Live Free or Die Complete Series Boxed Set: Age Of Madness - A Kurtherian Gambit Series Hayley Lawson (ebook reader play store .TXT) 📖

“Good. This might be our chance.” Sergei told him.

“How come?” Yegor asked.

“Don’t you remember all that bullshit Ryder used to tell Terrier about his family and the horses? That little prick won’t be able to resist them. While everyone else is talking, he’ll be ripe for the taking.”

Chapter Thirty-One

“He’s got horses!” Ryder barely repressed a squeal when they saw Graham’s workshop. “I’ve not seen a horse since Afana took me.” Her inner child came out, and she ran through the field toward the horses. She slowed down as she got closer since she didn’t want to scare them.

Ryder raised her hand toward a horse’s nose and gently stroked it. His coat was silky and shiny black, as black as Koda’s hair.

Ryder remembered when she was a child, before being taken. Because she had been so young, she had only a few memories, most of them involving horses. Ryder had grown up with horses, just has her mother and her family before her had, and she had ridden horses from a young age. She’d ridden more than she’d walked. She loved the feeling of the wind in her hair.

She wanted to ride a horse again, the wind wouldn’t blow through her hair for a long time, but it could dance on her cheeks instead. Ryder smiled at that thought.

Leandro joined Ryder as the others looked for Graham. “Do you like horses?” he asked.

Ryder’s face lit up at the question. “I love them more than anything in the world. I never thought I’d see a horse again.”

“What is it you love about horses?”

She threw her hands up, unable to put it into words. “Have you ever ridden one?”

“No. I don’t need to, do I?” He smiled.

“True. You feel free,” Ryder explained, taking a deep breath. When her lungs filled with the smell of horse she laughed a little, having forgotten the other smell that came with horses. Someone hadn’t cleaned up after these beasts in some time.

Leandro grinned at Ryder. “I know that feeling. I get it when I’m a wolf, and I can run so fast and leap so far that sometimes it terrifies me. Other times it makes me feel alive.”

“That’s the feeling I get when I ride. Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“It’s okay. We both are passionate about freedom, and we’ll get that for your friends.” Leandro took a deep breath and spluttered. “Freedom smells like shit.” He laughed, but then suddenly his face turned serious.

“What is it?” Ryder asked quickly.

“There’s a rotten egg smell,” Leandro told her.

Ryder looked around for Carter. “Carter ate a lot this morning, and at lunch.”

“Not that smell. More like the one at the Old Dog.”

“Oh, shit, the Mad?”

Leandro nodded. “The Mad.”

He looked around for his dad and headed over to him. “Can you smell it as well?” Leandro asked Massimo. Ryder was sniffing too, but all she could smell was horseshit.

“Yes,” Massimo agreed.

“Do you two have heightened senses?”

“Yes,” they both replied.

“It smells like there’re loads of them coming from up there.” Massimo pointed to the rows of houses.

“Oh, fuck.”

Afana watched the generals fighting the infected on Level Five with a sinking feeling. They had run out of bullets and were using their fists and feet to fend off the attempts to eat them alive.

Afana placed his hand over the scanner, and the door in the floor to Level Four opened.

He landed on Level Four with a thud and scanned for infected. He’d seen them running off to the bathrooms, but because of the lack of working cameras, he didn’t yet have an understanding of how bad it was.

Afana decided the generals looked like they would last a few more minutes, so he let his curiosity divert him to the bathrooms. He was used to seeing blood, but this was a whole different level of gore. It was like the water pipes had burst and flooded the place with blood.

There were bodies on the floor with people eating them, and Afana let out the breath he’d been holding since he got to Level Four. The loud exhalation caught the attention of the infected, and they turned to face him, their eyes were as red as the blood dripping from their mouths.

Afana lost his temper. “Those are my cattle!”

The infected abandoned their meal. They got to their feet and rushed Afana.

His fangs projected from his gums and his eyes glowed red. Only my eyes can be fucking red! Afana thought as he transformed into the monster he truly was.

The infected were not fazed by Afana’s transformation. All they saw was their next meal, though they should have been scared.

As soon as one got close to Afana, Afana twisted to the side and punched him. The infected flew across the room and slammed into the wall, then slid down to join the bodies on the floor.

That didn’t stop the others. They came at him, and he served them the same treatment. Afana’s blows were so powerful that none of them got up again.

Afana made short work of the rest of them and headed to Level Five, where the generals were being overpowered. They were helpless without him.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Ryder’s eyes were locked on a door that was opening. A small girl came running out of the doorway her arms out in front of her. It looked like she was screaming.

Another figure came out of the doorway. “It’s Graham,” Massimo told them. Graham had two axes in his hands, and he was running after the girl.

“He’s the one we came to recruit? The crazy man chasing a kid?” Javier asked.

“Yep,” Leandro confirmed. “Pops, is he Mad, or is the kid?”

“I’m trying to work it out. It looks like he’s shouting something, which is a good sign. The others—I couldn’t get any sense out of them,” Massimo explained. They both listened, trying to only hear what Graham was saying, but it was hard because of all the noise around them.

“Run. Fucking run! Everyone’s gone mad!” Graham screamed.

Massimo and Leandro looked at one another,