One (Alone Book 3) Read online

  “Stacie calm down what’s wrong?” Kaley said from beside me but I couldn’t talk, my mouth felt full of blood but there was nothing there, I was choking on fear and death but not my own, “STACIE TELL ME”, she commanded but still I couldn’t, so I looked into her eyes in the hope she would look and see.

  Then a new pain hit me but it was only Kaley’s power ripping through my mind to find what was wrong, what was happening.

  “What’s happening to her?” Ollie asked holding Cain back.

  “Her Crushers are being killed by the others, they have been ambushed somehow, the others they are strong, too strong for them…” Kaley’s eyes looked worried into his.

  “We have to go now!” he commanded pushing everyone into the maintenance tunnel.

  “Her Crushers?” Kian asked.

  “Not now. I’ll explain later”, Ollie hissed.

  “What about her?” Kian asked watching me as I lay writhing on the floor.

  “G…O…Go!” I screamed as more pain ruptured through me.

  “She will find us”, Kaley said and moved taking the others with her and closing the door behind them leaving me alone in the tunnel of death but I knew it was for them to survive. I knew that she knew this wouldn’t be the end for me but if they stayed it would for them. I heard and felt her use her power by pushing something against the door so to slow down the new threat if they decided to come after them. I just prayed nothing was bad on the other side hiding that I couldn’t sense.

  As I lay there concentrating on my breathing the pain slowly beginning to subside, I thought about them, my Crushers and how I knew the death of the final Crusher was now bleeding out of my mind. What the hell was so strong that it could kill all of my small army? I guess I was about to go and find out.

  Standing up I braced myself on the wall, my hand came away covered in stale and coagulated blood. Many a people had died down here and I was going to put a stop to it.

  My feet crunched under foot on old bones and skeletons of the fallen, they had come here into this damned tunnel maybe for the same reasons we had, to get to the other side but they never made it. Their souls gone from this evil world, their body’s mere carcasses of rotting flesh and eaten insides. I must have walked for another fifteen minutes before I could taste the blood of my army on the floor around me, using the torch I scanned the floor and found body after body of my Crusher’s, their body’s broken and twisted, their thick blood like rivers on the floor.

  I knelt down in the warm blood of one of the nearest, I stroked their head trying to say how sorry I was that this had happened to them, that I had led them to the slaughter but they could no longer hear me, they were all gone.

  A flash of movement caught my attention from the left and I flicked the torch up to see a blur of movement run into the thicker shadows that the light couldn’t break through. Hissing loudly at whatever it was I ran towards it, I knew it could be a trap but I was angry for my people, my army, my Crusher’s.

  Reaching where the movement had been I saw nothing just an old human carcass on the ground, all around me were hundreds of humans bodies at all different states of decay, but as I looked closer the light bouncing off a shiny white rib of what was once a tall male human I hissed again as movement inside made me curse. The damn bastard Crusher’s where all hiding inside the humans empty carcasses not caring about their forgotten souls. Feeling the rage bite through me I ran forward releasing my claws and stabbing it into the broken body of the nearest dead human, a scream so fierce and raw hit my ear drums as the Alpha Crusher of this clan now felt the pain that I had felt when they devoured mine. Running as fast as I could I jumped from body to body slicing and dicing, blood spraying up all around me as I tried to take as many out before they left their cosy little bone homes. I took out about six before the others crawled out from their pits, screaming and howling for my blood.

  These Crusher’s did resemble mine but there was something darker and more twisted about them, their eyes held nothing that told me they were still in there, I could see by their twitchy movements that they were being controlled by someone strong. Ignoring all their wails I searched through the crowd for the Alpha, I spotted him right at the back wall and he…looked human!

  “Stop it”, I shouted to him but he just laughed a scream and commanded them to destroy me.

  I couldn’t get a good look at him before they all swarmed around me, their mouths salivating at the thought of tearing me apart, their rotting and stinking body’s shuffling to get to me. I spun on my heel and charged running up the wall slightly before twisting my body and my claws, I brought them down hard slicing into the ones nearest me, their scaled and armoured skin crumbling under the sharpness of my inhumane blades. More howls rippled in the air around me but I didn’t care, I had the bloodlust that I needed to fight with and I had the Alpha in my sights. I took down another two by stabbing each one in the head with one arm each of my claws, they fell to the floor then more appeared. One jumped me knocking me to the floor but I twisted and kicked it off sending it flailing into some of its mates. One ran across the ceiling its claws digging into the cement and spraying down dust all around me, just as it jumped down to me to slice me with its own claws I back flipped taking it down by slicing it headfirst.

  More and more came, more than I had ever had connected to me, all fighting and slicing at me but I didn’t tire, I danced the night away slicing into them, churning them out like dog meat, sending them to the slaughter.

  “Stop!” Came a male voice but I didn’t stop, I carried on slicing even when his Crusher’s stopped attacking me. He didn’t stop when I was screaming out in grief and pain so why should I?

  A blur of movement and a sudden hit to my head and I was flying, I smashed into a wall and felt my vision dance with stars. When I looked up and began to stand I saw him glaring at me from above.

  “I told you to stop”, he stated.

  “You didn’t stop did you? When you killed all my Crusher’s”.

  We stood there for a moment taking each other in, he had dark grease and slime covered hair or at least that’s what I thought but he was so dirty it could have been my fair hair colour and I wouldn’t have known. He wore a torn leather bikers jacket and soiled jeans, he no longer wore shoes just let his clawed feet scrape along the floor as he moved. His hands too held claws smaller than mine but still sharp and deadly, his skull at the back had bits that had crushed in overtime but he still looked human from the front, his angry bloodshot eyes glaring at me, saliva dripping from once plump lips that were now torn and infected, his face scarred by claw marks.

  “What are you?” he asked.

  “Isn’t it obvious?” I asked back.

  “You fight like us but you are not one of us, not fully, not like me”.

  I had to admit I had fared much better than him but I was still like him, a monster, “I had a cure but it only worked on people infected by normal infected creatures, on me it just slowed the process and mutated the virus in my blood. I’m still like you, just prettier”.

  He laughed but it wasn’t a funny one, “A cure, there was no cure”.

  “It wasn’t a perfected one as you can see”.

  “You are lying there was no cure”, he sounded angry.

  “Is that what you wanted, a cure?”

  “We all wanted a cure”, he hissed, “They needed one, they needed me”, he looked upset as he looked at all his dead Crushers.

  “Mine needed me too but you killed them anyway”, I stated.

  “You trespassed”.

  “We were merely trying to get to France”, I said, “It’s the only way now a days”.

  “You came into my home uninvited, you needed to leave”.

  “And I will”, I was going to say once I’ve dealt with you but I knew he would just run into the shadows again.

  “I cannot let you leave now, not after all this blood spilled”.

  “You started the fight, you still have some of your people lef
t, I don’t”. I said looking over at the few remnant remains of the standing few Crushers, their faces vacant and lost but still hungry and awaiting orders.

  He smiled at me, “Oh but you do, in the other tunnel”.

  “You leave them alone”.

  “Why?”

  “Because there is a girl who can change all this”, I motioned to the blood bathed floor, “But I have to get her to Svalbard to do it”.

  “Lies”.

  “Whatever, I haven’t got time for this”, I said and lifted a clawed hand to his face, “Let me and them go or I will kill you and the rest of your clan”.

  “You think you can defeat me?” he laughed but it was full of saliva which sprayed all over the front of his chin. His eyes glared with the infected rage, he might be like me in the fact that he was half infected half human but he had let the infection get to his mind, I on the other hand had not…yet…Well I hadn’t let it fully get to mine but… I kept it at bay…Right…Or did I look as crazy as he did? Was I mad? These thoughts made me pause for a moment which was not a good choice to have made, in those few precious moments he had charged forward slamming his hands into my chest, one of his claws caught my side and a searing sharp pain rocked through me.

  Letting the beast inside come out from behind its walls I let it unleash its fury on the half breed before me, I felt the numbness of losing my people let rip like a cool fire. The fire burnt strong as I leapt forward and hit him right back in the chest, sending him flying backwards but he was more prepared than me and landed steadily but I was already upon him slashing down my claws like furious blades in battle, he brought his up and they clanged together like swords. I rushed him pushing my claws up and along his so I could reach his face where I snarled and snapped my jaws at him.

  “You can’t save them, they are destined to be like us”, he snarled which sent the cool wave deeper inside me so I was burning everywhere. Twisting my hands and my body I ripped my claws down and with such force I bent his down, rrrriiipp, the noise was sickening as I tore one of his claws from the bed inside his arm, his scream echoed around the tunnel followed by his roar of rage.

  “Argh you will pay for that”, he screamed and slashed his arms around wildly hitting me in the face, I could feel a trickle of blood drip down from my right cheek.

  “Pay for what? I’ve only just started”.

  “You and your kind make me so ANGRY!” he snarled lifting his arms up and balling his fists ready to punch with his remaining claws glistening in the dim light with his blood.

  “My kind?” I mused with a smirk, “My kind? Well hello there sweetheart but if you haven’t noticed I’m just like you”.

  I could see the tension snap below the tendons in his arms and I moved before he did and vanished into the darkness, he followed me before pausing as he could no longer see me but I could see him. A fallen torch causing him to appear to me in a silhouette.

  “Come out, come out where ever you are”.

  “Why don’t you come find me”, I said playfully, just as he turned to the sound of my sing song voice I ran silently over the decomposing bodies to a new position and waited but he didn’t move he just waited.

  A scream echoed out through the tunnels, I knew it was Kaley’s instantly, I froze on the spot and let my feelers out to track them but before I could find them he jumped into my hidden darkness and punched me down to the ground.

  He laughed dangerously as I turned to him, “Seems your little friends are in trouble”, then he put his hand around my throat pinning me to the ground, my body growing damp from the blood soaked floor below me. He was strong and tightened his grip, lights and stars sparked in my vision and I knew if I didn’t get him off I was going to pass out. The pressure caused my body to tense up and my claws retracted. Knowing that losing consciousness here was not an option I threw a punch at him, it hit him square on but it didn’t move him, instead he grew angrier and pinned my arms to my chest with his other hand. As the stars grew brighter I came up with a plan, a goddamn stupid plan but the only one that might work to get him off me. Trying to turn my hands to the right angle I braced myself for the pain, then I summoned my claws to resurface.

  “Argh”, he cried out jumping off me cradling the puncture marks in his hands and arms.

  I lay there for a moment trying to calm my pounding heart and lungs, the angle had caused one of my claws to penetrate my own body, mere inches from my heart and very nearly puncturing my lung but the angle had been just right so as to just graze my insides which would heal soon enough, just leave me a little winded.

  “You crazy fucking bitch”, he howled, “That was below the belt”.

  “Can’t have you taking all the glory now can I on being the crazy half-breed”.

  He stared at me, “I will enjoy killing you”.

  “No, I will enjoy killing you”, I snapped back and charged taking him by surprise as he was still nursing his wounds, I slashed down my claws over his chest and watched as blood pooled out from the long line. It wasn’t as deep as I had intended but it sent him sprawling back so I hit him again, again and again until he fell to his knees. Blood was covering almost his whole body and the floor and this time most of it was his and not the poor people he had killed and tortured.

  “Please have mercy on me”, he said blood trickling from his dry and crusting lips.

  “What like you would have with me and my people, like you did with my Crushers?”

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to take it so far, the creature inside me…it…it…makes me do things”.

  I paused for a moment then spat, “I have a creature inside me and I control it, it doesn’t control me”.

  “Then it hasn’t taken you yet, but it will”, he dribbled.

  “I won’t let it”.

  “You won’t have a choice”, he breathed all the life and will flowing out of him.

  “Just watch me”, I snapped.

  “This won’t be the last you see of me…” he hissed.

  “Oh I think it will be”, I hissed back and brought my claws down penetrating his heart and feeling the life slip away from him.

  It was silent for a moment before all his Crusher’s howled and wailed in grief. Their wild pain echoing all around me. I couldn’t let them live, not with no Alpha controlling them as they could harm other innocent survivors that wondered through so I took them all down in a grief stricken blood bath before leaving them to rot in the dank, dark, damp tunnels of death.

  Chapter Seven…

  Dr Aksel Enok sat in the meeting room set deep in the underground facility of ‘The Town’. He was incredibly board and couldn’t wait for the meeting to be finished with. He had gone through two whole hours of listening to the other scientists all go through their own agenda’s, their reports on how well their section of the C.U.R.E project was going but it was still to be Dr Aksel’s turn and to top it off he also had to endure sitting next to Dr Townsend who had never heard of soap and water and the smell was becoming too much for Dr Aksel to bear.

  “Doctor Aksel, is your report ready?” his uncle’s voice asked with some hesitant annoyance. His uncle Dr Russel Enok was the head of the organisation and what was left of the E.L, although he had almost no scientific input now a days he still liked to be in the know and wanted monthly reports from each department.

  Not wanting to let on that he hadn’t been listening to the others reports he stood and opened his mouth, “My report is well and duly ready Doctor Enok”, he couldn’t help but smirk at calling him that, as they were both indeed Doctor Enok which made everyone know they were related which annoyed his uncle to no end. They had never got on, especially since after the Acid Rain attack all those years ago, his uncle had wanted to be rid of Aksel then, telling him his time there at the facility had been… Terminated… but Aksel was having none of it and told his dear uncle that he needed him to keep creating the monstrous chemical bio hazards, to which his uncle had retorted that anyone of the scientists employed co
uld do his job. There had only been one solution…So he had killed all the scientists who had originally worked on the Acid Rain project, at dinner one evening he slipped in a deadly concoction of something into their drinks and laughed as he watched them all collapse and die in a froth of their own bloody saliva, choking on their own bodily fluids, drowning from the inside out.

  This although annoyed his uncle showed him how lethal and to what lengths he would go to keep his job and stay alive. His uncle granted him the right to stay and then had to head hunt down scientists from the countries that still had some alive and bring them back here, on the grounds that they were working on a ‘Cure’ but the cure was something else altogether, it was a newer and more deadly version of the original virus but none of the new scientists knew this, only Aksel and a select few that were heads of their own departments and that could be trusted knew.

  “So I see you managed to keep going even with the setback you had last month?” his uncle asked trying to make him feel small in front of his colleagues.

  “Setback?” he commented with a sly smile, “Oh please, that was just a bit of entertainment to keep us on our toes”.

  “So you managed to get somewhere?”

  Dr Aksel nodded, “Oh yes dear uncle”, he had to stop himself from laughing madly as his uncle pulled the face, the face of undesired family attention, the face of being embarrassed in front of all those he was meant to be in charge of, but what dear uncle didn’t know was how Aksel planned to be in charge of this facility real soon and he was falling into the trap like flies to shit and there was nothing he could do about it.

  “Dr Aksel please, this is a formal meeting”, his uncle retorted.

  “Sorry, uncle”, he grinned looking around at everyone else but none of them smiled back, boring idiots, he sniffed to himself before starting his report. “Since the slight incident last month with Dr Roberto Ingram and the disappearance of his daughter Candice with the rogue security personnel I was sure I had lost my best scientist and maybe nearly the best chance of finishing the C.U.R.E…but”, he hissed holding up a vial of liquid containing a bile green colour, “This is it”.