Raven's Hell - Jenika Snow Page 0,2

had tried to eradicate the threat of the infection spreading by killing off the sick, as well as anyone still healthy and on the ground.

Sections of the city were nothing more than crumbled wastelands, burned to the ground, blackened and ash-filled. He stayed though, became the last man standing in his crew and watched everyone around him flee, become infected, or waste away and die.

He sat on the edge of the roof, his feet hanging off the side, the drop thirty stories. The wind picked up, and the stench of the decay below, of the filth that built up in the city and covered it like a sickening blanket, filled his nose. He took another hit off the cigarette, pulled the smoke back, and looked at it.

He had a few cartons at his place before all this shit happened, and during it he acquired a few more cartons, along with other supplies in exchange for helping some people. Because he ran things before the infection, a lot of people in his area looked to him for help. But Collin couldn’t have done anything but wait it out just like everyone else.

“So long,” he said to the smoke, took the final hit, and then flicked it over the ledge. Even from a distance, he could see the infected below, stumbling around, their groans muffled by the expanse. Collin stood and walked back to the rooftop entrance of the apartment building he lived in.

He had the penthouse, and although he lived here comfortably for the last six months, staying was not an option he wanted to exercise anymore. His resources in the city had run out, and if he stayed, he’d die like the rest of this place.

The country seemed like a good place to start his life over, away from this fucking death, the life he once had, and now was the time to leave.

He headed down the stairs and into his place. The sound of moaning came up from the lower levels, and he knew getting through this building and past the fucking infected was going to be a bitch. But he had been preparing for this, plotting out his way to leave the city with as little hassle as possible.

After shutting the door behind him, he leaned against his door and stared at his penthouse apartment.

The entire upper level was his, with an open floor plan he worked for from the floor up. He had everything packed: a backpack with enough supplies—the rest of what he had—a few weapons, and a pair of clothes. Those were the items he’d have to survive on until he found other supplies.

He was smart enough to know that the measures he’d have to take to survive out in the world, to get more supplies, could very well mean he’d have to kill and maim for them.

He walked over, grabbed his coat and backpack, and shoved the jacket inside it. This was it. He was leaving all this shit behind, going to set roots down away from where the stench of death and decay covered the streets, filtered up to the rooftops, and saturated him in vileness.

He didn’t have a shirt on, and his reflection in the wall mirror across from him showed the many scars he had gotten leading a bad life, a few bullet holes in his shoulder, and the raven tattoo that covered his back.

He grabbed his shirt off the couch, and once it was on, he went over to his things. Slinging his bag over his shoulder, taking one more look at the life he once lived, a life that was no more, he set out to start over.

Collin left his apartment, started making his way down the stairwell, and stepped over a few rotting corpses. They wore employee outfits, their bodies partially eaten from the few straggling infected who made their way back here months ago. The smell was intense, but Collin was used to it, used to the death that was part of his world now.

His descent was far, since he had been on the top floor, and when he finally reached the bottom, he stopped, hearing the low groans and shuffling coming from behind one of the two doors.

One exit led out to the back alley, which he knew was thick with infected, and the other went into the employee kitchen. The groaning was coming from the staff entrance, and although he could have taken a big chance and risked going out through the back, he was