DECIMATED (The Nameless Invasion Book 1) Read online

  “Yes.”

  I shook my head. “Come on, put that water bottle and candy bars in your purse, and let’s go.”

  “Fine,” she said, snatching the bottle and candy from the desk and stuffing them in her purse. “But I’m going down first.”

  I shook my head. “No way. I—”

  “I’m your doctor now. Medical provider, anyway. I’m going down first. If nothing else, I can catch you if you fall.”

  “Darling, there’s no way you could catch me.” My mind flashed back to her kicking in the door.

  Or maybe she could.

  “Well, you better not fall then.”

  With a grin, I watched her shimmy down the towels.

  She reached the bottom and dangled by her hands, then dropped to the ground, landing in a crouch to absorb the shock.

  She looked up at me and gave me a thumbs up. “Don’t fall.”

  “I don’t aim to.”

  But as soon as my weight was on my arms, I almost did fall, even with the knots in the towels to hold on to.

  The agony in my sides and back was constant as I slowly made my way down the rope, letting gravity do most of the work.

  My hospital gown rode up, and my dick started getting towel burn. “Son of a—” I muttered, trying to adjust myself without letting go and falling.

  Miraculously, I made it all the way down.

  Being taller than her, I had even less distance to drop, but even still, I let out a grunt at the sharp pain as I landed.

  She shook her head. “You’re gonna hurt yourself.”

  “Which way’s your car?” I asked, gritting my teeth in pain.

  She pointed to the main gate.

  Of course, that was the only way out.

  “Let’s hope they left the guard shack or gate unlocked, so I don’t have to climb anything else.”

  6

  We’d made it halfway across the courtyard to the main gate, when the monster ambushed us.

  A hideous elephant-like creature came bursting out from the rec yard, plowing through the fence that separated it from the rest of the prison grounds.

  Behind it, back in the yard, lying dead on the ground, were several of those hellish creatures I’d seen earlier when we’d almost stumbled on them in A-wing.

  The thing that charged us stood on two legs, and its tusks were longer, sharper, and more sinister than a normal elephant’s.

  And instead of those bright peaceful eyes elephants had, these were sharp, slitted, and filled with malice.

  It raised its trunk and let out a trumpeting roar as it charged us.

  I pushed the nurse behind me, despite her protests that I was the one who needed defending.

  It was coming from our right side, so it wasn’t between us and the gate in front of us; a gate that seemed unmanned by any guard.

  This gave me an idea.

  “Come on.” I grabbed the nurse and started running toward the gate. “Get ready to drop when I tell you.”

  “What?”

  “Just do it when I say.”

  We ran until we reached the gate, then stopped and turned.

  The elephant man was right behind us.

  “You’re insane,” she said simply, though this fact didn’t seem to bother her much.

  It charged us, but we stood our ground, waiting.

  To my surprise, she didn’t try to pull away.

  Braver than I would have expected.

  It went down to all fours and lowered its head, preparing to skewer us with its tusks.

  “Now!” I shouted and pushed her to the ground, falling atop her.

  Though, it wasn’t as though my body could protect her from a creature that weighed thousands of pounds.

  I felt like we were between the wheels of a semi-truck or lying on the tracks while a massive train roared overhead as the beast stampeded above us, its legs crashing down around us, kicking up clods of grass and dirt.

  Then there was a crashing from above and behind as the alien elephant collided with and burst through the gate.

  I pushed up off of the nurse and surveyed the damage.

  The elephant creature had broken through the gate, completely detaching it from the concrete wall. It was now stuck on its head. It tried lamely to push it off with its hoof hands.

  It was almost comical.

  I looked at the nurse, lying facedown on the ground. “Come on.”

  For a heart-stopping moment, I thought the elephant might’ve crushed her somehow, even though she was beneath me. But then she lifted her head up, spat dirt from her mouth, looked me in the eye and said, “I think I hate you.”

  7

  We weren’t out of the woods yet, however.

  The elephant was preoccupied with the gate for now, but that wouldn’t distract it forever.

  Besides, it wasn’t the only monster in the area.

  Luckily it had stampeded a hundred feet or so into the parking lot before tumbling to a stop against a car, so it wasn’t blocking our way out.

  “How far is your car from here? Please tell me it’s not that one,” I said, pointing at the car the elephant had half-crushed.

  “No, it’s far. I like to get exercise in before and after work.”

  “So you park your car far away? Are you joking? You’re a nurse, you’re on your feet all day.”

  “Not all day. Approximately six out of ten hours on average.”

  “You’re really weird.” I shook my head. “Is it in the parking lot at least?”

  “Of course.”

  “Go on then, I’ll follow you.”

  We headed out through where the gate once was and into the parking lot.

  I saw no other monsters in the area.

  I even looked up to the sky.

  I didn’t really expect anything to be there, but we had just almost been crushed by a bipedal evil elephant alien, so I wasn’t ruling anything out.

  “Pick up the pace,” I urged, and she started jogging.

  I grimaced in pain as I followed.

  Though the pain seemed to be getting less. Either that, or I was becoming numb to it.

  Twenty seconds later, we reached the very edge of the parking lot—as far away as you could possibly park—and stopped by a bulbous blue vehicle.

  I glanced back and saw the elephant still struggling with the gate stuck to its head.

  “This is your car?”

  “What’s wrong with my car?” she asked, opening the driver’s door.

  I shook my head at the plastic-looking vehicle and its puny tires. “It’s the end of the world, and we’re going to be driving a Prius. Does this thing even take gas?”

  “Yes, that’s the whole point. It’s a hybrid.”

  I shook my head again and got in the passenger side.

  She sat in the driver’s seat, looking at the keys in her hand.

  “Come—” I began, but then she started the car, shifted into gear, and we drove—eerily silently on battery power—out of the parking lot, staying well clear of the elephant creature that was still struggling to get the fence off its head.

  “Where are we going to?” she asked.

  I thought for a moment. Where could we go?

  I got the feeling that the world I was entering into was not at all the same one that I had left nearly two years ago.

  “Where do you live?” I asked.

  “In town. Well, on the outskirts of town.”

  “You live alone?”

  She glanced over at me. “That’s not the best question for a convicted felon to be asking a young single lady.”

  “So you’re single.”

  She rolled her eyes and looked back at the road. “I live with my roommate.”

  “Is she going to be there now?”

  “Why do you assume it’s a she?”

  “Is it?”

  “Yes.”

  I grinned at her angry face. Better than the blank looks she had been giving me.

  Plus, she was cute when s
he was angry.

  She was cute all the time, but especially cute when she was mad. “So will she be there?”

  “She works from home, so probably. I don’t know, I haven’t been there in twenty-six hours. I recall I was texting her before I went to take a shower. I remember thinking she was home, but I didn’t ask.”

  “You know anything else about what’s going on? I mean other than what we saw on the news.”

  “Not really. There are some conspiracy theories on YouTube, but nothing on the TV.”

  “What were the conspiracy theories?”

  “Apparently the same thing there are always conspiracies about. Aliens, the apocalypse, lizard people. The Illuminati. Some especially imaginative people found ways to combine all those things into one. Just the same old end-of-the-world conspiracy theory as always.”

  “I don’t know if it’s a conspiracy,” I said, “but it’s not just a theory anymore.”

  8

  Our drive in from the prison had been entirely devoid of other vehicles. But that wasn’t a surprise, given it was after 10 PM on a weekday in small-town Ohio.

  The nurse—who’d said her name to that guy on the radio but which I’d forgotten, and she wasn’t wearing a name tag to help me out—lived in an apartment complex on the outskirts of an already-small town, and when we pulled into the parking lot, things didn’t look good.

  There was an overturned pickup truck with what looked like large claw marks on its side door.

  It appeared empty and wasn’t running, nor were any of its lights on, so whatever had knocked it over hadn’t done so in pursuit of anyone.

  Either that or the person was especially environmentally conscious and had turned the truck off before vacating it and running for their life.

  “Wow,” she said, gnawing at her lip, her hands tight on the steering wheel. She leaned over it to peer through the windshield up at the apartment building.

  “What floor you live on?”

  “Second.”

  The thought that we might have to make another escape through a second-story window set my back and sides aching again.

  Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.

  Course, I had also been hoping that maybe it hadn’t it reached this far, but the destruction in the parking lot indicated that my hopes were going to be dashed.

  “Got any weapons?” I asked as she pulled the car into a parking spot.

  She shifted into park, then dug through her purse and came up with a can of bear spray, which she handed to me.

  Good thing I grabbed that purse on my way out. “Great. Maybe we’ll even come up against an alien bear to use it on.”

  “That would be highly appropriate.”

  Her apartment door was shut, which was a good sign.

  And after trying it, she found it locked. Another good sign.

  She unlocked the door, and we both entered the apartment, which was warmer even than the indoor hall we’d been in, and dimly lit with candles.

  “The power out?” I asked. It hadn’t been in the hall leading to the apartment, and unless they had a fireplace I’d missed or this place was heated with gas, I didn’t see how it could be given its warmth.

  In answer, she reached over and flipped a switch, turning the lights on, revealing a small living room with a gray couch covered by a red and pink throw and decorative pillows. It faced what should’ve been a TV, but was instead a group of potted plants.

  Between the couch and this indoor jungle was a coffee table with multiple levels. It looked like the kind of thing someone would put in a movie, just so the hero could throw someone onto it and break it in a spectacular fashion.

  “Abigail likes candles,” she explained. “Abigail’s my roommate.”

  “Abigail? What is she, ninety?”

  “Try nineteen.”

  This made me remember once again that I didn’t know her name. She’d said it earlier but I’d forgotten. Was it Emily?

  I stuck out my hand. “I’m Gage, by the way.”

  She looked down at it, then took it. Her hand was small and warm in mine, but her grip was firm.

  “Emma.”

  I cocked an eyebrow at her. “You British?”

  She snorted. “No. Why would I be British?”

  I shrugged. “Emma is a British name.”

  “Okay,” she said in a dismissive but flirty manner. Coming home seemed to have lightened her mood. Or maybe she’d calmed herself on the drive in. In any case, I was glad for it. Anything to lighten this shitty day was welcome. “Stay here, I’m going to check on my roommate.”

  “I should come with you.”

  “She likes to sleep naked.”

  “I should definitely come with you.”

  She snorted again, but didn’t say anything and turned and walked toward the hall.

  I started following her.

  She looked over her shoulder, made an expression I couldn’t read, but didn’t tell me not to follow.

  There was a rather long hall for such a small apartment. It had five doors, two on one side and three on the other.

  She stopped at the last one on the left and knocked gently. “Abigail?”

  Getting no response, she opened the door.

  I held her bear spray at the ready, and followed her in.

  The room was dimly lit with candles, just like the living room had been. On the bed was a dark shape, which my eyes rather quickly adjusted to reveal was a young woman.

  She indeed was naked, sleeping on her stomach, blankets kicked down to the foot of the bed, her right leg stretched out, pointed directly at me, the left bent and brought up toward her torso like in a prone shooting position, giving me quite a view, despite the dimly lit room.

  I had to look away, and focus my attention on her face, which was partially covered by her thick red hair, because the sight of her in all her nakedness stirred up all kinds of yearnings that I didn’t have time to fulfill right now.

  Two years in prison, and the first two women I saw were beautiful, and the second one, in addition to being beautiful, was also naked. And asleep. And with her legs spread.

  And a redhead.

  If there was a God, I couldn’t tell if he was blessing or cursing me right now.

  Emma knelt down next to her friend, and gently brushed the hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear, then ran her hand over her shoulder. “Abigail. Wake up honey.”

  Abigail made a quiet grunt, but otherwise didn’t stir.

  Emma shook her harder. “Wake up,” she said, in a louder voice now.

  “Whaaaaaaaatttt,” Abigail moaned.

  “Things have gotten worse, much worse than on the news. Everything’s going crazy. We need to find a safe place. Or make this place safe. Maybe go out to your parents’ farm.”

  Abigail rolled over onto her back, presenting me with another amazing view, one which I was unable to tear my gaze away from.

  She blinked lazily a few times, looking at me, one eye squinted.

  Then she let out a little shriek and shot up. “Who’s that!”

  “That’s… my friend,” Emma said, glancing at me.

  Abigail put her hand to her chest, between her bare breasts, her breathing heavy. “Jesus. I think I was still half-asleep. I thought some monster had followed you in, and you didn’t know he was behind you. I could’ve sworn just a second ago he had wings and a knife for a hand. I guess it was just the dark and my half-asleep brain.”

  I held up my hands, turning them over side to side. “Just normal hands, no knives.”

  I turned around to show her my back. “No wings either.”

  “And apparently no underwear,” Abigail commented.

  I turned back around and looked down at my hospital gown. “Didn’t exactly have time to grab much. We had to get out of there in a hurry.”

  “Out of where?”

  “Your roommate’s work.”

  Given how she freaked out after seeing me, I didn’t want to spook her again
by telling her I was a prison inmate.

  Let her piece it together herself, if she was awake enough.

  “When did you go to sleep?” Emma asked.

  “Right after you texted me saying you were going to shower to get away from the prisoners for a while.”

  “You haven’t been out then?”

  “No.” Apparently belatedly realizing she was naked, she grabbed the blanket from her feet and pulled it up, covering herself.

  I was actually glad for that, as it was getting a bit too tempting, and I was pretty sure my erection was showing through my hospital gown.

  I just hoped it was dark enough that maybe it wasn’t. I was a convicted felon—I didn’t need Emma getting any kind of wrong ideas about me.

  Or right ones, for that matter.

  “There’s the animals that we saw earlier,” Emma told her. “There’s more of them. They’re everywhere. Well, not everywhere but— I guess you haven’t seen the parking lot, have you?”

  Abigail shook her head. “No. I told you, I haven’t left.”

  “Well,” I said, “there’s a truck that’s been knocked over, and it’s got a claw mark about the size of tractor across its side.”

  “A tractor knocked over a truck?”

  “No, something with claws the size of a tractor plow.”

  Abigail shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

  “We just fought off—” Emma began. “Or, we dodged getting trampled by an elephant morph.”

  There was a loud noise from outside, and Abigail jumped. “What was that?”

  “That was the signal that we need to get the hell out of here,” I said. “Grab some clothes and supplies, and anything else you think you might need. I don’t reckon either of you have a gun, do you?”

  They shook their heads.

  “Fine. Pack what you need, I’m gonna go see what else I can find to use as a weapon.” I held up the bear spray. “Not sure how useful this will be. Even if it is, it won’t last forever.”

  I left them there to get dressed, and went to the kitchen, where I expected to find a butcher block, perhaps filled with lots of large chef’s knives.

  But if the state of their knife collection—or lack of—was anything to go by, they were no chefs.

  Not only was there no butcher block, but after I checked all the drawers, all I came up with was a pair of safety scissors, and a little green knife that I first thought was made of plastic, but upon tapping against the countertop discovered was metal.