The Endgame Chronicles (by Hugh White) novel Chapter 666

Chapter 666

Winona shook her head, still gripping Hayley’s hand tightly.

“Do you just want food?” Hayley asked. “Then go find Leonard. Eat until you’re full and leave.”

Winona didn’t let go. She stared straight into Hayley’s eyes.

“Forget it,” she said quietly, “I’ll go in with you.”

Hayley blinked.

Wait… Since when did she need someone protecting her?

Hayley left Leonard outside to keep watch and stay ready in case something happened. Then she set off toward the settlement with Griffin, Thomas, and the little girl who had suddenly decided to tag along

Winona led them to a remote side entrance. The main gate had guards posted, but the side gate looked almost completely unmonitored.

Once they slipped inside, a cluster of small country villas spread out before them.

This place had clearly been some kind of rural vacation resort before the world fell apart. The roads through the village had been paved, and every cottage looked neat and well-built. Each one had a big yard and a vegetable garden.

Some of those gardens were still growing food.

However, the people here didn’t look like the honest farmers you might expect.

Every single person who noticed Hayley and the others froze and stared.

The ones sitting under the trees, watching the shade, kept staring.

The ones bent over working in the fields lifted their heads and stared.

Even people just walking along the road turned sideways to watch them, their eyes tracking the group like surveillance cameras.

Under all those eyes, Winona’s grip on Hayley’s sleeve tightened until her knuckles turned white. She pressed closer to Hayley’s side.

Luckily, Hayley had two men with her.

Thomas was big and broad-shouldered, with a face that practically warned people not to mess with him. Without that kind of presence, Hayley had a feeling the crowd might’ve rushed them and eaten her and Winona right there in the street.

Griffin would’ve probably ended up on the menu, too.

Hayley slipped an arm around the girl beside her.

Winona looked up.

When her eyes met Hayley’s, something shifted. For the first time since the apocalypse began, she felt the faintest sense of safety.

Then a scream tore through the air.

415 BOKA

“Ahh!”

The sound was raw and animal-like, full of pain.

Winona’s entire body went stiff.

“That’s the meat market,” she whispered.

But Hayley and the others were already staring toward the source of the sound.

What they saw was enough to shake anyone to the core.

A woman was tied to a wooden post with both hands bound above her. She wasn’t wearing anything. Her body was pressed down against a large butcher’s block. She looked like livestock, like a sheep or a pig.

Behind her stood a heavyset man who looked exactly like a butcher, a large cleaver raised high in his hand.

The blade came down.

Before the girl could see it, Hayley covered Winona’s eyes. At the same time, Griffin’s hand immediately covered Hayley’s.

The smell of blood drifted through the air, along with another piercing scream.

“Stop! What the hell are you doing?!”

Thomas’s whole body was shaking as he rushed forward.

The butcher slowly lifted his head, his eyes bloodshot as he looked at the man charging toward him.

“You buying meat?” he asked flatly. “A pound for a pound.”

Standing off to the side, Hayley finally understood what Winona had meant earlier.

The “meat market.”

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify