The Scourge (Book 6): The Last Tomb Read online

  Contents

  Title page

  Copyright

  Disclaimer

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Thank you

  THE LAST TOMB

  The Scourge Book 6

  by

  Phil Maxey

  Copyright © 2020 by Philip Maxey

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  First Printing, 2020.

  http://philmaxeyauthor.com/

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales, is purely coincidental.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Barry sat on the RV’s floor, under the rear window with his knees up against his chest. In his hands was a small flashlight, the only source of light, and he made sure to keep it pointed down. The prison’s siren wailed in the distance.

  “They’re going to come back… they’re going to come back…” he whispered.

  They had left the RV in a driveway of a two story home, in a once nice neighborhood, roughly six miles from the southeastern walls. The only sign of the scourge was a few smashed windows and the dark red mark that they parked on top of, and until the siren filled the night with terror the suburban street had been completely silent.

  A noise came from somewhere outside, and he flicked his head in that direction.

  A year ago he would have dismissed the sound as a critter looking for food amongst the trash, but he was pretty sure all the small creatures had been exterminated by much larger predators.

  It’s just the wind. Don’t be a baby…

  It happened again making him shudder. This time it was clearly something scratching across concrete. He stood and walked slowly out of the back room and into the main aisle. The drapes were closed and the door locked but he placed a finger on the latch to make sure it was down anyway.

  He stood frozen, waiting for the sound to repeat but there was only the noise of what was happening at the prison. He started to walk back to the rear room but stopped. What if there was something outside? Shouldn’t he know?

  He walked to the drapes at the back of the driving compartment, and pulled the edge of one back slightly, making sure to keep his light pointed at the floor.

  He let out a breath. Clouds covered the moon but he was still able to see the front of the drive and the street beyond and it was completely empty.

  He moved to the right-side window and pulled the—

  A vamp was standing a foot away between him and the fence. He immediately dropped the curtain as it began to swing around.

  It didn’t see me. It’s—

  Something heavy slammed into the side door, making him jump back. He ran in the back room closing the flimsy partition, as another impact made the RV rock and now a screeching, snarling sound was all Barry could hear outside.

  He slid to the floor placing his back against the door, as the impacts became heavier and heavier when suddenly he heard the latch break and the door fly open. A smell of old rotten clothes wafted past him and the floor creaked as something labored up the metal steps.

  It can smell me. It will know where I am…

  He looked at the drapes a few feet in front of him, and the windows beyond, but knew they were all sealed.

  No way out…

  His world had reduced to a six-foot square space, and his beating heart in his ears was all he could hear.

  Plastic and wood split as the thing on the other side of the door, slowly slid a nail down the center. Barry looked up in horror, swinging his light around, wanting to run, but not having anywhere to go.

  Gonna die, gonna die, gonna—

  He yelled as the door exploded into fragments and the creature with fangs and claws burst through. He scrambled across the bed, but the thing caught his calf, slicing it. He screamed in pain then collapsed into the gap between the bed and rear wall. A final useless refuge.

  “Get away from me!” he cried out, as the vamp slowly came around the front of the bed until it could see its next victim.

  Its smiling. Its happy it’s going to kill me…

  Barry closed his eyes. He would be with his mother soon.

  There was a sound of breaking glass and the ripping of fabric. He flicked his eyes open to the vamp shaking, while flailing its arms at the walls looking for support. Its demonic face appeared stuck in an anguish he had not seen before, and then it fell beyond the front of the bed.

  Barry got up slowly, walked forward and peered down at the thing that was still moving, but appeared to be convulsing, its skin covered in black veins…

  An engine roared at the end of the street outside, but he was too shocked at what had just happened, to fully notice.

  Brakes screeched and light from a vehicle squeezed through the drapes at the front of the RV, lighting the rear wall to his right. He pulled his eyes away from the thing on the floor, climbed over the bed, through the hole and to the front, then pulled the drape back. Anna’s pickup was parked out front. Without thinking he ran down the steps and threw his arms around her just as she got out.

  *****

  “Shouldn’t we stay off the main road!” shouted Corine from the rear seat of the pickup.

  “I can’t see him? Is he still up there?” said Kizzy, trying to look out of the window to the sky above.

  Joel had the gas to the floor, but he wished it was further. The siren was rapidly growing distant, but he knew the corporation’s people wouldn’t be far behind. He also couldn’t reach Anna on the radio.

  “Anna? Are you—”

  Her voice came from his speaker. “Joel! I’m at the rendezvous point with Barry. Are you okay? Did you get them? Over.”

  “Got them. Dalton’s got a chest injury, but he’ll live, Amos and Kizzy are fine. We’re about—” A man lay in the middle of the road. Joel had flashbacks to Marina’s husband, but this time managed to swerve around the obstacle, avoiding the pylons and street lamps and skidded to a stop.

  “What the fuck!” said Corine.

  Joel looked around. “Is everyone okay?”

  Kizz
y was rubbing her head. “What happened?”

  Joel pushed open his door, grabbing his M4 and looked into the shadows, then at the prison lights some miles to the west. He was sure he could feel the distant vibrations of vehicles. The body on the ground wasn’t moving. “Hey!” he shouted while raising the barrel. There was no reaction from the body twenty-feet away, which his senses told him was still alive.

  Amos flicked his head to the side, then pushed her door open.

  “Stay inside!” Joel shouted to him but the young man ran around the back of the pickup.

  “I think I know him,” said Amos walking forward.

  Joel ran alongside as they both approached the person strewn across the concrete.

  “You got a flashlight?” said Amos to Joel.

  He produced one from his jacket then highlighted the face of an old man with a collar around his neck.

  “He must have escaped… I know him. We met in the prison yard earlier.”

  Joel could now hear the sound of engines. “Help me get him into the back of the pickup. Corporation will be here within minutes.” As they moved quickly to the bed, he looked up into the night sky, sensing Copeland was still with them.

  Hasn’t bailed yet.

  They placed the old man next to a seated Dalton.

  “Aren’t you going to break his collar?” said Amos.

  Joel closed the back. “Not until I know if he’s a threat or not. Get back in.”

  It wasn’t long before they pulled up behind Anna’s pickup.

  Joel pushed the door open and she rushed into his arms. They briefly kissed, then became conscious of the show they were putting on for those behind them. He went to speak, when Anna’s eyes became big and a gust of wind washed across them both.

  “It’s a Drak!” she shouted.

  “He’s with us!”

  She looked at Joel completely confused. “What?”

  Copeland’s huge wings beat near the ground, then he landed, wavering, then stood fully. He lumbered towards them both.

  “I don’t have time to explain. But Copeland, Anna. Anna, Copeland.”

  She flipped between the towering creature and Joel. “What?”

  Joel placed his hand on her shoulder trying to get her attention. “Anna!” she looked at him. “We have to go. They are coming!”

  “Err… okay.” Dalton got out of the pickup. She quickly moved to him, examining his wound, and nodded back to the Drak. “You’re going to have to tell me how that happened.” He grumbled in reply as she helped him up the steps of the RV.

  Copeland stood near Joel. “We cannot stay here. We do not have long.”

  Joel briefly looked up, while being aware of Amos in the pickup’s passenger seat, watching them both. “We’re leaving.” He nodded towards the back of the pickup. “There’s space in the back, if you need to… rest or something.”

  “What is your plan? You had your chance to kill Rynon and you failed.”

  Anger began to bubble within Joel. This time he looked up and held the cat-like eyes in his gaze. “They’ll be another time. Right now we have to get to the Florida coast. Find a ship, boat, anything we can and head south.”

  The Drak’s expression changed, his head tilting a little, but before he could speak the prison’s siren stopped and he looked to the east. “How many will be leaving these shores?” he said, studying the lights in the distance.

  “Everyone here. Why?”

  Copeland looked down at Joel. “Because I have a better way to do that.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Rynon paced up and down inside the prison’s sport recreational room. Gym equipment sat against one side, while a basketball half-court and hoop the other. The raven-haired woman from the yard stood behind him, while others sat nearby and on a TV screen was a live feed of Galen and Adrian Kee on their knees, with two hybrid soldiers standing behind them.

  The king stopped then looked at those trying not to show their fear. “How could this be allowed to happen!”

  One of those on the seats kept repeating the same phrase, “praise be to the scourge,” over and over.

  A middle-aged woman with shoulder length dark wavy hair tried not to frown at the strange man next to her. She looked at Rynon. “I can track the girl.”

  He looked at her as if seeing her for the first time. “And who are you?”

  Margery went to speak, but a man around her age, wearing a suit, spoke first. “That is Margery Wilson, sir, she is a type—”

  Rynon held his hand up. “I know what a tracker does.”

  “I made contact with the girl, a day ago. Would have gotten closer, but…”

  “And you can find her? And the others?”

  She nodded. “If I got a piece of her clothing, or something she’s been close too, yeah.”

  “Sire, if I may—”

  Rynon whipped around to face the large screen, stopping Galen from continuing. “There was a girl on the roof, who was moving the metal construction…” He walked closer to the digital representations of the two humans, who were roughly a hundred miles to the southwest. They both were visibly shaking. “Could she have been the Alkron that escaped the blood farm days ago, Galen? The one that you said you would find within twenty-four hours?”

  “I… there…”

  Rynon turned away. “Kill them both.”

  “No, sire!”

  “Wait!” said Adrian.

  The guards held their assault rifles to the heads of the two below them.

  “I know where the other two tablets are!” shouted Adrian.

  Rynon slowly turned. The soldiers looked at the camera pointing at them, hesitating to shoot, then lowered their weapons when the king gestured. “I am not Copeland, human. If you are lying, your death would not be quick as it would have just been.”

  Adrian shook his head nervously. “I’m not lying. I won’t do that. We had intel that they were on an island, now we know which one!”

  Rynon nodded. “Hmm… interesting. Okay, just kill Galen.”

  The eyes of the gaunt looking older individual grew large but before words could leave his mouth, there was a boom and blood sprayed across Adrian’s face. Galen fell face forwards onto the smooth floor. Adrian’s mouth hung open as he watched the pool of blood grow.

  “And where is it?”

  Adrian looked back at the camera. “Err… If I tell you. You will just kill me…”

  “This may be true. But if you do not tell me, I will definitely kill you. Your choice human.” He gestured towards the solder behind the scientist.

  “Okay! Stop! They are at an old base on the island of Puerto Rico!..” He hunkered down, his head receding into his shoulders. “Please don’t kill me…”

  The barrel wavered behind his head.

  “And where is that?”

  Adrian looked up. “In the Bahamas…err… off the south coat of Florida, then south.”

  The king exchanged a brief look with the woman behind him, then looked at the camera.

  “Very well human. I will let you live for—”

  The door to the room swung open and Eltir and Faulkner entered, the older brother with concern written across his face. Before he could speak Rynon raised his hand. “Yes brother, Copeland has gone, as well as some Alkrons but we will find them, and we now have the location of two of the tablets.” He looked at Faulkner then to Margery. “Go with this woman. She says she can track those that escaped. Find them, but do not engage. Just relay that information to us.” Faulkner nodded, while Margery stood. He nodded to the distraught man who had not stopped babbling to himself the entire time. “And take that thing with you.” The three of them quickly left. He then looked at the governor of the prison, the man in charge of ‘re-education.’ “You told me some weeks ago Becker, that you can turn the Alkrons that we capture into an army. Do you still stand by your word?”

  “Umm yes. Yes indeed… but we need more time, some of them are…” The king’s expression made him stop talking and j
ust nod.

  “They will be my legion. Talk to the human female… Iona. I want them ready to leave by the morning.”

  “But—” On seeing the king’s reaction to another possible question, Becker put his head down and left.

  As soon as the door closed, Eltir walked briskly to this brother. “Tyror died because of your games Rynon! Just kill the humans! Be done with them!”

  “We cannot kill them all, Eltir…” said the woman. The older brother threw her a look of hate, but she held his gaze.

  “This is not your business Rosetta.”

  She walked slowly to Rynon and placed a hand on his shoulder, her eyes not leaving the older brother. “We have information, that you do not.”

  Eltir looked at his brother. “What?”

  “My contact with the humans has told me they have found Freon’s tomb…”

  Eltir’s eyes grew large. “Where?”

  “They will not tell me, but have agreed to destroy it.”

  “And you are trusting them?”

  Rynon walked away leaving Rosetta’s hand to slide from his shoulder. “Of course not brother, but they were heading south with the other humans… south to the coast, where they boarded a ship…”

  “Which just so happens,” said Rosetta. “To be sailing in the same direction as where we were told the tablets are…”

  Eltir looked away. “That cannot be… coincidence…”

  Rynon sat. “No brother, it cannot.”

  *****

  “And we’re really going to trust him? Over.” said Anna into her radio. She was awkwardly driving the RV, while Joel was driving her pickup. The other they left behind.

  Joel took a moment then held his radio to his lips. “Amos says he’s telling us the truth. He’s got a plane at Lake Tahoe airport. Over.” There was no reply. He continued. “But no, I don’t trust him. It’s a risk. But flying south is better than the kings chasing us across the southern states for days. Over.”

  “And Amos will know if he lies? Over.”