The Bleed: Book 2: RAPTURE by David Moody (best selling autobiographies .txt) 📕

“They can’t hear you either way. Cause the two upstairs aren’t listening,” Maddie said softly as she continued on her way. Every few steps, she would turn to make sure the hotel was still visible. A lot of the people were in groups of twos and threes, talking animatedly about what was going on and what they could do, but even more were alone, depressed, in despair. Maddie could not blame them for that. Nothing was ever going to be the same. What was lost was gone for good, and instead of time healing all wounds, it was now their active enemy. With each ticking of the great timepiece, they were brought closer to the very thing that could extinguish all life.

Some were foraging for food; they had a large pile of strange-looking tuber roots, berries, and what could possibly be considered fruit, though none had tried any of it. No one wanted to be the toxicity tester. Eventually, hunger would win out and someone would eat, but until then, it was merely a growing pile. She knew that early people had watched birds; if they ate something, then it was generally considered safe for human consumption. Unfortunately, birds, animals, even insects were noticeably absent from here. It made sense to a point—if this was a manmade ecosystem. No reason to bring mosquitoes to the party; bees, though, she thought they would be essential in this environment. And whereas maybe you didn’t want a Bengal tiger wandering around in your Eden, some cattle, sheep or even chickens would very much be welcome. She didn’t think there was much of a chance that whoever had created this place were all vegetarians, was there? If that was the case, she was sourly wondering if maybe the Bleed had it right. “Bad joke, Maddie.” She had her hands tucked inside her overalls, and her propensity was to keep her head down and mind her own business. Too bad the whole reason she was out here was to do just the opposite.

It was mostly peaceful; yes, a few fights had broken out, as some dipshits had decided to assert their dominance and prove their right to lead, though nothing substantial had been decided. The victorious were preaching to a mostly empty pulpit, as the crowd that would invariably gather to watch, would disperse upon the conclusion, and an army of one was not going to accomplish much. The relative peace would devolve soon enough. This much stress, it would eventually break them unless…

“Unless they have something to focus on. A common enemy,” she snarled as she said that, thinking upon all the politicians she’d ever known that would jump headfirst into a war if only to keep their populace distracted from the corruption within their administrations. It seemed as old a trick as ever, probably started with Urk throwing rocks at Umgur so he wouldn’t notice the missing firewood. But with results that continued to produce, why would they ever change up the playbook? “Fuck, Maddie, when did you become such a know-it-all cynic? And also, when did you start talking to yourself in the third person?”

“If you want, I’ll talk to you, then it won’t seem so bad.”

“Hey, surf guy.”

“Rolden. Rolden Manchester.”

“Seriously?”

“I didn’t name myself. You can call me Rollo, my friends do.”

“And what do you prefer?”

“Huh. Never had anyone ask that. Yeah, Rollo is fine.”

“Are you following me?” She expected him to deflect, lie or deny; she’d not been expecting the truth.

“Um yeah, I am. You literally appeared in front of me. Say what you will, maybe you aren’t a god, but you have your finger in the works, of that I’m sure. If anyone knows anything or is able to do anything about our current situation, it’s you.”

She thought about telling him not to waste his time, but it wasn’t the worst thing, having company as she walked about. “Where you from, Rollo?”

“Indiana, small town south of…” The rest of his response was drowned out by the screams of a multitude of people to their left.

“Shit.” Maddie pulled Rollo behind a large tree; it looked to be within the pine family, but she’d never seen needles quite so long or broad, a change perhaps brought on by the climate or some hybridization. A crowd of people were stampeding past their location. Those that fell immediately found themselves being trampled underfoot. Maddie had held Rollo back when he’d made as if to go and help. “Nothing you can do but become a casualty.”

“Why are they running?”

There were the panicked cries of the scared, but above that were the screams of those in pain. And, from the sound of it, Maddie thought they were being torn limb from limb while very much alive. She was surprised that the bleed had found them so quickly. The hotel looked so far away; she didn’t like her odds of making it back before it got to them. She’d not that long ago promised she would kill herself before she allowed herself to be incorporated into the virus, and here she was, without so much as a pocketknife. She wondered briefly if Rollo would try and stop her if she kept smashing her head into the rough bark of the tree. She might have tried it if she wasn’t more worried she would only cause herself to pass out and then upon awakening find that she was now part of the death machine. As the crowd rushing past began to thin, she looked around the trunk.

“Fuck.”

“Whoa, even Australia doesn’t have anything like that.” Rollo was looking over Maddie’s shoulder; he was close enough that, with a little Tequila, it was likely they could have got to know each other in the Biblical sense.

“Do you mind?” Maddie looked back.

“What? Right, sorry.” Rollo backed up. “What is that thing?”

“Your guess is as good as mine, but I’ve seen one before. We should go.”

“Yeah, I don’t have a problem with