Trapped Read online

  ABOUT TRAPPED: ORIGINAL (ABRIDGED) EDITION

  WARNING: Due to mature content, recommended for 18+. Also includes dominant/submissive themes with alpha male.

  Serena is between a rock and a hard place.

  A military experiment gone wrong has sent her world crashing down—along with everybody else’s—as a mysterious disease turns living, breathing, red-blooded people into mindless weapons of destruction.

  Supplies have run so low that her husband leaves to find food and never returns.

  Serena finds herself alone, preparing for inevitable death from starvation when her husband’s best friend, Steven, shows up to her rescue.

  After seeing his best friend turn, Steven knows what he must do: protect and save his old buddy’s wife, the only person he has left now that his whole family and everyone else he cared about is gone.

  Only Serena is not just his undead best friend’s girl—Steven has had a secret crush on Serena for almost as long as he’s known her, doing everything in his power to hide it from his buddy while he was alive.

  And now, at the horrible price of losing his best friend, he has a chance to be with her.

  But would Serena ever give him a chance, given their circumstances? Or, considering the broken down state of the world and its rules, should he just take it?

  Trapped is the first in the sci-fi Bite-Sized Romance series.

  NOTE: THIS IS THE ORIGINAL, ABRIDGED EDITION (ABOUT 18,000 WORDS).

  THE EXPANDED EDITION IS TWICE THE LENGTH (36,000 WORDS) AND INCLUDES A PROLOGUE, ADDITIONAL SCENES, AND A WHOLE NEW SECTION (PART TWO). NOW AVAILABLE!

  TRAPPED

  ORIGINAL (ABRIDGED) EDITION

  By

  Rose Francis

  THE BITE-SIZED ROMANCE SERIES

  BOOK 0.5

  Poison Arrow Publishing

  Copyright © 2013 by Rose Francis

  All rights reserved.

  First ARe Edition: September 2013

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted or circulated in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Cover photo by Alexander Tihonov aka Amok.

  Cover design by PAPDesign.

  Biohazard symbol © User:Equations / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  ABOUT: TRAPPED: ORIGINAL (ABRIDGED) EDITION

  CHAPTER ONE: ESCAPE

  CHAPTER TWO: ILLUMINATION

  CHAPTER THREE: DANGER

  CHAPTER FOUR: ADMISSION

  CHAPTER FIVE: STALLING

  CHAPTER SIX: TRAPPED

  CHAPTER SEVEN: RESISTANCE

  CHAPTER EIGHT: CONFESSIONS

  CHAPTER NINE: INSATIABLE

  CHAPTER TEN: SURRENDER

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  EXCERPT FROM PLAYING WITH FIRE

  CHAPTER ONE: ESCAPE

  Serena cowered more as the thunderous knocking came again, even harder than the previous bout of pounding.

  Surely the door would come off its hinges with that kind of force.

  “Serena, open up!” the masculine voice behind it said. “If you’re in there and you don’t open up in the next twenty seconds, I’m literally going to blow the door away, so stand away from it!”

  Serena recognized the voice that had been shouting at her for the past half a minute, and all the logic she had left told her it was safe to open her door to the man behind it, since there was no way he was there to harm her. He’d been sent to help her, no doubt.

  He might have even found her husband.

  She felt a surge of hope as she forced herself to unwind from her balled up position against the wall, exhaling a weak: “Coming!” as she headed for the door.

  She peeked through the peephole to confirm identity, and saw a familiar dirty blonde head with a worked-up reddish face staring back at the door as if trying to see through it.

  Serena carefully opened the door to him.

  Steven let out an unabashed breath of relief as his sky-colored eyes took her in, and his arms relaxed momentarily.

  “Come with me,” he said, his words immediately more gentle as he indicated the way with what looked like an AK-47.

  Serena couldn’t help thinking how much he looked like a blonde, blue-eyed Rambo in the moment, his muscular, capable arms flexing as they moved, his blue eyes confident and commanding.

  Serena knew little of guns, but the rifle he held reminded her of what she’d seen in news images from mass shootings when that particular weapon was mentioned.

  Steven was also visibly strapped with other weapons, a Glock among them, and she guessed more hid under his clothes.

  She recognized the Glock because it was the one weapon she was a bit familiar with—Steven had given both her and her husband gun lessons a few years ago.

  Serena also knew in that moment that there was absolutely no room for refusal or doubt given Steven’s military history, so she obeyed immediately, fighting back the desire to hug him, although she wasn’t sure why—the two of them had sort of become friends through her husband, striking up an easy friendship as if they, too, had known each other from school days. They even had an ongoing rivalry and battle-of-wits with the Words With Friends game whenever he was in town, both pretending to be the master strategist although she beat him just about every time.

  Plus, Serena hadn’t seen another human in over a week since her husband left to find food for them, and before that, it had been just her and her husband for the month and a half since the world was hit by what appeared to be a Zombie-like outbreak.

  All telecommunications went down soon after the haunting government messages and warnings came screeching through televisions and phones about the breakout, and weeks later, she and her husband had both been about to starve to death, having eaten and drunk everything from the cupboards and fridge of their fifth-floor apartment unit.

  Serena had had plans to go grocery-shopping the next day, having put it off for over a week before the government warnings came in, and now it was suddenly too late for any of them to safely leave their home.

  She and Gregory managed their supplies for a few weeks, Serena jokingly reminding him she’d successfully done the Master Cleanse twice in the past and could handle a drastic reduction in intake, but eventually they were pretty much down to spices.

  “We can’t continue like this,” Gregory said as she got ready to combine the last of the corn meal with the questionable water now flowing from their faucet for their next, and probably last meal.

  They had both lost about twenty pounds in the five weeks since the outbreak—since a large portion of the population had suddenly turned into dull, lumbering bodies intent on human destruction. Since the grids shut down, electricity suddenly a vague memory.

  “You’re smaller than when I met you, and you were, what, a two or four then? How much longer do you think we can go without food or water? Look at me,” Gregory said.

  She took in his thin body, smaller than she’d ever seen him, and his thick, wavy dark hair—dull instead of its usual gloss for once.

  “I have to do this,” he said. “We’ll both die here, and I can’t do that—I can’t just let you die without trying to save you.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Serena said, unable to accept what his departure could mean.

  He shook his head. “You can’t—that makes no sense. You’ll only be putting yourself in danger, and why should b
oth of us be in danger? It’ll be harder for me to look out for you out there. Look, it’s one thing to slowly die of hunger here, but another to have your entrails ripped out and your face eaten off by them. At least in here, you still have a chance; I feel better you’re at least unreachable here, and can maybe survive a bit longer. Someone could find you here and help you.”

  “You expect me to just let you go out there and die? Stay here with me then!”

  “And have us both just die here without even trying? I already told you—I can’t just stay here and do nothing to help us survive. I vowed to protect you, to do everything in my power to make sure you’re happy and safe. And that’s what I’m going to do.”

  “You do realize what you’re doing by leaving?”

  He grabbed her hands and his eyes held tears.

  “I know exactly what I’m doing—I’m trying to save your life. If I don’t return in three days, just know I did everything I could. I love you sweetheart, and I’m sorry.”

  He embraced her, and they both cried, kissing each other, knowing it could be the last time.

  “I don’t feel right about leaving,” Serena suddenly said to Steven, even as she followed him down the hall toward the staircase. “Is Gregory out there? Are you taking me to him?”

  Steven didn’t look at her. He just kept moving as if through a battlefield, as if prepared for a ghoul to jump out of the wall any moment, despite the low chance they could have found their way up the elevator on the other side of her floor. The diseased figures seemed quite brainless, and would likely not figure out the buttons.

  “He’s out there,” Steven finally said.

  “Where?” she almost shouted, her heartbeat tripling.

  Steven shrugged, and the look on his face made Serena’s heart start slowing back down.

  “I’m hoping we run into him along the way,” Steven said, still not looking at her.

  “Wait, then how did you know I was here? You haven’t spoken to him? Why should I go with you? He might come back here looking for me!”

  Steven seemed to close his eyes for the briefest of moments, and Serena ignored the feeling of dread building in her stomach.

  “Serena, don’t be silly. Look, I have supplies, and you’re clearly weak with hunger—I mean look at you! You’re practically half the woman I met. Just come downstairs with me and let me feed you at least; I can help you. My whole mission coming here was to find you and take you to safety. We’ll camp right outside the building in my car if you want, and you can wait here for him as long as you feel. I can keep you safe while we wait and you just let me know when you’re ready to go.”

  Serena relaxed as she continued following him as he kept his gun ready. They began making their way down the five flights of stairs.

  CHAPTER TWO: ILLUMINATION

  Steven had had his share of battles and wars, had stared down death in the midst of gunfire, and had taken leaps of faith from many military helicopters. He had battled enemies—human and otherwise—as a part of his life since leaving high school for the army and beyond, but the internal battle waged when Serena opened her door to him rocked him like no other.

  Steven experienced the full range of human emotions as he knew them separately all at once: relief and joy to find her alive, dismay and horror at her changed appearance, tenderness and care for her well-being, immense hatred and anger toward the forces behind the cause of it, and a deep compassion and regret for the terrible news he had to give her at some point. And underneath it all was something he didn’t want to acknowledge yet again, something he had worked hard to suppress for almost three years. And there was something else, something he couldn’t quite put words to—like a happy dread he couldn’t risk examining at the moment.

  He shook off all his emotions and refocused, and as much as he wanted to, dared not touch Serena in case hugging her brought all his emotions back, despite how happy he was to see her alive. He had to get her to safety—they had to leave San Diego and get to the safe base that had been communicated to him, fast.

  * * *

  As they hit the open, outside air, Steven continued clearing the way in his practiced manner, then, before Serena could register the meaning of the quick positioning of his left arm, a shot rang out. Serena almost didn’t notice the bluish grey-skinned body fall as a circle of dirty red appeared in its forehead, so struck was she by the ‘car’ Steven was leading them to.

  She marveled that the shock of the sight of the military vehicle almost equalled that of seeing someone who was once human get shot in the head.

  “We have to kill them all if we’re going to survive as a race,” Steven said as he put the Glock away, still holding the rifle with his right hand.

  It took Serena a second to realize he meant the human race rather than his white race.

  She tried not to look at the fallen body near what looked like a tank.

  “This is your car?” she said in a failed effort to fully distract herself from what had just happened, unable to keep her eyes from darting to the motionless body near it.

  “Are you really surprised?” Steven said, still not looking at her, too busy with his continued assessment of the open area.

  She knew she shouldn’t have been surprised at all. Of course a guy like him would have access to the military’s equipment. He was military equipment. Still, she couldn’t help her shock.

  “It’s an APC,” he said.

  “Meaning?”

  “Armoured personnel carrier.”

  Finally, Steven seemed to relax a bit as his arms dropped, and he headed for the body he’d dropped, dragging it away from the vehicle.

  Then he lit a match and set the body on fire.

  Serena stared, mouth hanging open.

  “The APC’s loaded with supplies,” Steven said, coming back toward her as if nothing had happened. “It’ll be a bit tight and stuffy back there, but I think it’ll have all you need. For now anyway.”

  Serena watched the body burning in the distance, growing flames licking the air.

  “Burning them ensures the virus doesn’t get to pass on,” he said, joining her in watching the captivating flames.

  Then he nudged her back to life, helping her into the vehicle. Following her, he closed them in securely.

  Serena didn’t know where to start as she took in the mounds of food supplies.

  “Well, go ahead,” Steven said, then put his hands on his stomach. “I’ve already had my fill.”

  Serena began with a few granola bars since they were closest, tearing off the wrappers, and unashamed at the pace and ferocity she attacked the food with.

  * * *

  Steven watched Serena stuff herself in satisfaction. It warmed him to be able to do something for her, to be able to protect her, to feed her. To have the chance to take her to safety.

  What he was supposed to be doing was tracking turned humans, mowing them down, taking out as many as he could. But he couldn’t go on without knowing where Serena stood—if she was okay. Once he knew there was a chance she was still alive and normal, he knew he had to save her.

  He was so happy when he realized she was still untouched, then felt a crushing guilt about his best friend. Not only did he not have the heart to tell Serena that Gregory had turned, he didn’t have the heart to take Gregory out when he had the chance as he came upon him a few miles from their current location.

  Steven saw the degenerated form of his ex-best friend, the animalistic hunger in his filmy, coated eyes but failed to act. Steven’s duty for the past fourteen years of his life had been to the U.S. military, his country, the safety of the world, and now his duty to humanity involved taking out creatures like Gregory so they couldn’t keep spreading the disease that turned human beings into Morphs—single-minded creatures of destruction. His training since high school was to have the fortitude to pull that trigger when needed; hesitation—or worse, refusal—was never an option. But in that moment of locking eyes with his old buddy, he couldn’t do
it. All he could see when he looked at his friend’s ghoulish form was the guy he had known since third grade. All he saw in those eyes was yet another change to see him through—like a passing emotion, a seasonal phase. And so he let him go as he left to find Serena, knowing he could be responsible for the turning and ultimate death of others.

  Guilt gnawed at him.

  He didn’t have the heart to do the right thing in that moment, and he still didn’t have the heart to tell Serena that her husband was gone forever.

  And he definitely couldn’t tell her that part of him was glad to finally have her all to himself.

  Steven couldn’t deny it any longer, didn’t bother to try. He hadn’t had the mental space to think about it while worried about her safety—his top priority making sure she was alive. He had already lost everyone close to him, and couldn’t imagine she was gone too—she was his last tie to him caring about anything.

  All those times he had thought he was becoming more machine than man as he returned from places where nightmares came to life, he thawed out in the company of his friends and family, discovered most of his hardness was just armor, a temporary shell. He eventually melted back into teasing, laughter, and silliness. He became nearly fully human again.

  But in the past year, his family had stopped bringing out the humanity in him as it became clear they were just waiting for him to die so they could claim all his belongings, properties, and the pretty pennies in bank accounts paid for his life. It was only in the company of his childhood friends, Gregory and Jason, that he found normalcy. And when she appeared or hung out with them, he felt even more alive—Serena stirred him in ways they couldn’t.