BARREN: Book 1 - War in the Ruins (A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller) Read online

  Katy shuddered. The dead babies in the field had to have been Hado’s grizzly work. Now she understood who had put them there, but she wasn’t exactly certain why.

  “What is he?”

  The hulking creature before her was the leader of a violent street gang of bikers and he was clearly frightened.

  “A monster. That’s all you need to know for now. He brings death, like one of them Horsemen of the Apocalypse, only this shit be real. He’s the leader of the Venganza clan.”

  Katy stood and Jorge struggled to his feet at the same time.

  “Sorry about your nose,” Katy said, extending her right hand.

  Jorge shook it.

  “But Decker and I are leaving. Los Muertos, Venganza. Not our territory, not our fight.”

  “You don’t understand,” Jorge said, leaning in closer and dropping his voice to a whisper so the rest of his crew wouldn’t hear. “We need you. You can take care of people, be our doctor and you can fight. If we don’t stop Hado, it’s all over.”

  “What’s over?” Katy asked.

  “All of it.”

  Katy stepped back and Decker came up to her side.

  “Good luck, Jorge.”

  Katy pushed past the big man and walked into the hallway where the rest of the crew of Los Muertos waited. They stood with weapons in hand, ready to rumble, but nobody stopped Katy and Decker from walking down the steps to the first floor. Katy led Decker through the remains of the pharmacy to the front door. They stepped into the evening and Katy immediately felt it.

  Another storm.

  She looked up at the eastern sky ablaze with oranges and reds like luminescent blood. But in the west, the horizon cried out beneath the weight of slate-gray storm clouds rolling in from the western edge of Lake Erie.

  “Not enough time to get back to the boat and definitely not possible to fix it in a storm,” she said to Decker. “Let’s find a spot to wait it out.”

  Katy felt the question from Decker. Why not go back? After all, the big man gave the dog a drink.

  “They’re either crazy or involved in some dangerous, tribal, voodoo shit. I want no part of that, Deck. We’ve stayed alive all this time because we’ve been smart. Kept our noses out of shit. Well, one of us has.”

  Decker barked.

  “My point is that getting involved in business that isn’t yours is how you end up dead. Trust me, Decker. I’ve been around longer than you have.”

  The first echo of thunder rolled across the lake and vibrated the dilapidated building behind Katy. Big, bulbous drops of water began to fall from the sky, stinging with a frigid chill.

  “You got a mean streak in you. Like a real individualist and shit.”

  Katy turned to see Jorge’s massive bulk filling the doorframe. He had a piece of white tape across the bridge of his nose but hadn’t wiped the dried blood from his face.

  “Storm’s coming,” Katy said.

  “More than you know,” Jorge said.

  “I’ve got women to care for. I can’t get involved in gang wars.”

  “We all got things we care for,” Jorge said. “Hado will take them. You can’t just turn your back on this, go back to what you were doing.”

  “I can and I will.”

  The rain came harder now. Decker scurried back into the building through Jorge’s legs.

  “Your dog. He’s smart. How about you?”

  Katy sighed but did not move.

  “I know what you need,” Jorge said. “You need to meet Hado. See what I see.”

  “I’m not getting involved in—”

  “Nah. Not what I mean,” Jorge said. “Let me show you something tonight. In the morning, you go on your way if you still want to.”

  The storm had moved across the sky and now blotted out the remains of clear sky in the east. The water came down so hard that Jorge had to yell at Katy to be heard. She looked at the sky and then back to Jorge.

  “I’m not fighting in your war.”

  “No weapons. You’ll just watch. That’s all.”

  “When?” Katy asked.

  “We go right now. Got to be in hiding before he arrives. The crew will stay here with Decker.”

  “Decker comes with me. We don’t ever separate,” Katy said.

  “If he barks and Hado sees us, we will die. All of us.”

  “He won’t bark.”

  Jorge laughed, a deep chortle turning into a wheezing cough. “Okay, then. I mean, why wouldn’t I put my life in the hands of a dog?”

  “And tomorrow, we leave.”

  “Yeah,” Jorge said, smiling. “Tomorrow, you do whatever it is you think you need to do.”

  CHAPTER 9

  Jorge took Katy back into the temporary camp of Los Muertos. He explained to his crew that there wasn’t time to make it back to the village before the Venganza came. And if they wanted Katy’s help in stopping these bastards, he’d have to show her exactly what they did. They objected, saying it wasn’t smart for them to be that close to the Killing Field. Even Katy thought it sounded dangerous for a guy who’d just had his nose broken in a fight.

  An old guy, not in the best of health. Not someone I want to count on to have my back if they discover us.

  Jorge shut them up as he had many times before. The crew recognized his leadership, many having ridden next to him on the highways of Northeast Ohio when things like blacktop and Harley-Davidsons still existed. He spent a few minutes talking to the crew in Spanish, which made Katy twitch. Still, she didn’t think this was an elaborate setup or ambush. If they had wanted her dead, she would have been so by now.

  “That guy there is Hook and he’s Salazar,” Jorge said pointing at the men. “The chica is Sandy and her old man is TJ.”

  Sandy stood next to TJ, her hair pulled back so tight, it appeared to be painted on her head. A thin line of gray hair shot through her jet-black ponytail. Sandy’s dark eyes sat deep within her face and she had a four-inch scar on her left cheek. TJ had his hip cocked to one side and a teardrop tattoo below his left eye. He wore a black leather bandanna on his head, the silkscreen graphic worn off long ago. He leaned forward and grimaced as if he had dealt with chronic back pain for years.

  The other two men, Hook and Salazar, appeared to walk right off of some biker apocalypse movie set. They each wore a Los Muertos vest with various holsters and scabbards clanging off their legs. Katy doubted the guns were loaded—ammunition had been the first thing to go when the rioting began. Hook wore an eyepatch and Salazar had a hoop earring dangling from each earlobe. All of them, in Katy’s professional opinion, looked dehydrated, malnourished and a bit unstable. In her personal opinion, they looked like shit.

  Katy nodded, but none spoke.

  “Time to roll,” Jorge said to Katy. “It’s almost dark.”

  “We going trick-or-treating?” Katy asked with a grin.

  “Yeah, you could say that. Some of the boys in our camp, they don’t even know what that is. How sad, huh?”

  “Definitely sad,” Katy said.

  “Here’s the plan. I lead us out. We gonna go the long way and come back through the Killing Field from the south.”

  “Killing Field?”

  “You’ll see,” Jorge said. “How do you not know about the Killing Field or Venganza and Hado?”

  Katy shook her head, deciding that Jorge didn’t need to know she had already been to the Killing Field. And if there were more than one, it would be all the more reason to get her boat fixed at first light.

  “I don’t know. I’ll follow you.”

  “So, like I said, we come in from the south and we crouch down behind a big rock on the southeast corner. We ain’t got no choice now. We either hide from Venganza or fight them. You sure Decker ain’t gonna bark?”

  “He’ll be fine,” Katy said, hoping she wouldn’t be wrong.

  “Then we wait and I’ll show you who Hado is and what he does.”

  “Then, let’s go,” Katy said. “Let’s do this.”

  By the time they cut across the street and looped around to the south entrance of the Killing Field, night had fallen. The moon crept above the horizon, a little larger and brighter than the night before. The storms that had raged across the lake over the past 48 hours were nothing but a memory, and had she not been sneaking into a place called the Killing Field, Katy might have even enjoyed the evening stroll.

  Jorge led and Decker stayed close to Katy. They ducked in and out of crumbling ruins. Several mounds of overgrowth had been there for so long that Katy couldn’t begin to guess what might lie beneath.

  “Almost there,” Jorge said. He wheezed and sneezed twice, blowing bloody snot into his hand.

  “This isn’t going to be like one of those old horror movies, is it? You know, where they’re hiding and somebody sneezes and gives up their spot?”

  “I ain’t never liked horror movies. Shit was always stupid, girls going into dark houses in high heels.”

  Katy smiled at the old trope, thinking of all the movies she used to love, ones she’d never see again.

  “Damn, do I miss movies.”

  “No way, amiga. You can’t do that. Nobody in Los Muertos is allowed to do that. All it does is bring pain and tears. That world is gone forever and ain’t nobody allowed to dig up them bodies.”

  “I’m not Los Muertos,” Katy said.

  “You sure as hell aren’t.”

  Jorge stopped at the base of a massive boulder. Katy looked closer and she swore she saw a brass plaque affixed to the stone. She thought it might have been a monument of some kind, but it didn’t make a difference.

  “Get low and get comfortable. Hado comes at different times but almost always before the moon peaks.”

  Katy patted Decker on the head and used her hand to
push down the dog’s rear. Decker complied and put his paws down, his ears flat.

  “He don’t come alone,” Jorge said. “They all be wearing wooden masks, but Hado is the leader of Venganza.”

  “Got it,” Katy said.

  “But Hado, you’ll know which one is him because his mask is red. Like El Diablo, eh? Some in Los Muertos call him La Máscara Roja, but I prefer Hado.”

  “Hado is easier.”

  “Yes,” Jorge said with a chuckle. “Hado is easier. Even for a gringa.”

  “Is he a man?” Katy asked.

  “Well, what else would he be? Some say he’s a devil or a demon, but I seen him up close, smelled his breath. He’s flesh and blood, like us.”

  “But he rules the ruins and is destroying the survivor clans, which is why you brought me here.”

  “I brought you here because you kept us out late, and now we have to hide. Safest place to do that is on the edge of the Killing Field. Now, shut up and wait. You’ll know when he’s coming.”

  Katy nodded, although it was too dark for Jorge to see it. They sat there, letting their ears and eyes adjust to the darkness.

  “You see the poles?” Jorge asked with a hush.

  “I’ve seen what’s on them,” Katy said.

  From the edge of the field came a noise so subtle that Katy leaned forward as if to give her ears a better chance at hearing it.

  A baby crying. Several.

  She felt a stinging numbness start in her feet and move all the way up her body. Her teeth clenched and she reached down to grab Decker’s fur, afraid the dog might run away in fear.

  The crying increased in intensity as the parade moved closer. Katy saw pinpoints of light appear in the trees and then she smelled the greasy fire of their torches. She counted ten monsters holding them and countless more moving through the trees, but the only sound was crying babies.

  Jorge looked at Katy. His eyes went wide and his lip turned up into a snarl.

  “Mierda,” Jorge said before spitting.

  Hado and his platoon came closer, approaching from the west end of the park. Katy saw the man in the lead with the red mask. Hado. La Máscara Roja. Leader of the Venganza.

  The man walked in long, stealthy strides. He carried a torch in one hand and a long spear in the other. Tangled dreadlocks of hair spilled from behind the mask, with teeth and bone woven between them. Hado wore a loincloth and what appeared to be body armor fashioned out of a bulletproof vest. But it was the mask that made Katy shiver.

  While the others wore crude masks carved from planks of wood, Hado’s seemed to be designed just for him. The eyes sat far apart on the mask with a black mesh covering them. The long fangs carved into the mask went from chin to nose, much like what Katy imagined a vampire skull would look like. A black resin surrounded the outer edge where the red face met the rest of the mask. The entire cabal of Venganza warriors brought a stench of dried meat, onion and body odor. Katy held her breath as they walked past, not more than fifteen feet from where they hid.

  While some carried torches, others carried crying, naked babies. Katy counted five. She had delivered five babies in the past year and yet, this evil crew had five babies they were going to kill tonight. The procession walked past and the last member carried five long poles.

  Katy watched as they tied the crying babies to the poles, lifted them into the air and planted the posts in the ground. Hado did not speak. The Venganza warriors did not make a sound. When the last of the five babies was in the air, Hado turned and led his men out of the Killing Field and back into the depths of the night.

  Decker had not moved. Neither had Jorge. Katy was the first to break their silence.

  “We have to get them down.”

  “No,” Jorge said, gripping Katy’s arm so tightly that her fingers began to tingle. “We do not touch them. Ever. We seen a clan do that once and the crazy asshole set fire to their whole damn village.”

  “But they’ll die up there.”

  “That’s the point. You think I was messin’ with you? I told you Hado was some sick shit.”

  “It was probably me. I’m sure I delivered those babies. My babies. They’re still alive, Jorge. Are you some kind of monster?”

  She shook free of Jorge’s grip and took two steps toward the nearest pole. Decker growled as Jorge reached, dug his fingers into Katy’s shoulder and spun her around.

  “You do that and you’ll be killing all the babies in the ruins. Their families, too. Is that what you want?”

  Katy shook her head. “I want to go back to camp and I want you to tell me exactly what this is.”

  “Fine,” Jorge said.

  He walked past Katy and back toward the shelter of Los Muertos.

  CHAPTER 10

  They walked in silence. Katy thought it took longer than it should have, but what she’d witnessed had shaken her. She wasn’t concentrating, not paying attention to her surroundings the way she normally did.

  When they arrived at the camp and went to the second floor, the sun started to cast a diffused glow into the eastern sky.

  “Morning already?” she asked.

  “Took us a roundabout way. Sometimes Venganza knows where we’re hiding and they follow us. Just being cautious.”

  Katy groaned. Decker stood in the doorway of the upstairs room. The scene from the previous night ran though her mind and Katy shivered. She could still hear the infants’ cries and smell the greasy fuel of the torches.

  “First time you see that shit, it ain’t easy,” Jorge said. “Give yourself some time.”

  “I’m taking Decker out and then we’ll talk. This dog has never lived in a house, yet he won’t piss inside,” she said.

  Decker left the room and Katy followed him down the steps, through the shop and onto the street. She ran a hand through her hair and surveyed the ruins in the emerging daylight. A few birds flew overhead, but otherwise, she spotted no movement. When they went back inside, Jorge and his crew were sitting in a circle on old boxes and broken milk crates. Jorge’s eyes had started turning black. The other members of Los Muertos sat with a blank stare, their skin pasty and almost translucent.

  “Better?” Jorge asked.

  Decker barked and those in the room gave a faint smile, which was quickly consumed by the gravity of the situation.

  “So, what the hell was that?”

  “Hado.”

  Katy waited as Jorge organized his thoughts, deciding how to tell the story.

  “He started showing up a few years ago. Not Hado, but the men with the masks. We started seeing Hado in the past year or so. When the raids began, we thought they wanted food, supplies, maybe weapons. But they ain’t want none of that.”

  “What raids? Where?” Katy asked.

  “Our village. But we know we ain’t the only ones getting raided.”

  Jorge held up his hand, his finger pointing upward.

  “But I’m getting ahead of myself... So, a few years back, these warriors start raiding our village. At the time, we had two babies around, both less than a year old. We also had three pre-teen girls. I’d say we had fifty or sixty people in the village back then.”

  Hook, TJ, Sandy and Salazar nodded to confirm Jorge’s recollection.

  “In the first raid, they took both babies and one of the girls. The parents were devastated, as you know they damn well would be. Me and the boys, we immediately went off in pursuit. We found what we now call the Killing Field. This was a few days later. The girl, she wasn’t there. But both the kids were...on poles.”

  “Dead,” Katy said.

  Jorge nodded.

  “We didn’t know what to do. We never found the girl. Some of the villagers wanted retribution, but we didn’t have the numbers or the weapons. Every time Hado came through with his Venganza monsters, he had more warriors. After the third raid in six months, we stopped fighting. We had no more infants or girls by that time, so they would just stalk through with torches and masks, scaring the shit out of all of us.

  “But we went back to the Killing Field while hunting deer. And each time we went back, there were more babies on the poles.”

  “They found other survivors. Raided them, too,” Katy said.

  “Yeah. Clans of people we didn’t know nothing about. But Hado knew where they were.”