This Dying World (Book 2): Abandon All Hope Page 37

  He started to seize as bloody foam erupted from his lips. His deeply bloodshot eyes rolled up and into the back of his head. Thrashing on the floor, he delivered a powerful kick to the sobbing woman, her foot snapping to the side with a loud crack as her ankle broke. Her muffled screams mixed with the flailing man on the floor until the entire room became a cacophony of misery.

  Professor clapped his hands, his face exhibiting a childlike glee as he took in the horrifying scene. He grinned, eyes glistening as he stared, transfixed on the orgy of agony playing out before him.

  The wails of the woman mixed with the tortured gasps of the latest victim of the Professor’s twisted imagination sent waves of nausea through me. I looked across the hall and beyond the madman to find Tanya crying in Jeff’s arms, her rail thin body racked with sobs as he held her tight against his chest.

  The man suddenly grew still, his body gurgling with every breath he drew. He flopped on his back, his empty blue eyes staring up at the ceiling. The woman continued to wail in pain, her puke soaked gag keeping the full force of her screams at bay.

  “Donald,” Professor called out softly. “Are you still with us?”

  The man nodded, his unblinking stare never leaving the ceiling.

  “Why don’t you come out and say hi,” Professor said as if speaking to a toddler. “There are people who are worried about you.”

  The big man stood without hesitation, chunks of regurgitated food falling from his nearly nude body and hitting the floor with a nauseating splat. He ignored the injured woman, turning his back on her as he walked out to stand beside the Professor.

  “Don’t be shy,” he said. “Say hi.”

  The man turned to me and raised his hand in a halfhearted wave. He turned to Jeff and Tanya’s cage, performing the same lazy wave before letting his arm fall to his side like a piece of dangling meat.

  “Hi,” he exhaled, sounding like he was half asleep.

  “Very good, Donald,” Professor said, making his way to his feet. “Now, be a good lad and carry my chair over to that corner,” he ordered, pointing down the hall.

  Following the Professor’s order, the athletic man hefted the chair and started in the direction he was instructed to go. Moving slowly, he swayed from side to side with the same uncoordinated gait as the walking corpses. Moments after he was beyond my view, I heard the chair hit the floor with a loud crash.

  “Be more careful!” the madman called out over the gagged wails of the injured woman. “The new ones take a little work,” Professor turned to me with a Cheshire smile. “He will do well as a laborer though. Only a few survive with most of their minds intact, I’m afraid. Even then, any trace of empathy they once had gets washed away. It has worked out brilliantly for me!”

  The slap of uncovered feet on concrete echoed down the hall until the man slowly reappeared, his steps so out of synch that had I not known better I would have mistaken him for a zombie. Hell, through a scope I probably would have shot him not knowing he was still technically amongst the living.

  “Now, on to a bit of unpleasantness,” he announced. “Is the lovely woman sitting in that cell your girlfriend?”

  Donald shook his head.

  “Your…niece?” Professor teased.

  Again, Donald shook his head no.

  “Is she your wife, Donald?”

  This time Donald nodded, his face remaining vacant of emotion.

  “Do you love your wife?”

  After a moment of hesitation, he nodded again.

  “Are you sure?”

  He just stood there, swaying back and forth with no sign of anything happening between his ears. Gone was any concern he might have held for his wife. He completely disregarded her gut wrenching cries.

  “Unfortunately, she is broken. She cannot be of any use to me.”

  I wanted to shout out in her defense, to beg for him to allow her to heal as he had done for me. But with a stern glance, the Professor shut me down before I could utter a sound. He had made it clear to me, if I spoke my new friends died.

  “Lawrence! Robert!” Professor called out. “Come in here please. And do remember the rope this time.”

  The unseen door beyond my view flew open, crashing against the wall as the two men rushed in. They ignored me as they ran by, coming to a stop in front of Professor. A long coil of rope dangled from Bobby’s arm, a noose tied to one end.

  “Excellent,” Professor cheered. “Now, Donald. Pick up your wife, and stand her by these bars,” he said, pointing at the bars close to the hall. “Hold her tight, and don’t let her fall.”

  There was no hesitation in Donald as he walked through the pool of rapidly drying vomit. The woman’s gagged shrieks bounced around the room as she was hefted from her seat. Her painful howls reached an ear piercing crescendo as he set her down on her feet, the right one turned further on its side as a fragment of bone pierced her ebony skin. Ignoring her suffering, he pushed her face against the bars, holding her tight against the steel until it appeared as if he would push her head through the openings.

  “Gentlemen, as we discussed if you please,” Professor said, his face almost glowing with excitement.

  “You got it Professor,” Bobby exclaimed.

  “Stop ass kissing and get on with it,” Larry huffed as he drew a knife from his belt. He stepped inside the cell, boots crunching the hardening stomach contents as he moved into position. With a quick snap of his wrist, he cut through the woman’s zip ties.

  Bobby came in next, forcing the woman’s hands together and slipping the noose around her wrists. Looping the rope around them several times, he tied a solid knot to ensure her binds would not budge. He tossed the other end of the rope over the cross bars that sat almost ceiling high.

  With a rough tug, her arms shot up as she found herself suspended against the front of her cell while trying to keep her broken ankle from touching the floor.

  Bobby fed the rope from her cell over to mine, tossing the end over the same cross beams as was in the woman’s prison. Pulling the rope down, he tied it to the heavy steel bars on the cell door.

  “You can let her go now, Donald.”

  With a scream that the gag could not silence, the woman’s injured foot hit the floor as the man let her go. She pulled her leg back, her body swinging hard against the bars. She set her good foot on the floor, balancing on one toe and fighting to keep her damaged leg from touching the floor.

  “Very good,” Professor said, patting Bobby on the shoulder. “You two may go.”

  With one last look at the terrified woman and a condescending glare shot at me, both men retreated down the hall.

  “Donald, what is your wife’s name?”

  “Bri...anna,” he slurred.

  “Lovely name,” Professor said. “Remove her blindfold and gag, please. Then come out here.”

  Her head snapped backward as Donald ripped the gag from her face. Her head rebounded, slamming her forehead into the bars. The blindfold flew from her head as her husband tore it away with a fistful of her perfectly maintained hair.

  She cried out, her piercing screams drilling into my head as her voice was finally released in full force. Without any hint of sympathy for his wife’s suffering, he shambled back out to the hall and stood next to the Professor.

  “Donny,” she sobbed. “Donny, why?

  “Oh, I am terribly sorry,” Professor said while casting her a serpents smile. “Donald is currently in my employ. He is no longer the man you knew. But please, do continue.”

  “Who are you?” she cried. “Why are you doing this?”

  “Oh,” he said. “My good friend Daniel can tell you all about the whys once I leave. You see, he is going to hold your fate in his hands.”

  My head whipped around, locking eyes with the crazed man. I almost spoke as the shock of his words hit me. I had no idea what he meant, but I was one hundred percent sure I was going to like it about as much as a barbed wire colonoscopy.

  “Donny, please!”
she continued to plead. “Get me down from here! What is wrong with you! It’s me, Bri!”

  “Donald, please go to the door and knock. There is someone I wish you to fetch for us. Lawrence will be there to assist you.”

  As ordered, the man slowly made his way down the hall. Three heavy bangs sounded as his meaty hands pounded on the door outside my view, followed by the creak of thick metal hinges. Voices carried to my ears, but I could not make out what they were saying.

  “Daniel, you may not speak, only listen. The knot to Brianna’s rope is tied in your cell. At any time, you may release her, but her life will be exchanged for another’s. Either your new friend Jeffery, or his malnourished bride Tanya. You will choose who dies, or else I will be sure they suffer atrocities you can’t begin to fathom until they succumb to death.”

  I felt as if my teeth were close to breaking as I ground them in anger. I glowered at the man, trying to think of some angle, some way I could get out of this mess. He had all the control in the world, and I was a trapped pawn forced into playing his twisted game.

  “Ah,” he exclaimed as the locks on the door clacked open. “Donald has returned. Yes, Donald. Bring her here.”

  The man appeared once more, his left hand firmly grasping the arm of a diminutive figure as he led her along. A black hood draped over her head hid her face from view. Her yellow Dora the Explorer nightgown flowed from her neck and down to her tiny bare feet.

  I did not need to see the girl’s face to know she was dead. Trails of wet smeared across the front of her gown, the bright red fluid still glistening in the harsh light. The ashen hues and mottled skin of the long dead had not yet set in, the skin on her arms still retaining its light caramel color.

  Realization hit me in the gut so hard it felt as if a prize fighter had just sucker punched me. One look at Brianna confirmed what I hoped would not be true. Wild terror had already spread across her face, her mouth hung open as new tears sprang from her already bloodshot eyes.

  “You are a family man,” the psychopath said. “The pain of losing a child must burn like no other. The guilt of not protecting her, even when there was no hope of keeping her safe, must weigh on one’s soul. What it must be like to know she had been alive the last time you laid eyes on her, only to discover your worst fears have come true. Can you imagine what that must be like, Mr. Foster?”

  “Belle?” the woman gasped in disbelief.

  “Katie is seven now, correct Daniel? Oh that’s right, you can’t speak, my apologies. It’s quite alright, the question was rhetorical. I believe Belle was seven also, wasn’t she Donald?”

  “Belle is seven,” he repeated like a brain dead parrot.

  “No—” Brianna whispered, her face a mix of shock and terror.

  “Donald, when I am gone, remove the mask from her head. Then go to the door, and you will be let out. Understand?”

  Donald nodded in understanding. His vacant eyes stared off into nothingness as his wife continued to plead with him.

  “Daniel,” Professor chided. “Time to choose.” He winked at me and walked away, the door slamming shut as he left us alone.

  Immediately after the lock clacked, Donald lifted the hood from the creature’s head revealing the child’s young face. Her probing eyes scanned the room, the dark irises just starting to turn the milky white of the damned. Her tight curls fell to her shoulders, bouncing as her feet fell heavily on the floor. A long jagged cut ran from under one ear and snaked along her neck until it ended underneath the other ear.

  “No!” Brianna screamed. “Donny! They killed our little girl! Donny! They killed her!”

  Donald let the sack fall to the floor before walking away. The distant door opened and closed, and Donny was gone leaving his injured and emotionally destroyed wife alone.

  Frothy foam erupted from the little girl’s lips as soon as her father disappeared. She snarled and reached between the bars toward me. Her teeth clacked together as if her malfunctioning mind allowed her to imagine the fresh meat mashing between her tiny teeth. Her eyes turned upward, scanning over the rotting finger still taped to the bars. She stretched her tiny hands upward, growling as she tried her best to reach the decaying appendage.

  “Oh baby, mama’s so sorry,” Brianna sobbed. “You killed my baby! You pieces of shit! You killed her! You took my princess!”

  The monster that hours before had been a living breathing little girl turned away from the rotted finger, her attention drawn to the woman’s screams. Fat droplets of foam fell to the floor, hitting the concrete with wet taps. Chemical odors hung heavy in the air as the volume of the creature’s drool increased. With shuffling feet the thing moved toward her sobbing mother.

  “Belle? Baby? It’s me, it’s your mama!” Briana said as her daughter closed in on her, eyeing her with insatiable hunger. “You don’t want to hurt mama, do you?”

  I stared at the knot secured to my bars, then to the couple I had spent so much time with the last few weeks. They stared back at me with terror written across their faces. They didn’t know what to do any more than I did.

  What could I do? Save one, kill one. Inaction meant death for a grieving mother at the hands of her undead daughter. Action meant killing either Tanya or Jeff.

  “Please,” she begged. “Daniel? That’s your name, right? Don’t let me die here. Not like this! Please, untie me!”

  “I don’t know what to do,” I gasped, grappling with the enormity of my decision.

  “Untie me. Please! I don’t want to die! Belle, you don’t want to kill mama! Please! No!” she screamed as the tiny zombie raked her claws across the woman’s uncovered legs.

  She swung backward out of her daughter’s reach, only to swing back and crash against the bars. Her injured leg scraped along the floor, the exposed bone scratching the concrete as the woman let out an agonizing wail.

  “You’re killing me!” she shouted. “Untie me dammit! You’re a murderer if you don’t untie me!”

  “What do I do?!” I sobbed, watching the woman dance on one good foot, playing a deadly game of keep away with the hungering dead girl. “What the fuck do I do?!” I screamed to no one.

  “Untie her,” Jeff said. “Choose me, I’ll take her place.”

  “Bullshit!” Tanya shouted. “I’ll take her place! Untie her!”

  “I won’t kill you!” I shouted at them both.

  “You’re killing me then!” Brianna screamed. “Untie the rope!”

  As if I was on auto-pilot, I slowly rose from my cot and limped to the bars, dragging my fingers across the knot. Jeff and Tanya’s faces were so clear to me then, as if they were standing in my cell and suffering through the same decision I was fighting with. They both smiled through tortured faces as I reached the rope, nodding their okay as my hand inched to the rope.

  Teeth snapped together like a tiny mousetrap at the woman’s bare body. The undead girl grunted as she reached further and further into the cell, her polished fingernails leaving tiny scratches across her mother’s legs.

  “No, baby. No!” the woman pleaded with the undead girl. “Let me down…please!”

  I gripped one of the knot’s loose ends, glancing over to the two companions that had kept me sane throughout the weeks of captivity. The two that were willing to die so that this woman could live. One pull, and the knot would come undone…and I would save the woman and kill one of my friends.

  “Hurry!” the woman shrieked.

  I stared into Tanya’s eyes, her tears flowing in spite of her warm and friendly smile. Jeff held her tight, nodding at me as if to say It’s okay. Do it.

  “I…I…can’t,” I stammered, still gripping the rope tightly as my mind started to fracture. “I…can’t kill—”

  I froze as my strength slipped away. The cracks in my sanity grew wider as the crushing weight of life and death piled on my shoulders. Lives hung in the balance, one way or another I was condemning one of them.

  “Do it,” Tanya said.

  “I…I…”
I cried.

  “Untie me! Oh God why are you doing this? Please baby, don’t hurt mama!”

  “Please…don’t…I can’t!”

  My hand fell from the knot when the first painful shriek tore through the cells. The coppery smell of blood combined with the stench of sweat and fear as the little girl chewed a strip of raw flesh. The creature slurped as it lapped the blood from her own lips before diving for another piece of warm flesh.

  Brianna kicked at her daughter, landing a glancing blow across the miniature zombie’s head. The tiny monster latched on to the grown woman’s foot, her teeth removing the big toe with a loud crunch.

  Brianna wailed, pleading for her daughter to stop and begging me to release her. But the woman was already dead. There was nothing I could do for her. The decision was made the second her daughter’s teeth sank into her flesh.

  “Murderer! You fucking killed me you monster! You killed me you coward! I hope you die! I hope you rot in—” Her tirade was cut off as her daughter bit into her thigh again, tearing a tiny ribbon of meat from her leg.

  I backed away, falling backward into my cot, numb to the surging pain in my own body as I hit the thin mattress. I pressed my hands to my ears, trying in earnest to block the screams and accusations of the woman I had just sentenced to death.

  The night wore on, filled with the tortured screams of a dying woman as her daughter slowly devoured her.

  One tiny bite at a time.

  Chapter 37

  My mind blistered and cracked open as I succumbed to the insanity of it all. No matter how hard I tried to push the screams from my memories, Brianna’s accusing voice as she begged for mercy haunted me until I lost all semblance of myself. I drew the sheet over my head and vanished from the world.

  I squeezed my hands against my ears until my arms ached, slamming my eyes shut and begging for the darkness to swallow me whole. I still couldn’t escape her sorrow filled eyes as they stared back at me from behind my closed lids, their accusing gaze piercing into my soul. Coppery blood tinged the air while rotting death permeated the sheets with its putrid stench.