Rotten (Mayhem Manuscripts Season One: 1nf3ction)

1. Chapter One

Chapter One

Hector

The first thing I feel when I wake up is wings.

Feathers whisper across my face gently, softer than any touch I've ever known. It makes me ache for someplace I can’t remember, somewhere I might’ve called home, once. If it ever existed at all.

The pain is what I register next.

Burning, searing pain shooting up my leg, drawing a strangled scream from my throat as I bolt straight up—

And come face-to-face with a monster.

The Ferryman . He's enormous, bigger than any man I've ever seen.

Dark strands of hair hang around his face, falling over his broad chest, biceps the size of tree trunks bunching when he crosses his arms. Cold blue eyes hold mine before darting down to my legs in anger.

As I follow his gaze, another horrified scream rips out of me at the sight of a biter's teeth latched onto my ankle.

I yank my leg back before scrambling to get away, registering quickly that I'm still on his boat, surrounded by miles of red water. There are other people, too. Criminals from Aster’s Hollow like me, standing as far away as possible with guns aimed at them by the soldiers surrounding us.

The sight makes me pause—a grave mistake—and the biter is on me again in seconds. It sinks its teeth into my flesh, dragging me backwards with all the strength of a newly turned infected, still resembling something human. I fucking hate when they still look human.

Clawing at the wood of the boat, I try to dislodge my ankle from its teeth, using my free foot to kick at its head over and over.

If it were an older, rotting one, its head would cave in from my blows instantly, but this one's still fresh.

Could have possibly been a woman at one point, but it's hard to tell with my blood covering its entire face.

Before I even have a chance to shake it loose, the thing wiggles its head back and forth like a dog chewing a toy, digging deeper into my flesh until bones snap.

Meanwhile, the man—the monster— simply stares as I struggle, his nostrils flaring when I throw out a hand toward him.

“Help!” I shriek, crawling away after managing to knock out some of the biter's teeth, but it keeps coming.

Its fingers grip me with bruising force, pinning me down, and all I can do is bellow as it climbs up my body, a gaping, gory mouth coming right for my face, inches from chomping down on my cheek—

Then its head disappears from its body in a spray of blood, bouncing off the lip of the boat before landing in the water with a loud thunk.

“Goddammit, freak, I told you not to interfere.”

The biter's body collapses onto me, fluids spurting into my mouth from the exposed neck muscles. I push it off before vomiting onto the deck.

Heavy boot steps stomp forward, and I raise my gaze in time to watch another man with an assault rifle square up to the monster.

“Your orders are to operate the boat,” the man snarls, a good foot shorter than the giant he's trying to intimidate.

He spouts off more words I don't hear as the pain in my leg starts to dissipate slowly.

I can't even move it, can't even feel my foot, and as I sit up to assess the damage, more bile rises in my throat before I can stop it.

Because my foot is fucking gone.

Or nearly. A single string of sinew connects it to my ankle, the useless limb dragging behind me when I draw my leg up and scream into the night.

“Shut your fucking mouth.” A hand cracks across my cheek so hard I fly sideways, landing against the side of the boat hard enough to dislocate my shoulder. The impact dazes me, making my head spin, but not enough to miss the monster reach out his hand and snatch the soldier by the throat.

He lifts him off the ground, the man's feet kicking wildly as he tries to free himself, his nails scratching down the monster's arms, gagging and choking for air. His neck snaps under strong fingers before his body is thrown into the river with a loud splash, and then it all goes eerily silent.

The monster watches me. And I watch him back.

Slowly, he moves forward, steps far too quiet for someone his size. I press myself into the side of the boat when he draws near. He reaches out with the hand that just killed a man, and my eyes close in relief as I finally welcome death to take me—

A gentle touch lands on my arm.

My lids fly open in time to see him shove my shoulder back into the socket, scowling harshly when I curse in his face.

Steely eyes meet mine briefly, something like fury and disgust flickering across his features before he raises his gaze to someone coming toward us.

“How bad is it?” A feminine voice, curt and demanding.

The monster shakes his head, lips tightening as he stands and flings a hand out at me, gesturing toward my leg. My foot.

My fucking foot that’s barely connected to my body.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. He's bleeding all over your boat.” Another uniformed figure kneels in front of me, this time a woman with a metallic plate covering half of her shaved head. She studies me clinically, taking in my torn clothes and the dark liquid pooling around me.

Technically, the blood loss should have killed me by now. If I were human, it would have.

A shadow descends from above, startling me with a harsh caw, and my stomach drops when a crow lands on the deck beside me.

Nyx . The Ferryman’s vicious weapon.

She hops forward on bony legs, pecking once at the blood surrounding my leg with a curious head tilt. Then, in a gravelly voice that sends shivers down my spine, she croaks out one word. “Fail.”

“Fucking rotter,” the woman mutters, curling her lip in disgust. “Should have let that biter finish the job.”

“Fuck you,” I snarl, spitting in her face.

“Not my type,” she sneers, wiping off her cheek before getting to her feet. “I prefer non-rotten dick.”

Rotten. How many times have I heard that word slung at me back in Aster’s Hollow? Felt it like a knife in the gut? As if being born with genes that can easily harbour the infection was my fucking choice.

“You hungry?” The uniformed woman smiles at the monster. “Not that he'll feed you much. He's mostly skin and bones.”

Not that I'll…what?

The monster huffs, either in annoyance or excitement, I'm not sure, but nausea makes me dizzy when he steps closer. The lady's words echo in my head.

Feed him. Skin and bones.

He's going to fucking eat me.

“Stay the fuck back!” I try to shout, using my elbows for leverage to slide away.

He's kneeling above me within seconds.

There's a moment where our eyes lock, mine no doubt terrified while his gaze sizes me up like a lamb to slaughter.

My pulse pounds in my ears, heart beating so fast I can't breathe as he takes my calf in one of his meaty hands.

The other grasps my foot tightly, and it takes me exactly five seconds to realize what he's doing .

“No, stop, don't fucking touch me—” My words cut off in a scream when he rips my foot the rest of the way off.

Anything left in my stomach empties as burning, unbearable pain sets my nerves ablaze. A wetness spreads down my leg when my bladder releases, and I writhe in my own mess, begging for the Ferryman to carry me to death.

The world dims, my vision fading around the edges as the flames consume me, and the last thing I see before I'm ash is the flutter of crow's wings while the monster watches me die.