“The ranger went to get the car, but he got chased by some Skulls. Got hurt in the chase and couldn’t make it. I volunteered to get the car.”
“You came a long way to get a damn car. The Visitor Center is nearly two miles up the road.”
“Yeah, that wasn’t the plan. The SUV is at the first parking lot near the Visitor Center. It didn’t get jammed in like all the other ones at the beach. You know, because the ranger’s got his own protected spot and all.”
“Sure.” Cliff didn’t know, but he also didn’t want to waste any time encouraging Jason to pontificate on details that didn’t matter. “And you didn’t make it to the SUV?”
“No, you saw what happened. Skulls found me. I didn’t have any weapons. All I could do was run.”
“How do you know your friends haven’t taken off without you?”
Jason held out a keyring. “I got the keys. Look, they’ll be waiting for me. I don’t want them to send someone out after me, you know, man?”
The thought of getting a ride to a safe haven was tempting. But for all they knew, it was a lie or a trick. Or maybe Jason had made the whole damn thing up. Besides, what good would it do to end up on some overcrowded island anyway? One infected person, one Skull could turn the place into a hellish hot zone if the radio reports he’d heard were true.
He had a home out here. The camper was fine. Or it would’ve been fine if Jason hadn’t come barging in with the Skulls after him. Maybe he could circle back. The Skulls would probably grow bored and leave.
“Sage and I are on our own,” Cliff said.
“Look, man, I’m offering you a way out.”
“I don’t need it.”
Cliff started to walk away. Sage followed but kept glancing back at Jason. The young man stood there, perplexed.
“Come on, man, please.” There was a tremor in Jason’s voice.
“You need to go,” Cliff hissed.
“Look, man, truth is, I need your help,” Jason said. “You’ve got weapons. I’ve got nothing. My friends have got nothing. And... and there are Skulls outside the visitor center. I don’t know how long it’ll take before the bastards get inside, and I don’t know what my friends are going to do.” A glimmer of moonlight reflected in the wet sheen forming over Jason’s eyes. “Please. Help us. I don’t care if you come with us after that or not, but at least help us. We can even share some of our food, if that’s what you want. Anything, just help us.”
Food? The offer was made slightly more tempting. But the prospect of running into Skulls to save these people’s asses was not. “I told you my rule, kid. I’m not a martyr.”
Cliff began walking away again. Sage trailed him but seemed more panicked, twisting back and forth and whining.
“Quiet, girl,” Cliff said.
Sage didn’t listen. She kept circling back, turning toward Jason.
“Come on, Sage,” Cliff tried again.
With a final whimper, Sage quieted and trudged beside Cliff. He didn’t bother looking back. He heard the crunch of leaves and branches as Jason left. No wonder the Skulls had so easily followed him. Hiking around with Jason would be a death trap.
And now, because of Jason’s insolence, Cliff would have to go clean his camper of those damn Skulls. He pictured their strange silhouettes again. How the one had seemingly withstood three arrows to the chest.
Something wasn’t right about that, but Cliff vowed this time he would kill the damn monster. He wouldn’t let it freak him out like before.
Still...
Sage looked up at him expectantly, still twisting around every once in a while, back toward where they had separated from Jason.
“Damn it.”
Cliff turned and marched back. Jason had disappeared into the trees and brush, but it didn’t take long to track him down by the sound of his noisy footfalls. Stalking him like he would a deer, Cliff snuck up on the young man then clamped a hand over his mouth.
Jason yelled into Cliff’s palm.
“Look, kid,” Cliff said. “See how easy that was? You can’t stomp around like this. You’re liable to call all those monsters after you. And damn it, you didn’t even hear me. How do you expect to make it back alive?”
Cliff removed his hand from Jason’s mouth. The young man’s face was still blanched, and his chest heaved as though he was catching his breath.
“You... you scared the shit out of me,” Jason whispered.
“Imagine if I had been a Skull.”
“You changed your mind?”
Cliff narrowed his eyes. “Yeah, but shut the hell up and follow my lead before I change it again.”
“You got it, man. Anything.”
“Visitor Center, right?”
Jason nodded vigorously.
“Let’s go.”
Sage’s tail wagged as the trio took off next to the road. They passed a sedan that had T-boned a station wagon. Human bones littered the asphalt around the vehicles. Most were cracked. Only a few dried strings of sinew remained.
That was exactly what Cliff didn’t want to end up as and why he preferred walking where they actually had cover. But Jason was too clumsy to make it through the woods without attracting undue attention.
Then Cliff heard a snap. He held up a hand. Sage stopped immediately, but Jason continued on for a step or two before noticing.
Snap.
This time, Jason’s head whipped up, facing the direction they’d heard the noise. The woods were too dense here to tell exactly where the noise had come from. Cliff held his breath. More crunching and snapping.
By his count, there was more than one Skull in the woods in front of them. And in this dense section, he could barely see four feet in front of him, let alone a Skull farther on. Running blindly into one wasn’t going to be good for their survival.
The snaps and cracks became closer. More echoed behind them.
“Shit,” Cliff said, twisting around. Skulls were coming in on both sides. The monsters didn’t seem to be in a hurry, so at least they hadn’t noticed them yet. But if he and Jason didn’t move, it wouldn’t be long before the Skulls were on them.
“We can’t stay here.” Cliff left the cover of the trees, creeping toward sparser cover. “Come on.” He approached the side of the road running northward through the park. Cautiously, he paused at a ditch and scanned up and down the road. Clear. He ran across then ducked against the sand dunes and grass next to a pile of firewood at one of the beachside camping sites. Waves crashed along the shore several hundred yards from his position, providing a heady background of white noise.
Jason stood frozen at the other side of the road.
“Get over here,” Cliff hissed as loud as he dared.
A hellish shriek exploded somewhere near the water. It was a good couple of hundred yards away. But the distance didn’t stop the chill from stabbing through his bones.
Jason crouched, still on the other side of the road.
Cliff encouraged him with a wave. Sage barreled across then looked back at Jason.
Another wail called into the night, this one from the forest, and Jason sprinted toward Cliff. He dove into the sand next to Cliff and crouched next to the stack of firewood. They weaved between the dunes and patches of sand grass. Now Cliff heard the breaking of branches as a Skull came out of the woods. Its claws clicked against the asphalt. He didn’t dare look above the cover to glance at the beast lest it spot him.
He put a finger over his mouth to tell Sage and Jason both to be quiet. Sage grew still. Sweat rolled down Jason’s forehead, but he remained still. Cliff withdrew an arrow and nocked it as silently as he could.
The clicking of feet against the asphalt continued. Another pair of footsteps joined in. Both seemed to be ambling away from them.
Thank God. Cliff started to let the string relax.
Sage froze.
“What is it, girl?” Cliff whispered. His fingers tightened around the arrow again.
Then he heard the slow grind of someth
ing trudging through sand. The odor of rotten meat swirled around Cliff, growing stronger as the plodding footsteps grew closer. The sounds of claws clicking together came next.
Cliff pressed himself against the dune and held his breath. The fur on Sage’s haunches rose, and her nose scrunched in a snarl, her ears pressed flat. But she didn’t growl. The shepherd, thankfully, was a quick learner. She’d had to be quiet in the apartment complex; barking dogs resulted in swift evictions more often than not. And now that something more important than finding a new apartment was at stake, Cliff was ever grateful for Sage’s sharp canine intellect.
Jason wasn’t so adept at staying quiet. His temporary bravado had evaporated. He shivered, teeth chattering, and pressed himself into the sand.
A shadow passed against the starry sky. The odor of rotting meat dripped over Cliff. He held his breath.
Keep on moving. Go on.
The shadow stopped. Cliff didn’t dare move lest he disturb the wilted sand grass and attract the monster. Then the clouds above shifted, draping a shaft of moonlight over the creature.
A pang of terror tore through Cliff. It was like nothing he had ever seen, and he couldn’t help the audible gasp that escaped his lips. He clamped his mouth shut, but it was too late.
The Skull looked down.
-5-
Scarlet eyes stared hard at Cliff from behind a mask of bone. Horns protruded from the Skull’s head at odd angles. Ragged bits of cloth hung from what looked to be overgrown shoulder blades sprouting from the beast like stunted wings. All along the thing’s chest, its ribs had grown past its gray flesh and formed bony, organic armor. Spikes jutted from the creature’s joints, and claws scythed from its fingertips. Bone seemed to push through rotting gray flesh as though its skeleton was yearning to be free.
It was clear now why three arrows to the Skull’s chest hadn’t killed the bastard back at the camper. If that Skull had been anything like this one, the arrows had met inches of thick bone.
The Skull growled. Spittle flew from its crooked, fanged teeth, and it lunged. Cliff threw himself forward. His elbow slammed against the trunk of a rotting log, and he tumbled, spilling into the stack of firewood.
Claws met sand, and the Skull shrieked in frustration. It stood, shaking itself off. A few other Skull voices rose in response to the beast.
Damn it.
Cliff weighed their options. He could run. Sage would keep up. Jason probably could, too. He’d made it this far running from the bastards. But where would they go? Straight back to the Visitor Center? They’d drag a pack of the beasts with them if they didn’t lose the monsters first.
Maybe they could sprint through the woods, evade the Skulls there.
But in the suffocating darkness and with Cliff’s flashlight back in the camper, they were just as likely to run into another Skull there as they were to escape the ones pursuing them.
The Skull pounced again, interrupting his deliberation. Cliff rolled to the side. The swish of air brushed past his face from the Skull’s stabbing claws. The thing snarled. Any shred of humanity was lost in those bloodshot eyes and strange bony protuberances jutting from its face.
Cliff leveled his bow at the creature. He couldn’t send an arrow through its chest. That much he knew. But he had little to lose now by probing for some weakness, any weakness. He let the arrow fly at near point-blank range, aimed at a patch of gray flesh between bony plates near the Skull’s shoulder.
The arrow buried itself into the spot. The fletching quivered. Despite the undoubtedly torn muscle and shredded nerves, the Skull hardly seemed to notice.
It roared and jumped at Cliff again. This time he barely had time to dodge. The Skull clamped onto his shirt, claws ripping into fabric.
Another growl erupted from his left. Sage. She flew at the beast, all teeth and bristling fur. She clamped onto the Skull’s wrist and shook vigorously. The monster released Cliff’s shirt. He fell backward, his bow falling to his side.
The Skull’s muscles bulged under its bony plates. It flung Sage away. The German shepherd slammed against the strewn firewood with a whimper. She tried to stand but collapsed instead.
“Sage!” A jolt of worry coursed through Cliff.
Sage whined.
All Cliff could see was red. Fueled no longer by fear, he had something else to fight for. Each time Sage tried to stand and instead fell, whimpering like a puppy, something surged in Cliff that could not be controlled.
Cliff kicked the Skull’s spine. One of the fins sticking out of the overgrown vertebrae broke off. The monster crashed forward into the sand dune. It twisted, its face covered in sand, and it growled at Cliff.
“You do not touch my dog,” Cliff said.
The monster stood. Vessels pulsated between its plates, pressing against its wan skin. A rope of saliva dripped off its cracked lips, and it charged. Cliff didn’t move. Not this time. He wasn’t going to dodge and juke around this creature until he tired it out.
No, this asshole had thrown Sage.
Cliff tore out his knife as the monster barreled toward him. The Skull might be able to withstand an arrow to the chest. But there was at least one more weak spot Cliff spotted. Something that would surely put a damper on the Skull’s ability to hunt.
Before the reaching claws touched him, Cliff ducked under them then shot up. He plunged the knife through one of the creature’s scarlet-stained eyes and drove the blade in with all the fury-bolstered power he could muster. There was a momentary bite of resistance when the knife hit the back of the Skull’s orbital cavity. But Cliff pushed past that until he was sure the blade had devastated the monster’s brain.
All at once, the Skull collapsed like the sack of dried-out bones it was.
Cliff yanked out his knife, retrieved his spent arrow, and started to run for Sage. A Skull cleared a nearby dune, landing between him and the dog. A mane of tangled hair draped from its crown of horns. Its eyes glanced between Sage and Cliff.
“You are not getting my dog!”
But the Skull was closer. Its lips tore back as it ran at Sage. Cliff reached for an arrow. He could already tell he was going to be too late. All the fury boiling in him didn’t matter. The Skull would be on Sage before he could anything.
A piece of firewood slammed into the Skull’s head. It was enough to distract the abomination. The monster slowed, its eyes scanning for a new threat. Jason stood to the side, picking up a second log. In that brief second, Cliff grabbed the arrow from his sheath. He didn’t bother nocking it. Instead he reached the Skull and jammed the arrow up through the soft flesh under its chin. The arrow shuddered as it pierced the roof of the Skull’s mouth then drove up into its brain.
The Skull stumbled. Cliff shoved the arrow in another inch then pulled it out and nocked it again. Jason heaved a second log into the Skull’s face, and the creature dropped. When the beast’s body hit the ground, kicking up a puff of sand, Jason took out the knife Cliff had given him, ready to pounce.
“Is... is it dead?” he stammered.
“You saved Sage,” Cliff said between ragged breaths.
Another Skull lunged over a nearby dune. It howled, and the voices of three or four more carried over the beach. Cliff unslung his bow and loosed an arrow at the creature. It didn’t bother to dodge out of the projectile’s path. The arrow slammed through the beast’s nasal cavity, and it slid forward through the sand, leaving a trail of blood.
The other Skulls’ cries continued. It wouldn’t be long until they arrived. Cliff didn’t care to spend the whole night dispatching the monsters one by one.
“Come on.” Cliff yanked the knife from the first Skull’s eye, sheathed it, then scooped up Sage. She let out a weak whine. “We need to move.”
He ran through the dunes. Each loping step made Sage’s whining worse. Cliff’s thoughts went wild as his vision tunneled. He tried to focus only on the sand and grass ahead. The sounds of the Skulls’ hellish chorus resounding behind them was only a murmur in his ears.
All he heard was Sage’s whimpers.
She was hurt. No doubt about it. He didn’t have time to stop and figure out what had happened. The cacophony of Skulls grew. There had to be at least a half-dozen of the monsters running around the beach, desperately searching for the prey they had lost. If Cliff stopped now to examine Sage, it wouldn’t matter what injuries the dog had.
He ran until each step felt as if he had stones tied to his feet. His lungs burned, and a coppery tang danced across his tongue from his exertion.
They made it to an empty parking lot.
“You said there were Skulls around the Visitor Center?” Cliff asked. They weren’t far from it now. This parking lot was the first in a series that led to a bridge where the Center was.
“Yeah,” Jason said, hands on his knees, catching his breath. “There were maybe eight. Probably more now.”
Cliff scanned the lot. There wasn’t much cover here besides a few abandoned vehicles, but where a sand-covered sidewalk met the beach, there were locker rooms. The distant cry of a Skull wailed over the moon-soaked beach. He worried Sage might not make it to the Visitor Center. And if he did, and Cliff didn’t try to fix whatever it was that was bothering her, Sage’s whimpering would be like ringing a dinner bell for the Skulls.
He had to do something now.
“Locker rooms,” Cliff said. “Now.”
“My friends—”
“To the locker rooms,” Cliff said. “You saved Sage’s life. I’m thankful for that. But I’m not leaving her behind, and we aren’t going to your friends until I know Sage is okay.”
Jason seemed to have learned not to bother arguing with Cliff anymore. They rushed into the first open doorway. He set Sage down on a bench.
If humans could be infected and transformed through scratches or bites, could dogs? A pit formed in Cliff’s stomach, threatening to drown him in dread.
“Can I do something, man?” Jason asked, his voice tentative and quiet.
Cliff didn’t respond, and Jason didn’t press him.
Oh, God, Sage, please don’t be infected. A wet sheen started to form over his eyes, and he used the back of one hand to clear it. Goddamnit, Sage. You just had to bite that bastard. You had to do it, huh?
No Refuge from the Dead Page 3