by Darcy Coates
Dorran hit the brakes, pulling the bus to a shuddering halt.
The shape’s base rose off the floor, seemed to hover as it drifted towards them, then stabbed back down to land on the road. Its base was pointed and looked sharp.
It’s a leg. Clare’s heart skipped. She followed the shape up to where its top nearly vanished among the shadows of the ceiling… to where it merged with a body.
Five more legs descended from the malformed creature. Two of them glided forward, stabbing into the road, bringing the whole being into terrible relief. Legs bent as the body descended. Two heads attached to the distorted torso gaped at them: one near where the shoulder should be, the other in the centre of its chest. The eyes were witless, but the jaws stretched as it moved more of its impossibly long, stick-like legs to pace towards them. It was immense. The tunnel was wide enough for two lanes and high enough to carry trucks, and the hollow filled the entire space.
Dorran barked an involuntary noise, something between revulsion and fear. Colour had drained from his face as his wide eyes stared up at the creature. It raised one of its six legs. The tip looked horribly sharp. Clare had a sudden image of it piercing the roof of the bus, stabbing into them, impaling them. The metal structure was sturdy enough that the regular hollows couldn’t break inside, but something told her the enormous creature could cut through the metal like a can opener.
“Drive!” she screamed.
Clare wanted only to be away from the many-legged behemoth, and as far as her brain was concerned, driving faster would get them away from it. She had no time to reconsider the instruction or think about the fact that the creature blocked the road, because Dorran obeyed as soon as the word left her mouth. The engine roared, and the bus surged forward, ploughing towards the legs with reckless abandon.
He really shouldn’t trust me so much. The inane thought came out of nowhere, and through the haze of panic, Clare had the impulse to laugh. Instead, she reached forward and planted her arms into the dash in an effort to brace herself.
The legs blocked the road, as thick as young trees. Clare knew they had to be made of bone, though. And bone could be fragile if hit hard enough.
The raised leg aimed towards them and began to descend. The bus lurched as Dorran threw the wheel. Rubber screeched as they spun, and the limb stabbed into the place they would have been. A small crater appeared in the concrete as the sharpened tip impacted it.
Dorran swivelled the wheel back in the other direction, checking the bus before it could tip over. They were heading straight for one of the legs. There was no time to correct. Clare put her head down and squeezed her eyes closed. The seatbelt snapped hard into her chest as the impact threw her forward. A horrible cracking sound rattled around them. She saw the leg bend across the bus’s front. The bones splintered like a snapped branch, their shards poking through a thin layer of grey skin.
Then the leg rose, and the bus was charging forward, past the monster. Clare twisted to see behind them. In the faint red glow of their brake lights, the creature toppled. It seemed to move in slow motion, each of the six legs scraping off the floor as its centre of gravity dragged it down. Screams, wrenched out of two inhuman mouths, echoed through the tunnel as the body hit the ground. Clare’s last glimpse was of the sharpened leg tips twitching as they tried to right the body again.
Dorran didn’t make any sound. He sat back in his seat, eyes wide and unblinking, perspiration shining on his face as the odometer rose dangerously high. The bus rattled around them. Part of Clare wanted him to slow down. Another part wanted him to go even faster. Neither thought could be expressed. She had no breath left for anything except feeding oxygen into her racing heart.
Then light appeared ahead of them. The arch-like glow was one of the sweetest things Clare had ever seen.
“Slow,” Clare choked out, grabbing Dorran’s arm.
He tapped the brake, and the dangerous trajectory eased off as they neared the tunnel’s end. They were just in time. The road outside the tunnel curved sharply to the right, and Dorran had to slow to a crawl to handle the bend.
Then they were descending the mountain, once again surrounded by trees and light. The tunnel felt like a feverish nightmare, as though Clare had lost consciousness for twenty minutes before opening her eyes again, as though it couldn’t possibly have been real. But the bus’s front held a new, deep dent. Their memento from the creature’s spider-like leg.
Dorran and Clare didn’t speak as they descended the mountain. Dorran’s pulse jumped in his throat, and Clare let him focus on navigating the twisting roads. There was no chance to stop. Hollows had heard them coming and appeared through the trees. Soon, a new collection of the monsters darted through the shadows behind them, trying to catch up to the bus. Dorran kept the pace aggressive. Within another fifteen minutes, the path eased out into the foothills, and the trees cleared. Most of the hollows gave up as they lost their cover. The few persistent ones were soon lost as the open road allowed more speed.
Dorran drove until they reached a gentle hill with views of the land around them, then he pulled onto the side of the road and parked the bus. He turned to her and ran a hand over her neck. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah, I’m good.” Her voice shook despite her best efforts.
Dorran exhaled, his shoulders dropping. “Stay here and keep warm. I’ll check there isn’t any damage to the engine.”
He brushed past her, opening the door, and a gust of cold air coiled over Clare. She shivered then watched through the cracked front window as Dorran wrenched the hood up. He wasn’t dressed for the cold; he wore only a shirt and light coat.
Clare retreated deeper into the bus, looking through the clothing stored in the baskets above the seats. She found two jackets and two scarves then swaddled one set around herself before opening the door and leaping out.
As Clare approached, Dorran lifted his head and smiled at the sight of the jacket. “Ah. Thank you.”
She helped him pull the coat on then tugged on the collar until he bent and let her wrap the scarf around his neck. “How’s it looking?”
“Not too bad, considering. It’s a hardy beast.”
Clare hung to his side as she watched him feel around the engine. The minibus had hit trees, been through water, and now, survived impact with the creature in the tunnel. The metal front had been twisted so badly that the hood didn’t shut properly. She silently thanked the bus for holding on for so long.
Dorran’s long fingers felt across the metal, searching for leaks or damage. He was moving slowly, and his eyes seemed distant.
“Are you all right?” Clare asked.
“Yes. Of course.” He shot her a quick smile. Clare knew him too well to think it was genuine.
“You listened to me when I told you to drive,” Clare said.
His glance seemed surprised. “Of course I did. I trust you.”
“You shouldn’t have. It was terrible advice. We got lucky, and that’s the only reason we’re still alive.” The laughter that had threatened her in the tunnel suddenly poured out, gasping and thin. Clare clamped her lips shut to cut it off early.
Dorran bent forward as he searched her face. “I will always trust your advice. It has saved us more often than I can remember. You have good instincts.”
“Next time my instincts tell us to drive towards a living nightmare, feel free to ignore me.”
He laughed, and after a second, Clare joined in. The ache in her chest lessened. Icy wind whistled across them, pulling on their coats and tangling Clare’s hair, as Dorran continued working through the engine.
Then Dorran voiced the question they were both thinking. “What was that?”
“It was a hollow,” Clare said. “It had to be. But… the others all looked at least vaguely human. You could see traces of what they used to be. But that…”
She pictured the malformed torso growing two heads and the six enormous legs that held it suspended in the air.
“The others
were afraid of it,” Dorran said. “That was why they wouldn’t follow us into the tunnel.”
“There were bones everywhere. Mostly hollow bones, I think. It was eating them. That’s something other hollows don’t do, either.” Clare shook her head. “I mean, they will, sometimes, if they’re trapped in an enclosed place like a room or a car. In the wild, though, they mostly just ignore each other. But that thing…”
“It almost seemed to be waiting for prey.”
Clare nodded. She could picture it lurking in the dark, suspended on those impossibly long legs as it waited for hollows to enter its domain. The bones had all been picked over a dozen times, the marrow sucked out before the fragments were finally discarded.
In a world that felt miles from rational, Clare hadn’t realised how much she relied on rationality to cope. She knew the hollows’ rules. She knew what they looked like and what they were capable of. Now, they had encountered something that ignored all established principles, and Clare was back to feeling as helpless and vulnerable as she had been on the day she discovered the world had ended.
“This is okay,” Dorran said, shutting the hood as securely as the twisted metal would allow. He took Clare’s hand, infusing some confidence into his voice. “We’ll be fine.”
Chapter Three
Clare took over driving in the afternoon to give Dorran a break. He made an excellent assistant, keeping her cup full and bringing her snacks at regular intervals. They didn’t talk about the spider-like hollow again. Still, it stayed in Clare’s mind, and she guessed it was still in Dorran’s, too.
They held to the most rural roads, which lengthened their trip but kept them away from large towns. Twice, Clare had to backtrack when fallen trees or broken bridges interrupted their route.
The sun dipped towards the horizon. They discussed stopping, but Dorran thought they could safely continue through the night, and Clare agreed. Stopping created its own risks. They paused for a final break before sundown, to stretch their legs and refuel the bus. Then Clare filled thermoses full of coffee while Dorran served dinner, and they prepared to drive through the night.
Vivid colours splashed across the hazy horizon then faded. Stars appeared. They passed a sedan moving in the opposite direction and exchanged a wave with the driver. Clare was glad to see it. After a day with the roads to themselves, the car reminded her that they weren’t alone in the world.
Dorran noticed Clare was tired before she realised it. He rested a hand on her shoulder. “Time to switch over. Do you think you can sleep while I drive?”
“Sure.” She coasted the bus to a halt, its lights splashing across the long, weedy grass that flourished in that region. Dorran took over her seat. He waited until Clare settled into the makeshift bed at the back of the bus, then began moving again, keeping the speed steady and gentle.
Clare lay awake, staring at the boarded-over window beside her bed. The bus’s rocking motions were exhausting, and the motor’s purr lulled her towards sleep. When she turned her head to the left, she could see Dorran, the edges of his features pulled out of the blackness by the glow from the dashboard. The light almost seemed to be flickering over him as though it came from a fire. He must have felt her eyes, because he turned his head slightly to look at her.
“Go back to sleep, Clare.” A languid smile spread across his face.
She loved seeing him smile; she would never get enough of it. Clare smiled back, then the muscles in her face seized up. Something loomed out of the darkness ahead of them. Enormous legs, long and narrow like needles, punctured the road. The headlights washed over the grey skin stretched over brittle bones. Dorran hadn’t seen. He was still looking back at Clare, smiling at her.
Clare tried to yell. The word became trapped in her throat. Dorran didn’t stop smiling. There was no time to brake, no time to brace herself, no time to even breathe. The bus hit the creature’s limbs. Clare’s vision blurred as the impact wrenched her from the bed. Metal screamed as it twisted around her. She was tumbling, falling, unable to tell where she was or which direction was up. Then, suddenly, she came to a halt.
She didn’t feel any pain. It would come eventually, she knew, but her mind was mercifully clear at that moment. She opened her eyes. The bus was upside down, the rows of seats suspended from the ceiling. Flames crackled where fuel had spilt across the metal. The bus’s structure, which had seemed so solid before, was nothing but a contorted wreck. She couldn’t see the driver’s seat. Couldn’t see Dorran.
Clare pulled herself towards the bus’s front. Her legs didn’t want to move. She used her hands instead, resting her weight on her forearms to drag herself among the twisted metal and spot fires. Tears ran down her face. She had to be in pain, but she couldn’t feel it. She could only focus on the dark console at the bus’s front. It had collapsed in. The driver’s seat had come free from two of the bolts holding it to the floor and swung loosely.
Then she heard Dorran’s voice. It was full of fear and pain. “Clare… Clare…”
“Where are you?” She dragged herself closer, not noticing or caring as her chest scraped over loose bolts. Every limb shook. Smoke was filling the space, obscuring her vision and sticking in her throat.
“Clare…”
Then she saw him, lying behind the space where the driver’s seat had been. He was on his side, blood running across his forehead and dripping past wide, terrified eyes. His mouth opened, but it was the only part of him that moved.
“Clare…!”
Something dark rose behind him. Beth’s lips pulled back from her teeth, a tangle of gore and blood.
“Clare!”
She jolted awake, a scream catching in her throat. She was back in the bed. Light washed over her, and it took her a second to realise it didn’t come from a fire, but from the bus’s internal lights. The vehicle was intact, parked in the middle of the road. And Dorran was there. He was crouched at her side, his brows heavy, his hands strong as he held her shoulders.
“You’re all right,” he said, his eyes tight with worry. “You’re safe.”
She keeled forward, gasping and shaking, sticky with sweat. Dorran caught her against his chest and held her tightly. She could hear his heart, racing almost as fast as hers was.
“Sorry,” she mumbled into his shoulder. “Bad dream.”
“You’re safe. You’re okay.” He tilted his head to nestle it on top of hers.
It felt so real. Her eyes burned. Her heart hurt. Her nerves felt as though they were on fire, sharp and raw with fear. I can’t let him be hurt like that. I can’t let him be hurt… I can’t…
“You’re all right.” Dorran eased her back and found a handkerchief in his pocket. He used it to wipe the moisture off Clare’s cheeks and chin, then kissed her in every place the fabric had touched. He ended with his forehead resting against hers, their noses brushing, their eyelashes close to tangling.
“You’re safe,” he murmured. “There’s nothing to be afraid of now.”
I can’t let him be hurt. But I already did. She realised she was still clinging to his shirt, her fists scrunching up the fabric. “I’m so sorry.”
“Shh, don’t be. It was just a dream.”
He didn’t understand. Clare shook her head, forcing the words through a too-tight throat. “I’m sorry for leading you into the tunnel. It was really stupid and dangerous.”
“You didn’t know it was a tunnel.”
“I should have, though. I should have realised. And I’m sorry for bringing you out here, away from your home. And I’m sorry for letting Beth stay with us for so long after we knew she was a hollow. I’m sorry for letting you get hurt. I’m so sorry.”
A smile pulled at his lips, sweet, confused, and sad all at once. “This is what is upsetting you?”
“You deserve better than this. Every single one of my choices makes things worse for you.”
“That’s not true.” He leaned back so that he could look at her properly. “Why would you think that?”
She shook her head. Her throat hurt; every word felt as though it were slicing through swollen flesh.
Dorran cupped her head in his hands, the thumbs brushing over her burning skin. “What would my life have been without you? That is a serious question. I would be back at Winterbourne, alone, and slowly going mad in those empty halls. Or, worse, I would be back under my mother’s control.”
She shook her head again.
Dorran smiled. “The time I have spent with you has been challenging, frightening in some places, and even occasionally horrible. But it has also been exhilarating and full of hope and joy. I cannot remember ever feeling as alive as I feel with you. So believe me. I will take a thousand misadventures with you over a month alone.”
An admission tumbled out of her, leaving her vulnerable, raw, and frightened. “I don’t want to lose you.”
“And you won’t.” He bent forward to steal a kiss. “I am going to repeat something you told me some time ago: you are stuck with me now.”
Strangled laughter escaped her. Dorran’s hands roved over her chin and neck then down her arms, rubbing warmth and feeling back into her. “Come and sit up in the front with me. I can watch you better there and wake you sooner if your dreams turn bad.”
“You shouldn’t have to.”
“I want to.”
He kept hold of her hands as he coaxed her out of the bed. He’d left the bus’s engine running. Bright golden lights washed over the road ahead. Remembering the sight of the monster’s legs interrupting the asphalt, she shuddered. Dorran responded by pulling blankets down from the upper compartments and wrapping them around Clare’s shoulders.
She let him fuss over her, just enjoying his proximity. Her nerves were still raw, and when he pressed a water bottle into her hands, she had to clench it to stop her fingers from shaking. Every time she blinked, she saw him limp on the ground, blood draining out of him.