Read Raze & Reap for Free Online

outside for … I didn’t know how long. Years , I thought. Years trapped in a cell without a glimpse of daylight, breathing in stagnant air, a mixture of dampness, mildew, and blood.…
    And death.
    Death had a unique smell, a unique taste. I had breathed it in day and night, tasted it for so long that I found it difficult to breathe in the clean freshness of the outdoors.
    Seeing the other fighters run free and out of the east gate, a guard sprawled on the floor caught my eye, a stab wound to his stomach. 362 was backing away with bloodlust in his eyes, his bloodied sai in his hand—his choice of weapon in our Gulag cage.
    362 watched me approach. “We’re free, 818!” he shouted, his face lit with excitement and his words seemed to echo in my ears, my mind not allowing me to believe it.
    â€œWh-what now?” I asked, looking around the yard filled with dead bodies, the ground drowning with blood, the Gulag’s sirens wailing and prisoners running for the safety of the nearby forests.
    362 dropped his tense shoulders and moved before me. “This is it, 818. It’s what we’ve been waiting so long for. What we’ve survived for.” His eyes brightened and he said, “It’s time for us to seek our revenge.”
    R-E-V-E-N-G-E  … I spelled out each letter in my head, feeling the anger take hold of me. My mind suddenly caught up with my heart telling me my chance had finally come. After years of killing and becoming the monster the guards had wanted me to be, I was going to get my revenge.
    â€œWhere are you going?” I asked 362.
    â€œWest,” he answered darkly. “My retribution lies in the west.”
    362 had been the one to make me write Durov’s name on my cell wall, I didn’t remember him doing that, but he told me he had when I first arrived. He too had a name on his wall. Those inscriptions drove us. They gave us a past when there wasn’t one left in our heads. They gave us a reason to live.
    We stood there, matching each other’s stares, when 362 pressed his hand onto my arm, gripping my bicep tightly.
    â€œGo kill the one that condemned you, 818. You’re ready. You’ve been ready for this day for far too long.”
    Mirroring his action, my hand hit his arm. “You too.”
    362 dropped his hand but looked up to say, “Hopefully we’ll meet again, 818. If not, get back the life you lost and I’ll see you in the next.”
    With a nod of his head, he turned on his heel and sprinted out of the large metal gate. Dropping down to the guard scum, I fisted his shirt, my anger flaring when I saw recognition flash across his face.
    He need be scared. I was going to gut the fucker for keeping me in this hell, for hurting me when I was a kid, for doing things to me when I was a kid …
    â€œDon’t … don’t hurt me!” he cried, and my lip curled in disgust.
    Shaking his puny body until his teeth chattered, I demanded, “Which way to New York?”
    The guard paled and my fists tightened, threatening to choke him. “Which direction?”
    The guard’s mouth opened and closed, but he couldn’t breathe through my grip. I loosened my hold just enough to let the asshole speak.
    â€œEast. New York is east.”
    The sound of trucks approaching in the distance prompted me to lean down and ask, “And where the fuck are we?”
    The guard started to lose consciousness, and by the pool of blood on the floor, gushing from his stomach, I knew it was only a matter of seconds until he passed.
    â€œFucking answer me!” I snarled. “Where the hell are we?”
    â€œAl-Alaska,” he replied.
    I threw him to the ground, done with the bastard now that I’d gotten what I needed. The trucks neared the Gulag and I knew I had only a few minutes to leave before more guards arrived and locked this place down.
    Alik Durov.
    Brooklyn, New