Page 1 of Camriel
Chapter One
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“YOU THINK YOU CAN TAKEme, mother fudgers?”Victoria Tudor called out, taunting her adversaries.Dressed in black Lycra despite the cold midnight temperature, she was crouched in a defensive position that did nothing to reduce her bulk.“Come get it, you cork sucking azzholes!”she added with a smirk.
“She’s crazy,” one of the four men who’d cornered her in Central Park muttered.Like most people roaming the city, their clothes were filthy.They hadn’t showered since the water and electricity had shut down.
“Yeah, but at least she’s clean and she doesn’t look diseased,” another retorted.
“We outnumber her and we’ve got weapons,” a third delinquent said, but his tone was doubtful.
“She’s twice your size,” the fourth man said with a sneer at his thin friend.“I’ll handle her,” he added, supremely confident that he could win a fight against a lone female opponent.
Victoria’s smirk widened as she listened to their whispers.Her hearing had always been exceptional.Balancing her weight on the balls of her feet, she was ready to spring into action.Her midnight runs through Central Park since the world had ended a week ago had changed dramatically.They’d morphed into death sports during the past few nights.She’d lured these losers to a clump of trees for some privacy.
“Yeah, that’s it,” Victoria crooned, beckoning to the biggest one to come closer.“I’m going to send you to hell along with your teeny weeny peenie friends,” she said, knowing exactly where to hit guys like him where it hurt.
“I’m hung like a bear,” the big guy said, cupping his junk for emphasis.“I’m gonna split you in half when I-yurk!”
Victoria cut off his monologue by lunging forward to grab him by the throat.He dropped his knife, instinctively clawing at her thick wrist as she picked him up like he was a toddler.Laughing like a loon, she twirled him around above her head, drawing attention from everyone in the nearby vicinity when he screeched in alarm.
“What the hell is that?”one of his friends asked as bright red light flared in the sky.
All three of them tilted their heads back to stare upwards.Even Victoria paused in spinning her opponent around.Still holding him in the air, she peered at the sky to see a dazzling meteor shower.Glowing red tails trailed behind the rocks that seemed to be heading straight for New York.
The thug she was about to dispatch was gaping at the comets in wonder.“It’s beautiful,” he murmured.
“It’s also the last thing you’ll ever see,” Victoria told him, then slammed him down onto her raised knee, snapping his spine in several places.She’d never imagined using any of her wrestling moves to actually harm people, let alone kill them, yet here she was.
“She killed him!”one of his friends shouted in dismay.
They rushed at her with their knives raised and she let her instincts take over.The ominous glow of the meteors bathed the city in a scarlet glare as the muscular, Lycra-clad female took on her opponents.“Take that, azzhole!”she exclaimed, kicking the lead dude in the gut and sending him flying backwards.
The other two men reached her and she caught their wrists as their weapons descended.“What the hell are you?”the thinnest guy asked plaintively.
“I’m Victory, the most fearsome female wrestler in New York,” Victoria said, then bent their wrists back, snapping their bones.
Wailing in pain and terror, they didn’t get a chance to flee.The fighter snatched their knives up from the ground and rammed the blades into their hearts.
The fourth man she’d kicked scrambled to his feet.He took off running, sparing a terrified look at her over his shoulder.He screamed when he saw she was right on his heels.
“Gotcha!”Victoria declared triumphantly when she grabbed hold of his sweater by the hood.Yanked off his feet, his legs kicked the air ineffectually as she snatched the knife out of his hand and tossed it away.“Do you have any last words?”she asked, shaking him as he desperately tried not to choke to death.
“Screw you,” he gasped, face turning red from lack of air.
“Fudge you, too,” the wrestler retorted, then used her free hand to wrench his head sharply to the side.“That’s four losers tonight already,” she said, dropping the corpse and wiping her hands on her tight pants.
Everyone who’d witnessed the short battle was wise enough to slink into the shadows when she glanced around.Now that the danger was over, she could concentrate on the meteors.
The scarlet glow grew brighter as the space rocks fell faster and faster.Everyone in the city who was awake stared in awe, wondering if this was another sign of the end times.The Rapture had taken everyone who was good, leaving only the bad and people with questionable morals behind.Like Victoria, the survivors were still trying to deal with their new reality.
“If I was religious, I’d probably think this was a bad omen,” Victoria murmured as the comets zoomed ever closer.
“We’re doomed!”an old woman shouted from somewhere else in the park.“Doomed!”she repeated, drawing the word out and ending it in a mad cackle.
“No shiz,” Victoria said with an eyeroll.
All movement stopped, including the endless battles over food and water as the red light became bright enough for half the country to see it.Squinting, Victoria lifted her hand to shield her eyes.“They’re going to destroy Manhattan,” she predicted, then braced herself for the impact.
