The Bleed: Book 2: RAPTURE David Moody (the red fox clan txt) 📖

straight for Maddie and Rollo. When they realized they were going to come up short, they began to follow suit with the first and were hurling bodies out of their way. People were flying through the air like screaming banshees. Ticks were taking out groups of people as they came down, doing their best not to be injured upon landing. Arms and legs snapped, along with caved in heads and ribcages. The carnage was indescribable, and the repulsive noise was deafening.

“Maddie!” Rollo urged.

“I see them.” How could I not? she thought. She was doing all she could to redouble her efforts. The light above Maddie dimmed; she looked up in time to see the terrified face of a large man bearing down on her as if he’d been laser-guided. She put her arms up in defense, knowing full well it was like trying to stop a truck with a sawhorse. It was Rollo, again, who saved her, practically flying through the air himself as he shouldered the man out of the way while simultaneously shielding Maddie. He stumbled as he took the brunt of the hit on his lower back. Maddie grabbed his hand to keep him from falling over as they continued.

“Almost there,” she said breathlessly. She charged headlong through the doors as they slid open for her. She was halfway through the lobby when she stopped, hands on her knees, head hanging low as she pulled in air.

“Made it,” she said to an empty foyer. “Rollo?” She looked around. He’d been less than two feet away; there was no way he hadn’t made it. She ran back to the door and looked out the glass. There he was, standing not five feet away, looking all around. Maddie reached out, grabbed his arm and pulled him through.

“Where did you go? Where the hell am I?” He was spinning around, trying to take it all in. “Is this the hotel from Australia? How?” He stopped asking questions, and they both backed up as two ticks thundered past. “Can they get in?”

“I don’t know. I don’t even know how I get in.” Though she had an inkling she may have just told a partial lie. She didn’t know how she got in, that she could, was revealing in its own right.

“We have to help them.” Rollo had his hands pressed against the window as he watched the slaughter.

“What’s happening? Who’s he?” Sam had come down to the lobby. “I thought we killed it?”

“We killed one. Apparently there’s a whole colony, or a whole colony here, anyway. Our moon is not this one…or not this one right now. It’s so damned confusing. Come on—the rings are our only chance.”

“The rings? We in Middle-earth?” Rollo asked as he followed the two women.

Maddie had no trouble finding the doorway, unlike when she’d left. In fact, she hadn’t even thought about its mysterious issue of disappearing. Thistle was there, her arms over her head as she stretched.

“Who is he?” She immediately became suspicious.

“I’m Rollo,” he said, as if that explained everything. He extended his hand in the way of a shake.

“I don’t care if you’re Oprah; don’t come any closer.” The pressure in the room changed as Thistle tapped into her unseen power.

“Trust issues. Now move out of the way,” Maddie told him. “Thistle, people are getting killed out there, we need to help.”

“It’s here already? Arridon isn’t here; we can’t leave…he’ll never find us.”

Maddie swept her hand; the scene below was being shown on multiple screens in horrific high definition.

“Are people turning into those things?” Thistle asked.

“No, I mean, I don’t think so.” That thought never occurred to Maddie, although, it was possible, she supposed. She’d seen firsthand the nightmares the Bleed could produce.

“What can we do?” Sam was having a hard time assimilating what she was watching.

“We can put a protective bubble around most of them like Jenny and I did before. I can set it up, Thistle, but it’s going to take your psychic manipulation to make it happen.”

“What do I do?” Thistle was panicked.

“I don’t know specifically; you just have to think about it.”

“Think about it?”

“No time.” Maddie lightly touched a panel, the rings began to glow and rotate. Rollo backed up. “Your turn, Thistle.” Maddie was looking over her shoulder at the woman. Thistle had a doubtful look but instead of wasting time with pointless questions, she began to think on the way to save the people below. The hotel started to shake. There were slight tremors at first, and then it was rocking, to the point that all four had to grab onto something to keep from being tossed to the floor.

“I don’t think this is right!” Maddie yelled, urging Thistle to stop. It was too late. Her eyes were closed, her head thrown back, her arms upraised.

“Maddie, she’s going to break the moon!” Sam shouted, Normally that would have been something said on the side of lunacy, right now, she had to agree with her.

“Help me!” Thistle yelled.

“I don’t even know what you’re doing,” Maddie replied. She looked to the screens; instead of seeing the effects of an invisible bubble being formed, she watched as the ground was in the midst of great upheaval. Jagged rocks formed a large perfect circle, coming up like the teeth of a great white shark attacking a seal. And like that great beast rising from the water, the rocks rose, engulfing everything within their massive jaws. “Save them, Thistle! We’re trying to save them!”

“She is! Look!” Sam was pointing excitedly to the screen. The jagged rock-teeth had turned into a ten-foot wall and were still climbing. The rings were now glowing so brightly that looking directly at them would leave nothing but starbursts in one’s eyes for long minutes—if not searing the cornea outright.

Once Maddie knew what Thistle was doing, she aided as best she could until it all finally, and thankfully, stopped. A great, unbroken, fifty-foot-tall wall encircled what was left of humanity. A few of the monsters had been trapped