Wolfen

by Alianne Donnelly

  And he was just as ugly on the inside.

  Nate, at least, had some decency left; he’d kept order among them for this long. If not for Nate and his assault rifle, Sinna was certain Connor would have gone savage on them all by now.

  “My problem is being kept in the dark,” she returned. Literally and figuratively.

  And there Connor went, baring his fangs.

  Isaac rubbed the back of his head. “She has a point, Nate.” He ignored Connor completely. The butcher was a guard dog; Nate held the leash. Noting the dangerous gleam in his eyes, though, Sinna wondered how much longer Connor could be contained.

  Rather than answer Isaac, Nate pressed the weapon into Sinna’s hand. The safety was on. Good thing, otherwise she would have put it to Nate’s forehead and fired.

  “Keep the safety on unless you hear something, understood?”

  Calm, calm, calm. Sinna turned on her heel and headed for the cluster of stores some thirty yards away.

  After a confused moment, David followed. “He gave you a gun,” he said, when they were far enough away from the group.

  “You want it?” she offered.

  “No!” He nervously shifted his glasses a fraction of an inch. He was just nearsighted enough to make him a liability with a weapon. “No, ah, you can keep it.”

  They came up on a corner convenience store with broken-out windows and a mess of looted shelves and garbage inside. After so long, Sinna didn’t hold out hope for anything still edible, but then again, her standards for what constituted edible had lowered considerably over the last decade.

  Keeping an eye out for movement in the shadows, she stepped in with her toes first. “You know what to look for, right?”

  David nodded. He was twitchy.

  “Here, help me move this.” Sinna stuffed the gun into her waistband, took hold of a toppled shelf and, together with David, righted it to get at what lay underneath.

  Party supplies.

  Well, that would be awesome if someone had a birthday. Unfortunately, they couldn’t eat plastic spoons. Sinna grabbed the pack of plastic cups, though. She could make a water filter with those, something they’d definitely need.

  “There’s nothing here,” David said from behind the register. “Not even a shotgun. What kind of convenience store doesn’t have a shotgun?”

  “Probably one of the first things to be taken.”

  No food, no water, no flashlights, batteries, or matches. “You want to check the storage?”

  David made a face. “Not particularly.”

  Considering the door had been torn off its hinges and was surrounded by old blood stains on the wall, he was probably right. “Okay, moving on.”

  At least the other stores were of some use. They found a couple of long-expired protein bars and a can that oozed out juice when they opened it. Beggars couldn’t be choosers. They ate what they could. Wouldn’t have been enough for everyone anyway, and Sinna refused to share with Nate and Connor.

  They scored big in the athletics store, however.

  The storage room had been another massacre site. Closable doors made for tempting hiding places, but unless that door was metal and weighed a ton, it didn’t hold up well against Grays. Whatever happened here had happened a long time ago. No trace of any bodies remained.

  They did find several blood-stained shipping boxes, though. Sinna exchanged a look with David, and they dug in, scouring what could be of use. One box held about a hundred pairs of cargo pants. Sinna didn’t wait for an invitation; she found a pair that might fit, and changed right then and there. She wasn’t the bashful type, and besides, David was too busy doing the same thing to notice her pasty bare legs.

  The next box had shoes still wrapped in their original plastics. Sinna gave a cry of delight and tossed out pair after pair of ankle-high black hiking boots, searching for the right size. Unfortunately, they were all the same: made for men, and a size and a half too big. Still, they were better than the ratty ones she had on now. She kicked them off and wriggled her toes before stuffing them into the new pair. Never before had she been so grateful for old world craftsmanship.

  David found a whole crateful of coiled climbing rope in the last box. He shrugged. “Never know when it might come in handy.” They each looped two coils over their shoulders and carried a third. Their collective loot was as good as Christmas morning, and they were grinning on their way out, when Sinna stopped. Her gaze had snared on a female mannequin set up in canoe hanging from the ceiling, dressed in a decent-looking gray jacket and an inflatable vest.

  David squinted up at it. “Looks to be about your size. Then again, it could be an elephant for all I know, so don’t go by me.”

  “Gimme a boost,” she said.

  “Are you serious?”

  She shrugged. “Why not?”

  “Why no—okay, fine.”

  They set everything down, and David knelt, locking his fingers together, expecting her to step into them. Instead, Sinna rearranged him with his back to the pillar, then climbed onto his shoulders. “Can you stand up?”

  “No!”

  “Oh, don’t be a baby. Just push.”

  He made a sound like a dying giraffe, but he did manage to push to his feet and, braced back against the pillar, held steady. Sinna reached out as far as she could. Her fingers just touched the canoe.

  “It won’t work. We’re too far.”

  “Have faith, young buck. I can do this.” She pushed the hull to get it swinging. When it came back, she pushed harder. Little by little, it swung just enough to jar the mannequin, and on the next pass, she grabbed the arm now hanging over the side, and pulled. The mannequin, Sinna, and David all came tumbling down. It wasn’t a soft landing, but when she caught her breath, Sinna couldn’t help laughing.

  David groaned. “I hope your new wardrobe is freaking worth dying for. Grays would have heard that for miles.” He hadn’t seen enough of them to know about their poor hearing. Sinna chose not to enlighten him.

  Sitting up, she divested her war prize of the inflatable vest and the coveted jacket. Underneath, it wore a T-shirt made of that fun, quick-drying material. Sinna took that, too.

  David gathered up their gear as she changed, but, being a man, he couldn’t resist a peek. By then, she’d already donned the T-shirt, and his gaze caught on her silver cuff. “What is that?” he asked.

  Sinna’s face momentarily flushed hot, then turned very, very cold. She rubbed the metal, warmed from her skin, and shrugged on her new jacket to hide it. “A memory,” she said, considering the subject closed.

  But David was a curious one. “Not a lot of people walking around decked out for a party. Where’d you get it?”

  The thing had weighted down her wrist for three years. Sinna had gotten so used to its presence, she rarely thought about it anymore. She’d hidden it from the others at first, afraid someone would try to take it from her. Then the candles had run out, their numbers had thinned, and in the cold, dark rectory, with her long sleeves rolled down to her fingers for warmth most of the time, no one had noticed. No one had cared.

  And Sinna had let herself forget.

  Gerry.

  The pang of her memory almost doubled Sinna over. How could she have forgotten? “It was a gift, okay? Now let it go. The others are waiting.”

  “Touchy subject? That means boyfriend, right? That’s a man’s cuff, if I’m not mistaken. It’s too big for your arm; not supposed to overlap like that. So, what’s his name?”

  Sinna ignored him. She took up the ropes again, and headed out, leaving him to follow or be left behind.

  “Nice threads,” Isaac praised when they got back. “You look like Miz Rambo in that get-up.” He was sitting on the ground with Amy and Matt, resting his legs. Nate and Connor stood guard. Both looked none too happy to see Sinna and David come back empty handed.

  “Sorry,” Sinna told Nate. “I would have shopped for you, but I didn’t know your size.”

  He didn’t answer, merely
nudged his chin toward David for his report.

  “Nothing,” David said, keeping their two measly protein bars to himself. “At least nothing we’d want to eat.” He handed over two coils of rope to Nate, who gave one to Isaac and one to Amy. Connor took two from Sinna, keeping one for himself and giving the other to Nate. Such a well-coordinated team of psychopaths.

  “At least we tried,” Nate begrudged, and looked Sinna over from head to toe. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but she definitely did not like it, especially when he held his hand out for his gun.

  Sinna hefted the weapon, then stuck it into her waistband behind her back. “You know, I think I’ll keep it.”

  “Sinna.”

  “Nate.”

  His cheek twitched, and his upper lip drew back in a snarl. Maybe if she didn’t have the gun and her new, kickass comfortable shoes, his intimidation might have worked. But compared to the other monsters running the city in packs, Nate was nothing. And there was no way in this world, or in any other, she would hand over a weapon to someone who neither needed it, nor had any inclination to defend them with it.

  “It’s smart, Nate,” Isaac said. “As long as we have guns, we should spread ‘em around. More people shooting means less people dying.”

  “She should keep it,” Amy agreed, surprising them all. “And if you have more, I want one, too.”

  “What’s the point?” Connor said. “You don’t know how to shoot it, anyway.”

  “Oh, and you do?” David returned. “Why should the two of you have all the weapons? Like you’ll keep us safe if shit hits the fan, the way you did with Tam?”

  “Look what you’re doing,” Nate told Sinna, voice low so the others wouldn’t hear him over their own arguments. “This is why I kept it to myself. We can’t afford this kind of dissent among the ranks.”

  “We’re not your ranks,” she growled.

  “Is this because of Tam? I told you—”

  “It’s because I finally see what a self-serving bastard you are,” she snapped, her own voice rising beyond a safe level. “Why would I trust you with more guns? You want to prove you’re still the good guy? Now’s your chance. Empty your pockets and spread the wealth around. Let’s see what else you’re packing!”

  Somewhere out there, a Gray screeched into the sky.

  Everyone fell silent.

  The wind shifted in odd patterns through the city, coming from all different directions, swirling and turbulent, which made tracking by scent difficult. But Grays were born hunters; they lived for little else, and it wouldn’t take much for them to latch onto a scent.

  As the seconds ticked by, Sinna stared down one street in particular. She couldn’t be sure that was where the sound had come from, but something was out there, and it was headed this way. She held her breath, strained her ears for any hint of sound, but was met with only silence.

  “Enough,” Nate finally said, clutching that big gun of his like a security blanket. “We need to keep moving.”

  So they did.

  He never emptied his pockets—nobody pushed for it—but he didn’t take Sinna’s handgun away from her, either.

  3: Sinna

  They headed into what used to be the downtown financial district. From one block to another, massive skyscrapers stretched toward the sky, obscuring the landscape and casting long shadows. Nate and Connor scouted the way, their earlier formation forgotten. The rest of them followed as fast as they could manage. Just as Sinna had predicted: when push came to shove, the strong left the weak behind.

  David had no trouble. Amy, holding Matt’s hand, came right behind him. But Isaac struggled, half-skipping, half-hopping, with Sinna supporting him on his good side.

  “Go on with you, girl. I’ll be awright.”

  She dragged her gaze from the empty street behind to glare at him. “Keep hobbling, old man.” Shouldering more of his weight, Sinna picked up their pace. A considerable gap had grown between them and the others, and although David and Amy kept turning to check on their progress, they didn’t slow.

  Then, suddenly, Amy did a double take. “Mother of heaven…”

  Sinna spun around to look, making Isaac almost fall over, and she whimpered at the sight of a pack of Grays lumbering six blocks down the street. Eight emaciated figures weaving back and forth. More than Nate and Connor could handle on their best day, fully armed.

  Isaac sighed. “You go on, Sinna. I can hold ‘em back some.”

  “Not happening,” she growled, and spun back so fast, Isaac had no time to prepare. His cry of pain bounced off the walls, amplified tenfold, but he bore down and fought to keep up with Sinna as they hurried after the others.

  “In here!” Nate called, waving them inside a building.

  “Come on, Isaac. You can make it, I know you can. Let’s go!”

  Behind them, the first screech rent the air, followed by another, and then a third—a chorus that could freeze a person’s blood. Without glancing back, Sinna knew they’d caught on. The Grays would be running for them now. Adrenaline flooded her veins, and with that extra shot of strength, she narrowed her focus on her target and jogged the last few yards into the building, half-carrying Isaac.

  As they crossed the threshold, her heart fell. Nate had chosen poorly; this wasn’t the shelter they needed. An empty, wide-open lobby with broken-out glass doors and a security desk built into the floor? Some debris and random furniture littered the marble tiles, but nothing big enough to barricade the doors. Nate and Connor ran back and forth, looking for a way through or out, but aside from a flimsy door leading to a stairwell, which would bottleneck and kill them faster, they were trapped like rats.

  Sinna could hear the Grays now. They’d grown quiet vocally, but their footsteps pounded like drums in Sinna’s ears. If she strained, she could make out their movements; the moment they split up, several sets growing fainter as the others neared.

  Closer.

  Closer…

  “Nate! Over here!”

  They all hurried to Connor’s side. He was trying to pry open an elevator door with a piece of pipe. Even with his strength, he couldn’t budge the counterweight on his own. Nate slung the rifle over his back and picked up a rough piece of broken metal to help him. “David,” he said, “get the rope ready. Sinna, you take out that goddamn gun and get ready to shoot!”

  Sinna nodded, facing the front, waiting for the Grays to show. Somehow, Nate and Connor managed to pry the door open a foot and a half, and propped it that way. It was a damned tight fit. Nate leaned in, looking up and down. He swore. “We’re gonna have to climb.”

  “What?” David said.

  “Aw hell, I’m done for,” Isaac muttered.

  “The elevator cab is only two stories down. We can make it. We’ll go down and find another way out. With any luck, we’ll lose them in the confusion.”

  “Yeah,” Connor said. “Magic.”

  “David, the rope!”

  David dropped his bat to uncoil the rope he wore.

  “There’s a ladder to the left,” Nate said. “You’ll have to step all the way to the edge and lean far in to reach it, but it’s there.”

  Sinna looked over her shoulder. Nate’s arms were longer, so he looped the rope through the rungs, then stepped back to let David get in closer, holding onto him as the teacher followed Nate’s instructions to reach the ladder.

  “Eyes front, Sinna!” Nate snapped.

  She obeyed, but backed up toward them so she could see the elevator shaft for herself.

  Oh, my God. A pitch-black hole straight down, and they had no light. Sinna’s heart pounded as David reached for the ladder, and missed. Amy cried out, and Sinna nearly died when his foot slipped off the edge, but Nate held him fast, telling him how to move.

  “All the way to the edge,” he said. “Don’t worry, I’ve got you.”

  David turned sideways, one foot on solid ground and the other hanging over the abyss as he strained for the rung. “Got it!”

&
nbsp; Sinna’s knees locked and her mouth went bone dry as Nate let go of David, letting him disappear into the darkness. They listened for trouble, but only a subtle thud met their ears when David landed on the cab roof. “Made it!” he called back, and his voice sounded so far away…

  Two stories? Might as well have been fifty thousand leagues.

  Matt went next, sliding into the opening with ease, and Sinna started to shiver, gun arm going limp at her side. “I can’t do this,” she said numbly. The darkness, the forever way down.

  No light except for a tiny green blink so far up, she wasn’t even sure it was real. Sinna remembered that climb up to the surface of Chernobyl with perfect clarity. Gerry had been shaking with strain and fatigue halfway up, so Sinna had to climb on her own, one rung at a time. Keep always looking up. See the light, your guiding star. The dark at the bottom is where the monsters are.

  The faint scar on her arm throbbed with the memory of pain. She couldn’t remember the details of that day, but she did remember the screaming.

  It’s happening all over again!

  Sinna couldn’t take another step toward that elevator shaft.

  Grays closing in, scraping against the tinted glass panes in the corner.

  Amy down the hole. Gone.

  Nate tied the rope around Isaac to help lower him down. Then Connor disappeared into the darkness. Nate waved Sinna over, but she couldn’t move. The world was shaking—no, she was. Her body felt so light, if someone nudged her, she’d float away. But her feet felt huge and rooted to the spot.

  “Move!” Nate snapped, and she flinched.

  Finally, her feet moved—they had to. She came right up to the edge of the elevator and glanced down. Nothing. Just an endless abyss, and all of her friends lost inside it. I might never see them again. Them, or anything else. Blind little moles, scurrying around in the dark. Hiding, whispering, hoping the monsters wouldn’t hear.