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

“Afana sent us to babysit him while he fixes the cameras,” Murray told him, pointing at George.

“He sent him? He looks like he electrocuted himself!” Shane burst out laughing, and Murray laughed along because he was right. From here you could see George’s wiry hair sticking out.

“Is that your handiwork?” Murray asked Shane. He looked down at Justin, who was groaning in pain as Doc sewed the wounds shut.

Shane shook his head. “Nah, not him. Two others in the bathroom. If I show them to you, does it count as two heads? Can’t be bothered to chop them off. Anyway, we’re on lockdown I don’t expect you’ll be taking the heads with you.”

“Just this once,” Murray told him. It sickened him to have to act this way, although he’d played this role all his life. Every day he had to tell himself it was just an act, that he was doing it to keep Martin safe.

Shane grinned and rubbed his hands together. “Thanks, mate. Now let me show you how fucked up they are.”

The two men walked across the open social area. “Why are we on lockdown?” he asked Murray as they headed for the bathroom.

“Because Afana said so. That’s all I know,” Murray told him.

Shane narrowed his eyes at Murray but accepted the general’s explanation.

Murray pushed the bathroom door open and went inside. It was so much worse than he’d expected.

A few men gathered around the two bodies on the floor. The blood seeped from their ruined skulls, forming a dark puddle underneath the corpses.

“Hey, fucknuts, get out of here so the general can see the bodies.” He clapped, making the men jump. “What are you waiting for? Out. Or you’ll be joining them.”

The men muttered as they left but none were brave enough to argue with Shane.

Murray glanced at the hunter.

Shane nodded proudly at the mangled corpses. “My handiwork. Look at their eyes, General. That shit is fucked up!”

Murray looked back at the bodies. Their eyes glowed red, the light fading quickly as the last of their life left their rapidly cooling bodies. He instantly knew what the red eyes meant.

The disease had broken out on Level Five.

Chapter Nine

Ryder enjoyed the sensation of walking outside. She breathed the free air, savoring every lungful. Soon, everyone will be free.

Clint’s house was their next objective. Ryder hoped it wasn’t too far away. They had a lot of people to round up in just one day.

Massimo smiled congenially at Ryder as he swatted a fly away. “It is beautiful out here, isn’t it? When there aren’t any damn flies, that is. Oh, or Mad.”

“It is,” Ryder agreed. She ran her hand over the tops of the long grass stalks as she walked, feeling them tickle her palm as she let her gaze wander. There was a thick wood to the left and green fields to her right. “I wonder what it was like before the wars.”

Massimo swatted at the fly again when it returned. “The land didn’t used to be like this at all.”

“What was it like?”

Massimo smiled at the memory. “It was covered in snow and thick ice. Winter was equal parts dangerous and breathtaking. It was unbelievably breathtaking.”

“Mama Lou taught us about snow when I was a kid,” Ryder told him. She searched her mind for the memory of the lesson. “It stopped snowing because of the climate change, didn’t it?”

Massimo nodded. “Very good. Yes, because of the climate change. There was once an enormous pocket of a gas called methane trapped under the ice around here. When the climate warmed, the ice melted and released the gas, which made the world even hotter.”

Ryder indicated “Some gas did this?”

Massimo chuckled. “It was rather a lot of gas, my dear. Your teacher sounds like a good one.”

“She was.” Ryder stalled as a thought hit her. “Hopefully you will get to meet her! Mama Lou loves to read, and she would love to see your library. She would be like your best friend, forever!” Ryder was almost bouncing in her excitement at the thought of Mama Lou in Massimo’s house. “She’d never want to leave if she saw all your books.”

Massimo grinned. “Really?”

“Really.” Ryder nudged him with her elbow. She thought that Massimo and Mama Lou might make a good couple. She’d have him wrapped around her finger in no time at all. Mama Lou loved a challenge, and Ryder couldn’t think of anything more challenging than the sweet vampire. She’d never thought she’d put those two words together.

“I’ve never seen snow,” Ryder told him, bringing the conversation back to where they’d started.

“Not many people have. I’ve not seen it for at least two hundred years,” Massimo admitted.

Ryder did a double-take. “Two hundred years? How old are you?”

“Not really sure to be honest. I stopped counting after the WWDE. I was alive in the sixties, but I was too young to enjoy it. I loved the seventies. They had some of the best music around. Leandro was able to get me a lot of the records.” Massimo hummed a few bars of ABBA as he looked over his shoulder at his son, who was talking—no, more like being forced to listen—to Carter and rolling his eyes.

“I do like your music,” Ryder admitted.

Massimo had a mischievous look on his face. “I wish my son did. I have a feeling he does and pretends not to, just to wind me up.”

Ryder chuckled. Leandro hated ABBA with a passion. Probably from having to listen to it for two hundred years. “How have you stayed alive for so long?”

Massimo made a face. “It’s part of being a vampire. Something to do with our blood.”

“Or the blood that you drink,” Ryder supplied. Her eyes widened when she realized she’d spoken aloud. “Sorry, that was rude of me.”

Massimo shrugged, unfazed. “Why would it be rude when it’s true?” “Oh. Okay.” Ryder smiled as Massimo’s relaxed attitude put her at ease. “If you drank human blood…what