Bloody Apples by Agent Aries (read an ebook week .txt) 📕

really the back room of the church, fairly small but candles and scraps of red velvet made it seem like a vampire's lair.Paintings done only in what I hoped was red and brown paint decorated the the room.They were not happy go lucky subjects, in fact they looked like random menacing fingerpaintings done by a mental pacient.I repressed a shiver when I noticed that one paticular painting had a fingernail stuck to the canvas,also a bit of hair aswel.I was starting to doubt that it was just red paint.

"No, now answer my question."The glint of disapointment in Fin's dead eyes made me glad that I refused the food.

Before he could answer or dodge the question again the door opened and reveal a woman.

The woman approached me, trembling like a addict with withdrawal symptoms.Her eyes were sunken in and for a moment I thought that she was Infected.Her arms bore red infected dots that wept blood and pus.Scars, picked at scabs and rashes covered her skin in random patches.Her dull brown eyes were nearly crusted shut with eye goop.Her grimey brown hair fell around her gaunt, starving face in dreaded clumps and I could see her bones underneath her skin.All in all, she looked like a starving drug addict that hit rock bottom and managed to go even deeper down.

"M-mistress?M-m-may I-I have your m-meal for my s-son?"Her teeth were rotted and brown, a few missing, but her plea was well heard.

I looked at her, heart broken, and my hand reached out without thought.She flinched like I was about to hit her but I simply smoothed back her ratty hair.

"You poor thing.Here, though I'm not sure if it's drugged or not.It's better than starving I suppose."I lowered closer to her and she looked up at me, eyes wide and cracked lips parted in awe.

I kissed her forehead, ignoring the grime that coated her skin, and gave her the food I had.

"Thank you mistress!Thank you!"The woman who looked around my mother's age cried big huge tears and fell to her knees, forehead touching the ground, in a bow.

"Geezus, get up.You are a proud mother so act like it."I said, without any heat.

She scrambled to her feet and bowed again before she grabbed the food and ran out of the room like her heels were on fire.

"How sentimental and disgusting."Fin's acidic words made me look at him with thinly veiled disdain.

"Shut up you fucking psycho.Now tell me what the fuck this test is."I hissed back, my fingers curling into a fist with the need to swipe the look off his fugly face.

"After that nausiating display I don't think you can handle it."I slammed my fists on the table, momentarily shocking him.

"I said tell me now Fin!"I snarled at him, rising from my seat and my eyes narrowing with hate.

I fucking hate him.I wanted nothing more than to tear out his eyes, tie him up and throw him into a zombie horde.I would pay good money to watch him die slowly and painfully at the hands of the ravenous dead.Then if he rised after that I would end him myself.

But I couldn't do that, I was in his territory right now.His field of power and I had to play his way until I could somehow escape back to Aaron and Iri.

That made me think of Iri.Is she ok?Did she make it to Aaron?God I hope she did.And what about Aaron?How upset is he with me?What is he going to do now?I hoped that he didn't come here to save me.That would put him in danger and my heart couldn't take it if something happened to him or Iris.

 "Very well."And after he explained this 'test' I couldn't help but say one word.

"Shit."

Arena

"Shit!"I growled the next morning, when two people came in to my given room and dragged me down to the church basement.

As I was led down to the basement, the screams and moans grew louder. The sounds gradually getting clearer and clearer along with my fear and adreniline. The moans of the dead made my heart pound but it was the human screaming of horror and agony that really frightened me. It was the sounds of a person reaching for help even though they know no one will answer. The kind of screaming that made your blood turn to ice and your knees give out from terror. A banchee's cry.

I couldn't help but try and escape the two people that dragged me forward towards the double doored basement room.The man's hands left bruizes but the woman's bit into my skin with unkempt nails.They opened the door and shoved me foreward into darkness.It took me a moment to adjust to the dim light and what I saw made me have to swallow my bile.

Huge man made cages lined the room, making a hallway almost six feet wide in the small basement.There was two on each side with chains and wire to secure the tall wire fence. In each one of them were zombies.Two of them had a human in them, screaming for help as the undead ripped  into their still living flesh. My stomache heaved but it was empty so nothing came up.

A shove sent me forward towards a door on the other side of the basement. I didn't want to open it, I really didn't. Something inside me screamed at me to get away. To run as far away as I could. Dispite my earlier resolve. I was scared. 

The woman shoved me aside, opening the door I so deperately wanted to be locked. The man shoved me harshly, making me fly out the door and onto the pact dirt. The morning sunlight half blinded me before I scrambled up and turned only to find them slamming it shut. The distinctive click of a lock made me uneasy. My head shot up to see bleachers behind a ten foot fence that trapped me in a circular arena.

The barbwire, rusted and bloodied, secured the fence along with thick boards only eight feet tall. The unescapabled barrier in itself didn't scare me as much as the sight of Fin sitting in the bleachers, a sickening smile on his face. Tommy, all patched up from his torture, sat to his right sneering at me. Joseph Parker, also covered in bandages from when I blew out his tires, glared at me on Fin's left a assault rifle in hand.

Instantly my anger and hate gave me strength. I glared at them, my posture aggressive and bold.

"You said I would have my weapons." I snarled, disgusted with Fin's very presence.

"Hmm, I can't seem to remember saying that. Now begin the test!"Fin bellowed, snapping his fingers.

The door unlocked behind me.

I barely was able to turn to run when the door burst open revealing a terrorfied teenager around my age and the horde of the dead behind him. Within seconds the boy was screaming being overwhelmed by the horde, his blood squirting acrossed my face. The sick snaps of bone, the wet gurgling and the sounds of ripping meat making my bile rise.

Without any options I ran as fast as I could away to the other side of the arena. I didn't let myself think twice as I grabbed a thick, barb wired, wood two by four. I clenched my teeth as my blood ran freely from my hands. The barb wire ripped into my flesh as I yanked at the wood until it was freed.

I swung it behind me, just like I would my trusty bat and baptized my improv weapon in zombie blood. I ran again, gaining some space between me and the zombies. There was twenty of so zombies chasing me and with no way out I had to kill them all if I had any hope of seeing Aaron and Iri.

I steeled myself and I let out a enraged scream before descending on the zombie like a posessed woman. I only managed kill a three of them before I had to back up again. Dispite my rage and determination, I was quickly becoming exhausted. I couldn't keep this up forever and there was still over ten zombies left, smaller in number but still dangerous.

 Then the glint of something metal hit my eye. Instantly my eyes followed the glare to the teen's dismembered corpse. I dove down and snatched it, smashing in the newly rising zombie'd head aswel. A golden key winked at me, as if to say here is your way out.

I ran towards the door, slamming it closed just in time to snap off a zombie's fingers. I locked the door behind me and was barely able to take a breath before I had to dodge a bullet. The nasty couple that dragged me down here earlier cornered, the woman holding my glock and wearing my belt. The man stood in next to her, my machete in his hands.

The woman tried to shoot me again but shot wide and I couldn't help but snort at her bad aim. The man charged at me, machete high in the air. I dodged the strike and drove my knee in the family jewels as hard as I could. With a pained whine he went down, unable to move. I picked up my machete from the floor and advanced of the woman.

Again she tried to shoot and only managed to skin my cheek. I drove my machete deep into her stomache, and grabbed the gun before she could waste another shot. I kicked her off my blade and turned towards the man getting up off the floor. Before he could lunge at me again I put three bullets in his chest.

I took my belt back from the woman's cooling body, my heart pounding. I ran up the stairs and thanked the world for the door being unlocked.I ran up the stairs and managed to get to the top before more of Fin's thugs accosted me.

I fought, using both machete and glock, until finally only one remained. He ran at me, blindly charging. I side stepped him and impaled my machete in his side. He tried to grab me dispite the blade in his gut and I shot him inbetween the eyes at point blank range. Blood and thicker substainces painted my fact and hand heavily as his body arched back off my machete.

I flicked the blade to the side, flinging blood on the polished wood floor. I ran through a maze of doors, my feet leaving smeared red boot prints on the floor. Finally I managed to get to the main room only to come face to face with Fin who had the woman I gave food to last night and her baby. One thug aimed a handgun on her, the other two aiming at her swaddled screaming baby.

My heart froze and my eyes widened. The woman's clothing and battered appearence didn't make it hard to realize what she had endured. A bruize was forming on her jaw and blood trinkle from her nose and busted lip. Her ripped clothing barely covered her. Yet while the woman shed huge tears, her stature held a strength I didn't see before. She stared at me with eyes that burned with a fire that I thought was dead. She had suffered but she still refused to cry out.

However there was also naked fear