Page 202 of Malice and Surrender
“What the fuck is going on,” I asked no one as my eyes took in the mass amounts of carnage.
How did Wilder get involved with this blood bath? It looked like an invisible hand was tearing apart bodies and decided to sprinkle them all over the amusement park. I’d seen a lot of shit, but never anything close to this.
The ground was littered with pieces of rides while fires burned in every corner of the large park. There was more gunfire and screaming, but it all seemed contained to that side of the fence.
Just to be safe, I yelled, “Stray bullets are an issue. If you don’t have a bulletproof vest on, I’d go in and grab one.” Some stayed, but most ran back inside. We’d moved a ton of that downstairs since the last attack, so it didn’t take long for everyone to be suited and head back out. Beast walked over and handed vests to Chase, Mannix, and Roach.
“Well, at least I know who you love most,” I teased Beast.
“I’m coming back with more. Hang on to yourself,” he said, not cracking a smile before wandering off. Beast seemed different since Chase came back. It was almost as if the grief of losing his wife hadn’t affected him until he no longer had the club’s day-to-day to focus on.
I turned my attention back to the ongoing mayhem. There was so much blood and random flesh decorating the ground and rides left standing that I was reminded of what I’d done at the warehouse to that Weasel guy. But on a much larger scale.
All hell broke loose as a large group of men near the back side of the amusement park came roaring out of nowhere on motorcycles, with even more men screaming and running chaotically in all directions. I had a feeling Wilder let them get that far before raining hell on them. It was like they couldn’t decide which way to go.
“If a fucking T-rex appears out of the smoke, you’re all on your own,” Tanner said. “Because I’m gonna ride that bitch.”
I glanced over at him and wondered how we’d collected such a pile of insanity in one location. Wilder next door, Tanner came with Chase, and I couldn’t forget Ava at the sorority house. Ava was the strangest of them all. We never knew what she was going to do, when she was going to show up, or who she was going to drag in with her.
“It looks like the Desert Vipers,” I said as Chase and Roach, now suited up with their vests, stepped beside me. “Or at least what’s left of them.”
The ground shook like a miniature earthquake as three more explosions went off, much closer this time. We all turned away and covered our heads as we ran from the debris that included large pieces off of motorcycles.
I pointed to the parking lot. “We need to get the bikes inside,” I said to Chase as more debris sailed through the air and crashed down on our side of the fence.
“Beast, get a party organized and move the bikes into the back warehouse,” Chase yelled, and Beast jumped into action.
There was a growling noise before men started screaming, and what seemed like tall turrets of steam rose into the air.
“Cover up,” I yelled.
It felt like rain hitting us, but I knew that wet feeling was not water.
“Oh shit, that’s disgusting,” Roach growled as he rubbed red dots off his face and flicked a piece of skin off his leather jacket.
Four men on foot were running for our fence, all screaming as if the devil himself was on their heels. I raised my gun and fired two shots taking out the two guys in the middle.
“Don’t shoot,” the remaining two yelled. “Please don’t shoot.” Another dropped dead, but I hadn’t taken the shot and looked around, realizing it wasn’t any of our guys. I knew who it was, but everyone else was looking for the source of the random bullet. The last guy slipped in some blood and landed hard on the ground. He scrambled to his feet, looking like he’d been dipped in red paint.
“Ohhh look, fireworks!”
I jumped at the sound of Ava’s sing-song voice. Where the hell had she come from? It was as if thinking about her had conjured the craziness like she was a demon. I looked down at the small woman who was next-level terrifying. I still had no idea how she survived half the shit she did, and what the hell was she wearing? Today she was in a duck outfit like a mascot at a game who wandered away to end up here. I thought Wilder was random, but Ava took the cake and licked off the icing one finger at a time.
Of course, Tanner was in love with her, but she could never remember his name, which never got old. Anytime Tanner was knocked down a peg from his arrogant horse’s back was a day to celebrate.
“It’s so pretty,” Ava said, her mouth making a little O as another explosion went off, and part of another old ride toppled over with a loud groan and then crashed. All I could think was this would give Wilder more places to hide.
“What the hell else are we supposed to do?” Someone yelled.
“Fucked if I know,” Chase mumbled under his breath so only Roach or I could hear before barking orders. “Kill anyone that makes it onto our side of the fence unless they want to join us. They’ll need to be willing to take their punishment starting tonight. Spread out and stay back from the property line. I don’t know how close those explosions will come in our direction.”
People quickly dispersed, just as the last guy running for the fence finally made it after slipping and falling on his ass twice more. He gripped the chain link so hard that his fingers were bright white while his eyes were wide with terror.
“This place…it’s alive! Help me, please,” he begged.
Chase opened his mouth to answer just as a seemingly ordinary bush came to life and jumped on the man. Even though I knew who it was under the cover of the tree camouflage, I couldn’t help feeling creeped out as the screaming man was tackled to the ground and fell silent before the bush ran off into the amusement park. If I had a list of shit in my life that I never thought I’d see, Wilder topped it every single time.
“The bush ate that man,” Ava exclaimed. “There are killer bushes.” She turned and ran off like that was the craziest thing she’d ever seen. That girl was the walking embodiment of ‘what the fuck,’ and she was worried about a bush coming to life. Fucking ironic.
