Hunger (The Hunger Series Book 1) by Jeremiah Knight

Author:Jeremiah Knight [Knight, Jeremiah]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Action & Adventure
Publisher: Breakneck Media
Published: 2015-06-08T18:30:00+00:00

26

The shrill scream coming from Jakob’s voice would have embarrassed him in most situations. But not that day, at that moment, when the inhuman emerged from the road, staring him down, hunger in its eyes...in their eyes. It helped that he wasn’t the only person vocalizing a cocktail of surprise and terror. Ella, the scientist turned hardened survivor, let out a cry, as well.

The two large creatures were built like rhinos, but covered in matted, thick brown fur clumped into muddy dreadlocks. Emerging from the snout wasn’t a horn, but what looked like a large antler with four prongs on either side, ending in razor-sharp, spoon-shaped tips. The creatures’ large, black-pupiled eyes were peeled wide to reveal jaundiced, bloodshot orbs. Tendrils of frothy drool dangled from gaping, panting maws—and that was where things really got freaky. Inside each creature’s mouth was a large wooden bit, attached to leather reins, the kinds Jakob was accustomed to seeing on horses. The reins rose up, clutched in the hands of a smaller creature sitting atop each beast. The riders had clearly once been human, but were now something else.

The one that caught his eye was, or had been, a woman. It was in those intelligent, feminine eyes that he saw more than hunger. He saw hate. Loathing. Abject and barely contained ferocity. And something familiar he couldn’t quite place. Her face was stretched out, elongated to make room for teeth so long and curled that they pierced back through her mud-covered cheeks. The woman was naked, her body emaciated, but twitching with lean muscles. A mane of hair flowed from her head and down her back. She was a primal thing, hungry and hateful, but with still-human eyes...eyes that held his gaze a moment while the truck’s tires spun over dirty concrete.

Did I know her before? he wondered, but he lost sight of the woman when the tires caught and the truck lurched onto the road. Jakob was thrown down to the floor, caught by Ella, whose wide eyes reflected his own.

“You okay?” Ella shouted over the roar of the truck’s acceleration.

Before Jakob could reply, the pair slid forward, crashing into the metal supply case. Tires squealed as the truck came to a sudden stop. The back window slid open and Anne’s face appeared. “Hold on! We’re surrounded!”

Jakob moved to sit up and look, but Ella held him back. “Not yet!”

He wanted to argue, but her point was made a moment later, when the truck shot backwards, braked hard again and spun 180 degrees, sending them back the way they’d come, back toward the pair of gargantuans filling the road. Why would we go back? he thought, and then he sat up, looking behind them. Six more of the creatures, each with a naked rider—flowing haired and big toothed—charged from behind.

Anne’s face returned to the window. “Shoot the gas! Peter says shoot the gas!”

While Jakob wondered why they would shoot the gas strapped down to the truck bed, Ella jumped up behind the machine gun, spun it around so it was facing to the front, and opened fire.

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