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

The giant tick had ruined three people and was entirely too busy sucking all of their blood from their bodies to take much notice of the ten people who had turned to face it.

“What are those idiots doing?”

“Giving us time to run,” Rollo said.

Maddie involuntarily ducked down when she heard the report of a gun being fired. The tick barely acknowledged the impact that slammed into its side.

“The eyes! Aim for the eyes!” Maddie found herself running toward the conflict.

The man shot again; his grouping was tight, if ineffective. This time an eyeball sitting high atop an antenna swiveled toward the man.

“The eyes! It can jump!” Before she could get the words out, the tick had launched and landed, crushing the man under its weight, the snapping of multiple bones louder than the gun had been. Another nearby swung a tree branch; this one had heeded Maddie’s advice, aiming straight for an eyeball. A hissing shriek erupted from the beast as the antenna wrapped around the branch. The man was lifted from his feet as the monster shook its head. Two jumped to grab his legs while a third man hurled a rock. The massive stone smashed into the other antenna before landing on the creature’s head. It appeared dazed, allowing the rest to kick, punch and stab until they’d downed the beast. It was a victory of sorts, as the thing’s bleats silenced and its body stilled, yet four people had been killed and another injured. Maddie was sickened watching the gathered men rolled the dead creature off of the man that had been crushed; the misshapen lump of flesh looked nothing like the human it had once been. He was folded in on himself as if a giant had begun to make origami from a person but had been interrupted halfway through the process.

Maddie bent down and pulled the pistol free from his warm, crushed flesh. It was a six-shot revolver that currently had three bullets left. She debated feeling around his person for any spare rounds but couldn’t muster the nerve to stick her hand anywhere into the human goulash he’d become. She stood and backed up when an untethered eyeball rolled down the lump of detritus. She had to pull her gaze away and look elsewhere pronto.

“Run!” The word was out of her mouth before she was entirely even sure what she was looking at. A herd of the monsters were thundering toward them, toward the entire population. They were leap-frogging each other in a bid to get at the food source first. Great clods of debris were being kicked up behind them as they tore the ground away in their haste. The panic moved through the people like a wave, starting with those closest, as they sought to put distance between themselves and certain death. It was a chaotic mass evacuation. People were being trampled; some tried to help the fallen but were swept along in the tide, pulled away as if by an unstoppable current. Most of the crowd was running in the opposite direction of the oncoming bugs. The hotel was at an angle to the exodus, so Maddie and Rollo were desperately trying to fight their way through diagonally across the panicked human stampede. Maddie was appreciative of her traveling companion’s efforts as he muscled through the crowd, keeping them from being bowled over.

“Where are you going?” He had to yell to be heard.

“The hotel—we’re almost there!”

“Maddie…” he grunted as he planted his feet and took a direct hit to his shoulder. He was pushed back as the man who’d run into him was deflected and kept going without so much as a mumble of apology. “…what hotel?” He wrapped his hand around another’s head and pushed him to the side. “They’re getting close.” Rollo did not like that they were running parallel to the tick-monsters. The only defense the people had was the size of the herd they were hunting, guaranteeing some humans would survive, for now. It was a tactic that had worked on earth for years untold. The weak and the old would be dragged down first, as they lacked the ability to escape. Lions only killed enough to eat, and the herd was made stronger by the culling. But this model was perverse; humans were generally the predator and there was no telling how many of them it would take to sate the beasts chasing them. Maddie grunted and spun down as she took a direct hit to her side. The addling contact had her seeing stars, dazed, and very much in danger of being crushed by the multitude of fleeing feet. It was Rollo that hefted her up effortlessly, threw her over his shoulder, his left arm wrapped around her legs to hold her in tight. With his right, he pushed, pulled and punched people out of their way.

Maddie tapped him on the shoulder. “I’m okay now! Put me down…we’ll get there faster!” She had to shout to be heard over the din. Rollo spun her over his shoulder, making sure she was oriented in the correct direction. With barely any delay, they were back at as close to a full sprint as the crowds would allow. More than once Maddie had wondered how Rollo had kept them shielded; yes, he was fighting hard to do it, but sometimes it seemed as if people were actively avoiding him, which didn’t make quite as much sense, because all of those running were operating at a purely instinctive level: run from the danger. She didn’t have the time to dwell on it, and, ultimately, what did it matter?

A broken body landed to the side of the pair—a tick had picked the terrified and screaming woman up and launched her. Maddie couldn’t be sure, but it did seem as if that had been on purpose. The poor soul had smashed headlong into another, both skulls shattering upon impact. Three of the things had been slicing and slashing through people, heading