around screams erupted and gunfire tore through the night.

  The beast was already lunging for Taylor’s throat with an unnaturally wide mouth. With a thought Taylor used her power to stop the advance of the creature’s jaws. Inches from her face it snapped and struggled to free itself from her invisible hold. The stench coming from the animal was rancid, a mix of sour milk and vomit.

  Again and again it pushed forward, willing itself to taste her flesh. It was stronger than Taylor would have guessed. With a grunt she pushed the animal off her and sent it reeling back into the night.

  She struggled to her feet looking for the beast. A shout redirected her attention to a section of the battlefield where Jason stood struggling to breathe. Valery had batted away his weapon, lifting him from the ground with one hand around his throat. She was holding him still, looking into his eyes with those black orbs of her own.

  Frank, to his credit, was making use of his rifle, loosing round after round into Valery with no visible effect. Taylor knew Frank had to be terrified. Used to sitting behind computers and running simulation software, he was among the last she expected to see in the middle of a fight.

  Her telekineti
c ability allowed Taylor to pull Jason away from Valery with one hand, while lifting a fallen rifle through the air and catching it with the other. Jason’s limp figure fell to the ground. Valery focused her attention on Taylor and advanced towards her.

  Without a second’s hesitation Taylor lifted the stock of the assault rifle to her shoulder and squeezed the trigger. It was a perfect shot. A bullet hit Valery in the forehead.

  Taylor lowered the rifle expecting to see the tyrant fall. Instead, Valery paused to shake her head, a smile already spreading across her lips. “Did you think you were the only one with unique abilities?”

  She smelled him before she saw him. Valery had distracted her long enough for the scaled monster to gather himself and attack her again. This time it tried a different strategy. Clamping Taylor around her wrists with its claw like hands, it held on to her with bone crushing force.

  The two combatants struggled against one another, the creature once again trying to bring its teeth to bear on Taylor’s flesh. Taylor struggled to free herself and keep the creature’s jaws at bay.

  All around her the world was a blur of motion. She chanced a quick glance to see Captain Martin forming a line around the Ark gates, mowing down any members of the Dread that approached. But Valery had set her course toward those at the gate and Taylor doubted they would be able to stop her.

  Cidney! Where was Cidney? Taylor searched the battlefield still caught in the hold of the creature, the two taking ground as Taylor’s power fought against the creature’s strength. Her wrists felt like they were going to snap from the pressure. Still, none of that mattered now. Where was Cidney?

  The beast opened its mouth wide for another assault. Taylor could see every glistening tooth, its snakelike tongue and…a blade?

  Sprouting from the back of the monster’s throat like a flower a knife blade pushed forward. At once the creature lost its grip on her wrists and fell back writhing on the ground.

  Cidney stood with wide eyes, her mouth open, losing her grip on the knife. She looked first at Taylor, then at the beast on the ground, and back again.

  With one leg the beast struck out at Cidney. Taylor was barely in time to grab the girl and lift her into the sky.

  Anger burned in her chest at the thought of Cidney being injured in any way. Placing the girl gently down a safe distance away she winked a thanks.

  Taylor stalked forward to finish off the monster. The creature reached behind its head trying to dislodge the knife. With a sound like wood rending, Taylor’s fears were realized when she looked toward the front gate. Invulnerable to the weapons the captain and his men possessed Valery had carved a path of blood and death through the group and unbolted the gate. Hundreds of infected poured through the opening like water gushing from a cracked dam.

  Chapter 4

  Taylor needed to move quickly. She had wasted too much time dealing with this monster already. The beast finally found the knife hilt behind its head and pulled the weapon free. It appeared, however, it did not share the same power of invulnerability as Valery.

  The Dread infected creature staggered on unsteady feet and made for Taylor yet again. Not only was it already wounded but Taylor knew what to expect from her assailant now. She wasn’t caught by surprise. It made a clumsy lunge for her that she easily sidestepped. She lifted it into the air and focused all her power on the base of the creature’s cranium. With a violent rend she snapped the monster’s head back, separating its skull from its spine. She let the lifeless heap fall to the ground in a twitching pile of scales and teeth.

  “Cidney, are you okay?” Taylor asked motioning for the girl to join her. “Did it hurt you?”

  “No, no I’m fine,” Cidney said, coming to stand next to Taylor. “It didn’t get me.”

  Taylor wished she could spend more time with Cidney. Shoving a knife through the back of someone’s skull was bound to warrant some kind of conversation. Taylor had neither the knowledge of how to start such a topic, nor the time.

  Captain Martin appeared next to Cidney with an unconscious Jason over his right shoulder, a handgun in his left hand. “We gotta get out of here. The Ark is lost. We stick to the route we chose for you but now we get as many people as we can out of here.”

  Taylor turned in a half circle, even before her eyes relayed to her brain what was taking place, she knew the captain was right. The Dread infected were everywhere. They had not only breached the wall, but they were inside the buildings. Taylor caught the familiar odor of smoke on the wind. Buildings were already being lit on fire. Fewer and fewer gunshots were heard over the clicking jaws of the Dread.

  “Taylor, let’s go,” the captain said, readjusting Jason over his shoulder and heading for the left side of the wall. “We might still be able to make it if we move quickly.”

  Taylor ran beside the captain and Cidney. Through the cold darkness they passed between buildings, pausing and then running again over open terrain. The one advantage the group had over the Dread was they knew the quickest path to the wall.

  Every step of the way Taylor was hounded with regret. The calls of the dead and dying were echoing into the lonely night. People needed her help. Gifted with her abilities, she knew she had some kind of responsibility to aid them in their hour of need.

  Then they were at the wall. Four stories high, it was molded out of cement and steel. Taylor gathered herself to lift her group up and over the defensive structure.

  “I’m getting you three over the wall then I have to go back and see if there’s anyone left to help.”

  Despite the lack of light Taylor could feel the captain’s disapproving eyes.

  “Look, they’re coming,” Cidney said pointing across the compound to a building forty yards away. Two figures ran across the compound chased by a much larger pack of Dread crazed humans.

  Taylor searched the ground quickly, mentally lifting pebbles and rocks strewn across the earth. When she had collected enough she raised the group of projectiles into the air and shot them forward into the second group chasing the pair of victims. The force with which the rocks struck the infected was comparable to that of a bullet. Rocks tore through bone and cartilage alike. The mass giving chase was reduced to a pile of quivering, limping bodies in the space of seconds.

  “I—I need to work on my cardio,” Frank said as he reached the group gasping for breath.

  Despite the situation Taylor experienced a moment of happiness and she even smiled. Frank was one of the two people she had saved. The other was Melissa. Covered in blood she looked stunned, clearly still in shock, and Taylor wondered how she had managed to escape at all.

  “Hurry, there’s no time to lose,” Taylor said, snapping out of her own trancelike state. “I’m getting you all over the wall and going back to the—”

  “There’s no point,” Frank panted. “We’re it. I didn’t see anyone fighting when we ran.”

  Taylor tried to comprehend how many had died in such a short time. The night air was silent now, no gunshots or screams, giving weight to Frank’s words.

  “Taylor,” the captain said, “there are people who need your help here, now.”

  “I don’t think we have a lot of time left to decide,” Cidney said, pointing toward the compound. “Look.”

  Fires crackled skyward adding their illumination to the spotlights that already shone across the grounds. A huge mass of infected was gathering and heading toward Taylor and the remaining survivors.

  Without another thought Taylor lifted them all into the sky and over the wall.

  ***

  Liberty Echo walked through the Ark’s gates, as he knew he would so long ago. Since he had heard of the first attack on the compound and its warrior of light, he understood it was only a matter of time before he was called to deal with the nuisance. If the Dread had taught him anything, it had taught him empires were overthrown from the inside, not without.

  The foot soldiers of the Dread army, known as the mindless in their own ranks, cowered away from him. Ev
en a few of the lieutenants who were capable of speech and independent thought dropped back into the shadows at his approach.

  His reputation as a brutal commander proceeded him. He was the right hand of the Dread and everyone knew it. Outposts fell with his arrival and humans bent their knees to his will.

  He strode to the center of the compound where a group of human prisoners sat on the ground manacled to one another. It was a smaller cluster than Liberty would have liked. The Dread had enough soldiers; they needed slaves to build their new empire.

  The woman recently turned, Valery Spear, was waiting for him near the gathering of prisoners. He walked by them without a glance. One by one he felt their eyes on him before they hurriedly turned away, most whimpering, all shuddering with fear.

  “It is a great honor to meet the one the Dread holds in such high regard,” Valery said with a sweeping bow. “The Ark is yours, along with humans to swell the slave ranks.”

  Liberty Echo appraised the woman with a raised eyebrow. He made sure she saw him look her up and down. When his silence passed the point of uncomfortable, he finally spoke. “You did well in opening the gates to our forces.”

  Valery beamed with pride at the praise.

  “But,” Liberty continued, taking in the charred buildings around him and the few humans at his feet, “you ruined the compound which would have proven a valuable asset in the process and limited the number of slaves we could have used for our cause.”

  Valery’s eyes flashed anger. Liberty smiled to himself. It was important for his lieutenants to remember their place, lest they become vain in their accomplishments.

  “I did the best I could with the limited resources I had at my disposal while inside the Ark.”

  Liberty waved away her excuses. “Please, do not bore me with an explanation. You will do better next time or next time will be your last. Word has already reached me of this Taylor Hart and her escape. How many escaped with her?”