Carter was right, not that Ryder would admit it aloud. She moved to the side to let Carter go in front of her.
Carter grinned. “Let’s do this.” He turned to the door and glanced at Ryder. “I saw you trying to break my heart with Leandro. Not cool; not cool at all. You know I love that fluffball.” He winked at Leandro.
Ryder turned to Fluffy and blew him kisses, then smiled at Carter. “Open the damn door, or I will.”
“Have you been watching The Italian Job?” Massimo asked.
Ryder and Carter both looked at Massimo, confused.
“You know, Michael Caine?” Massimo asked.
“Michael Caine?” Ryder repeated blankly.
Carter frowned. “What’s with the strange accent?”
Massimo rolled his eyes and waved his hand. “You’ll know soon enough. Boy, I have loads of movies to share with you guys. Anyway, less dilly-dallying. Are we going to do this?”
“Oh, I’m ready all right.” Carter opened the door to Level Two. As soon as the door was open a fraction, they heard the advisors’ wives and children screaming.
Carter flung open the door the rest of the way, and the group quickly stepped onto Level Two, ready to attack. There were bodies on the floor with Mad hunched over them, eating with wet tearing sounds that turned the group’s stomachs. The Madness was running wild on Level Two.
These Mad had been the advisors, and they had lived on this level with their families. Their lab coats were now splattered in blood. Some of the Mad had chunks bitten out of their cheeks, and others were gnawing on limbs they’d ripped from their victims. Ryder had no intention of her or any of her friends being a Mad’s next meal.
Bloodcurdling screams came from a group of women and children, who were pinned up against a wall. They were trapped by the Mad coming at them from all angles. Byrant instantly raised his guns, but Ryder shook her head in response, then placed her finger on her lip.
Ryder whispered to Byrant, “We have the upper hand. Afana doesn’t know we’re here, and we need to keep it that way.”
Ryder smoothly drew an arrow from her quiver and nocked it as the others raised their weapons. The engraving on the arrowheads was really beautiful. Graham had done a fine job on them. Ryder knew she wouldn’t miss. She never missed. Well, except once when she was drunk, but she was sober as a judge today thanks to Massimo’s strong liquor.
She let out her breath and loosed the arrow, which flew silently through the air and landed in the back of a Mad’s head. Ryder readied another arrow and fired, and Willard threw his knives. Within a few moments, the two of them had taken six Mad down.
When a dead Mad fell onto another, the other Mad took notice of what was happening and turned toward Ryder and her friends.
Arrows and knives flew across the bunker into the oncoming Mad, dropping them like flies. Blood oozed across the floor as Ryder and her friends made easy work of the Mad.
Ryder paused with her hands on her knees when they were done. She was out of breath, but the adrenaline pounded through her body.
Here’s hoping that the rest of the bunker will be this easy.
Chapter Sixteen
Afana wanted to get to Level Six as quickly as possible to feed, since he hoped that the blood would counteract the infection carried by the two bites he’d received. He was afraid; more afraid than he’d ever been in his life. He thought about heading back to Level One, but having been a scientist in his former life, he would have spent hours running his blood and seeing if it was infected, and time would run out. He needed to be stronger. He needed more blood, and then the nanocytes in his body could fight off the infection.
Afana had sent the generals to Level Five to fight, and when he landed on Level Five through his personal drop hole with a thud, it took everyone on Level Five by surprise.
General Finn puffed his chest out and stepped closer. “Afana.”
Afana looked around the level; they’d taken care of all of the infected. Finally, some people in here are doing their job, Afana thought.
“Are they all dead?” Afana asked the general.
“Yes,” Finn replied simply. He started to leave with the other generals.
“Stop!” Afana bellowed. A few of the men froze, but others continued to head toward the open door leading to the stairs to Level Four. “STOP!”
General Finn marched over to the men on the stairs. “Get back here now,” he ordered through gritted teeth.
“No one leaves until I say so. Clean up the bodies!” Afana ordered. The men who were on the stairs headed back down toward the bodies. Afana wanted them to make sure everyone was dead to reduce his chance of getting bitten again.
When they piled the bodies up against the wall there was a rotten eggs smell coming from them, which was odd since some of them had only been killed a few minutes earlier. It didn’t make sense that their bodies already smelled like week-old meat.
A few of the generals threw up from the smell and the sight. Some of the bodies were in tatters, ears and other parts ripped off, leaving bloody holes. There were bite marks that oozed blood, adding to the pool on the floor. They were well and truly fucked up, and it looked like they’d had tomato sauce poured over them.
The glass floor was now smeared with blood from the dragged bodies. There was also a pile of bodies over Afana’s drop hole—the advisors Afana had thrown down. They decided to leave those there until told otherwise.
Those were Afana’s bodies, and they didn’t want to join them.
Normally bodies dropped through the hole would go all the way down to Level Six, but that wasn’t the case today. The bodies had piled up on Level Five because the drop hole to
