by Lynda Engler
It would take Luke until nightfall just to get back to the Bellardini compound. He needed to go back to where he started and see if he could pick up Isabella’s trail in the other direction. Luke would walk right over his family in their subterranean compound and they would never even know he was there.
* * *
Isabella retched at the smell of the disgusting beasts. Andra’s ultra-sensitive nose had whiffed them from blocks away, but now that they were this close, Isabella couldn’t believe she hadn’t smelled them sooner. She choked on the stench. The next time Andra’s nose warned them of danger, she hoped it would give them more than an extra minute’s notice. The next time… if they survived for there to be a next time.
Garith had remained with Kaedo at the top level, trying to buy some time for the rest of the tribe to get downstairs. He slashed at the invading monsters with anything he could. As one of the creatures tore at Garith with its sharp slaws, Garith kicked it in the groin. Uninjured, the creature cried out in anger and frustration. Spit flowed from its mouth, oozing from between the sharp fangs. The Eaters were hungry.
From below them, Malcolm pulled his bow from the strap on his back and knocked an arrow. He aimed at the creatures above him, pulled the string taut to his chin and let the arrow fly.
Guy followed Malcolm’s example, readied his own bow and let loose on the creatures above him. Still at the top level of the building, Kaedo and Garith ducked as arrows flew past their heads.
Once the rest of the tribe had reached the factory floor, Macy and the two older boys, Maxi and Clay, drew their bows as well. No one in the tribe was quite as skilled with a bow and arrow as Malcolm was, but they were hunters and had been trained to use the weapons.
“Kaedo!” Malcolm yelled upwards to his best friend, “Get down!” as he shot another arrow. Kaedo ducked again. He was not a hunter and usually only carried a slingshot and a small blade. He had never learned to aim, suffering from severe near-sightedness. But he now brandished the rusted railing from the staircase as if it were a club, swinging it hard at the advancing enemy.
The gray beasts poured into the building, hissing through yellowed teeth, snarling and salivating at the humans trapped inside. Garith was bleeding from multiple gashes inflicted by the claws of the Eaters, and Guy finally pushed him down the stairs, putting himself between the monsters and his bleeding friend.
More arrows flew from the tribe below. Isabella and Kalla ran into the hallway where Milora had taken the five youngest children. From the safety that distance afforded them, they watched the tribe shoot arrow after arrow at the monsters as they advanced down the stairs. Still, Isabella hardly dared to breathe in case the slightest sound betrayed their presence.
Garith, bloody but undaunted, reached the bottom of the stairs and joined the rest of his tribe, aiming arrow after arrow at the hideous beasts.
The building was full of Eaters now. Each was a head taller than Kaedo, who was the tallest of Malcolm’s tribe. But like Malcolm, Kaedo was exceptionally strong. He used his powerful upper body strength to swing the torn piece of railing at the heads and bodies of the Eaters, like a baseball bat. He looked like he was swinging wildly, but each blow landed skillfully on the monster, each blow causing damage and eliciting shrieks of pain from the enemy.
The arrows continued to fly through the air from the floor below and the grotesque beasts screamed as the tips pierced their thick, gray flesh and the shafts drilled into the muscle below. Yet the cannibals kept coming. They were relentless, stupid beasts, with the smell of their next meal of human flesh their only driving force. Isabella knew Malcolm and the tribe would refuse to give up and she shook in fear as she watched, not knowing how to help, her legs trembling and her heart racing. This was beyond any experience she had ever imagined.
Blood flowed freely from the Eaters, but still the monstrously powerful creatures came at them. In spite of Isabella’s fear of making a sound that would reveal her hiding place, she found herself shouting, “Sick, disgusting things!” to no one in particular. These were the things that ate Chloe’s tribe.
With each blow from his rusty weapon, Kaedo was forced backwards down the stairs. But he kept at it, swinging the makeshift club again and again with his right hand, his blade in his left, slashing at anything that got close enough. He fought like a dervish to ward off the creatures.
A skillfully placed backhand blow from Kaedo made the Eater closest to him shriek a high pitched, inhuman wail that shook Isabella to the core of her being before it leaned forward and fell to its death twelve feet below. Arrows protruded from the monster’s thick-skinned hide.
Macy recoiled as it landed next to her. “Ugh! Nasty beast.” Overcoming obvious revulsion, she stooped to skillfully wiggle the arrows from the creature’s thick hide, careful not to break them. Macy shoved the bloody projectiles unceremoniously into her quiver, then set one in her bow string and drew. Two more arrows flew through the air before her first struck and buried deep into another of the Eaters progressing down the stairs. A moment later another dead monster crashed to the concrete at her feet.
“Yes!” Isabella cried victoriously as she watched it fall. Kill them all, she thought, hanging on to every bit of rage that welled up from deep within her. And if we get out of here alive, I’m going to learn how to use a bow!
Malcolm saw the beast fall, but did not pause as he plucked another shaft from the quiver on his back. The enemy was coming two at a time now. The deaths of their fellows had not deterred their desire for a meal of human flesh. “Get back!” he yelled as the beleaguered Kaedo took another slashing from the creature’s claws that backed him down the stairs almost to the factory floor. He was now only six feet from the basement level. Once there, the beasts would completely overrun them.
With a low growl that grew into a warrior’s scream, Malcolm launched himself up the stairs to Kaedo and crashed into the Eater that was battling his friend, knocking it into the next creature in line. Malcolm quickly regained his balance and used the fraction of a second that they had gained to pull his hunting knife from its sheath. The flesh of the monsters was difficult to pierce with a blade so Malcolm stabbed the knife into the eye of the Eater. The creature screamed in agony, lost its balance and fell over the railing.
Another Eater was clawing at Kaedo, who was already bloody and exhausted. Malcolm grabbed Kaedo by the shoulders and forced him down the stairs, putting his own body between Kaedo and the enemy. “You are going to get yourself killed. You don’t need to sacrifice yourself. Fall back!”
Kaedo and Malcolm vaulted over opposite sides of the staircase railing and landed on the factory floor in unison.
Arrow after arrow sailed from the tribe’s bows into the advancing Eaters. They screeched as their flesh was pierced by the steel-tipped projectiles, yet they continued relentlessly down the stairs, toward the tribe. They did not appear to have a leader, nor any organization or communication, only their single-minded pursuit of human beings.
Two more creatures fell from the stairs, but by now they were only six feet above the concrete floor and the fall alone would not be enough to finish them.
The horrible thing that landed next to Macy began to crawl toward the girl, growling as it inched toward her. “Macy!” Garith shouted at his mate, as he dropped his bow and slammed both fists into the creatures back with such force that Isabella could hear the sound of its spine cracking. It twitched and spasmed, then finally lay still next to the other dead monsters.
Isabella saw Macy breathe a sigh of relief as the creature’s lifeless body sprawled at her feet.
While their attention had been turned toward Garith and the one creature, the other fallen creature recovered from his stunned landing and slowly broke from the pile of bodies. By the time Isabella saw it coming into the hallway where she and Milora and the children hid, it was upon her.
Her voice boomed out of her slight frame, echoing off the hallway walls as she tried to pull away from the creature that clawed an
d ripped at her. Isabella shrieked with an animal sound and screamed “Malcolm! Help!”
Milora pushed the children behind her own body and shouted for help, her voice joining Isabella’s in a chorus in the narrow hallway.
Faster than she thought possible, Malcolm was upon the murderous creature. His knife in his powerful hand, he drove the blade into the monster’s back and then as it turned toward him, he drove it deep into its rib cage, twisting it, pulling it out again and driving it back into the creature’s chest, aiming for its heart. Isabella had pulled away from the beast, but its arms were still gripping hers.
As Malcolm’s knife drove into the creature, the monster finally released its grip on Isabella and with one final furious cry, collapsed onto the hallway floor.
Malcolm caught Isabella before she hit the concrete. “Belle,” he whispered. “Oh my beautiful Belle, are you okay?”
Isabella looked to her right and saw the creature, blood pouring from the wound in its chest. Its mouth was open in a death grin, showing its sharp, canine teeth. The sight of the creature, the terrible smell, stuck in her throat and made her gag.
Her clothes were torn and the skin of her arms was ripped to match, but otherwise, she seemed to be intact. She turned her face up to meet Malcolm’s eyes, feeling his strong arms holding her tight, she breathed quietly and whispered, “You saved my life.”
“I did what needed to be done, Belle.”
“Oh Malcolm, I love you,” she replied as she rested her head on his chest.
Out in the vat room, Kaedo, Garith and Guy, all arrows long ago expended, stabbed and beat at the last two Eaters in hand-to-hand combat using their metal railing clubs and hunting knives. Kaedo fell to the ground as one of the monsters grabbed his leg, but he was up again in an instant, wrapping his powerful six-fingered hands around the creature’s throat, squeezing the life out of it.
Guy was able to stab another of the Eaters in the throat, piercing through the tough hide of the creature. Blood sprayed from its mouth and Macy shrieked as it splattered on her.
Isabella’s eyes turned to where Macy was looking and saw Kaedo covered in thick, red blood. But the blood covering him was not his own and the last two creatures collapsed on to the concrete floor, their final breaths a muffled gurgle as liquid filled their lungs.
Milora sat on the floor far down the hallway with five small children huddled into her, all of their eyes squeezed shut and fingers jammed in their ears, except one desperately clinging to an orange cat. As the sound of the battle ended, the little ones almost simultaneously opened their eyes and peered down the dark hallway into the vat room.
Malcolm and Isabella staggered back into the room, followed closely by Milora and the five children.
They stood stunned at the sight. A silence so loud that it almost left their ears ringing fell upon the entire tribe.
Dead monsters and bloody arrows littered the concrete floor.
Thirteen
Isabella was starting to calm down now. She could almost breathe again and her heart rate began to slow. As she was beginning to be able to think and engage her brain again, she turned to Malcolm and said, “I’ll be happy to never to see a city again as long as I live!”
Wounds bandaged, arrows retrieved and nerves frayed, the tribe returned to the street and resumed their journey. Could the whole battle have taken less than an hour? wondered Isabella. They were still covered in blood and gore and would be until they could find a stream to scrub their bodies and clean their clothes.
Isabella only wished the memory of the battle could be washed out of her mind as easily as they would clean it from their clothes. She desperately needed to wash the blood and dirt and pain of death into a flowing river, as if by doing so, it would cleanse some part of the memory of the creature that nearly killed her.
The tribe was beaten, bloody and exhausted and the best they could manage was a sluggish, faltering pace. Isabella thought back to the story about the horses she had related to the tribe. Was it only yesterday? Too bad they didn’t have some horses to ride or to carry their gear.
Isabella saw Macy and Garith holding hands on the road ahead of them. She wasn’t sure if they were thankful to be alive, if it was a romantic moment the young couple was enjoying or if they were merely holding each other up. She took Malcolm’s six-fingered hand and their fingers intertwined, leaving the extra space between his fifth and sixth finger empty. She held on tightly.
The tribe journeyed silently now, every member of the tribe, even the children, too fatigued from the battle to decide what to do. All they could do was move forward. Some part of Isabella knew that they should be paying more attention to their surroundings but everyone seemed disconnected. Isabella knew that someone should be on point, watching for danger ahead. She knew that someone should be guarding their rear. Yet no one, not even Malcolm, seemed able to plan or act as they should. The tribe just stumbled slowly out of Dover and back to the relative safety of the woods.
* * *
It took Luke until almost dusk before he finally reached the ridge overlooking their farm. As night began to fall, and he stood over the compound, shadows fell over the hidden entrance to his home. Something buzzed past his ear and he swatted it away with his hand. The flies during the days were bad enough, but it got worse at night once the mosquitos came out. Living underground, Luke was not used to bugs and he had quickly come to realize how that he hated the things that flew at him in the waning light.
He wondered what his family was doing right now. They were probably listening to another of his grandmother’s stories or sitting around playing music. For the first time, he knew what the strange term “home sick” meant. Luke suddenly missed his drum set. It wasn’t as if he could have brought that with him! It was all Luke could do to tear himself away and continue his journey. A part of him wanted to just give up the search for Isabella now and be back in his bug-free home.
Luke took one final look at his family’s land below him and began circling the property, looking for any sign of which direction his sister had went. On the northeast side of their land, Luke spotted grass that appeared to have some broken pieces, as if perhaps the group had trampled it seven days ago and the foliage had stood back up since then. He followed the tall, broken strands of grass until it led into the trees. He was sure he was on the right track now. He had to be.
Luke made a few more miles before nightfall, but once it was completely dark, it became unsafe to walk through the heavily wooded terrain and by the time the sky filled with stars, his endurance had faded to nothingness. He didn’t want to veer off the mutant’s path anyway.
Luke found a thick patch of trees, cut off some branches with his folding saw and built a crude lean-to with the plastic tarp and cord. He unpacked his blanket and laid it on the ground, starring at the clear, moonlit sky until exhaustion took its toll and he fell into blissful oblivion, dreaming about his own bed and soft pillow at home.
* * *
The group forged ahead leaving the city behind. Dover now lay to their west, and a road heading north opened up so they turned in that direction. They passed old houses barely visible from the road anymore. Fifty years ago they probably had manicured yards but now the grass was taller than hay, flower gardens had been overtaken by weeds, and vines grew up the sides of the houses, almost completely obscuring many of them. Trees grew thick in front of the houses where fifty years earlier there was probably only grass.
They soon passed under a large highway. Isabella identified it on her map but Malcolm chose to continue on the smaller thoroughfare toward the mountains. The trees encroached on the road once under the highway overpass, and the tribe had to cut their way through vegetation if they were going to leave the buildings and alleyways of Dover behind.
“Going to Dover was a mistake,” admitted Malcolm. “If we’re going to find a safe place to settle, it won’t be anywhere near a city.”
“Yes,” Isabella agreed. She was trying hard not to think a
bout the bloody bodies they had left behind, allowing the sense of moving forward to reassure her. It gave her the illusion of safety, although she now knew nothing was truly safe out here. The thought of what kinds of creatures might be lurking inside the abandoned houses frightened her.
“I knew those yellow areas on your map were places that were full of radiation and chemicals, but I didn’t realize they held such horrors. I never knew creatures as horrible as Eaters could exist!” Malcolm said, shaking his head, as if attempting to clear the grotesque memory of the battle from his mind. Garith, Kaedo and Malcolm used their machetes to swipe at vines and bushes growing in the roadway to clear the path for the rest of the tribe to follow.
Malcolm continued to talk as he slashed at the skinny trunks of trees and the dense prickly bushes that had reclaimed most of the road. “When Chloe told us about the Eaters – well, honestly, I didn’t believe her. I thought she was exaggerating, or hallucinating. Sometimes the wasting disease does that to people. There weren’t any Eaters in Ewr, so why in Dover?”
“Dover is a much smaller city. Maybe the poison wasn’t as deadly there.” Talking out and trying to decipher the mystery of the Eaters allowed Isabella to force her emotions down into the dark recesses of her mind, consoling and calming her.
“Maybe,” Malcolm agreed. His powerful right arm wielded the machete with such force, slashing at the jungle that grew so thickly that the flora almost formed an impenetrable wall. But there were gaps where younger trees grew and they were able to clear a path wide enough for the group. “But the Eaters must be extremely old. Chloe said they’ve been around since before the chemicals were dropped, since before the wars. If that’s true, they must be older than we can even imagine. Much more than fifty, otherwise they’d have been only infants when the chem bombs were dropped. Even mutant infants couldn’t survive without their parents. So these creatures were human once; Humans that were old enough to take care of themselves but young enough to adapt to the chemicals and survive the radiation. And far enough from big cities like New York that were ground zero.”