by Ann Aguirre
“How much trouble are we in?” The one on the roof started to jump, as if its weight could break through the metal.
“Depends on how smart they are.”
“Have you been in a situation like this before?”
Incredibly, he smiled. “I doubt anyone has.”
Why did Silk have to put me with a crazy partner? So many solid, experienced Hunters to choose from and I got Fade. Life wasn’t fair at all.
The stench hit me like a club; the Freaks had torn the one in the window apart. At least half of them entered a feeding frenzy. They knelt and shoved the bloody gobbets of meat into their mouths, their razor-sharp teeth and claws shining red even in the dark.
“As long as they don’t start breaking other windows, we should be fine,” I said.
And then they attacked the other side of the car. Fade vaulted over two rows of seats to position himself, daggers in hands. I had to stay where I was and guard this opening. I didn’t let myself think what would happen if they spread out farther.
Another Freak threw itself at the opening. I missed the neck this time, but I caught it with a side shot, vital organ territory, as it struggled to clear its legs. Like the other, it hung, wretched and dying, while its kin ripped at it.
Fade was doing fine on his end, employing the same tactics. The dead bodies served as an excellent distraction. While Freaks wouldn’t attack their own kind while they lived, if they were dying, it became a different story. Meat was meat.
Their screams and snarls made the hair of my arms stand on end. We held our ground, guarding the two breach points, until they went to work on another window. Two Freaks pounded repeatedly on the glass until it stressed. While killing another, I watched the growing web of cracks with dismay and then fear.
We were going to be overrun.
Before either of us could get there, one managed to climb inside. Without the barrier, another pushed in behind it. If we stepped away, we’d have them behind us on all sides. Grimly, I dispatched another one, and then whirled to take on the one running at me inside.
It dove at me, jaws snapping, and I drove my dagger in through its eye socket. In a smooth motion, I spun and took the fresh one scrambling in the window. Fade dispatched his with cool efficiency. He was better than any of the Hunters I’d watched with such admiration. Even his moves were unique, so graceful I had to work not to watch him when I should be fighting. I didn’t need the distraction.
And then they broke pattern. Two ran at Fade while his back was turned, dealing with the one at his window. Though it meant abandoning my post, I launched myself over the seats, swinging around a pole for momentum, and planted my feet in a Freak’s chest. I lashed out with a powerful kick, caving in its temple, and then I took its partner with twin slashes of my daggers. In saving him, I’d opened a path, though. More crawled through.
“You should run!” Fade shouted. “We’ll kill you all if we have to.”
The Freaks snarled back, wet, hideous sounds that sounded almost like words trapped behind predator’s teeth. I fought on, back to back with Fade, conscious that my muscles were tiring. Humans had limits. But after we dropped ten of them, and the remainder fed on the fallen, they broke and ran. Apparently, we fought too hard to be worth the effort. That troubled me because it showed a certain mental capacity. They might even have taken his warning to heart.
Fade shared my unease. “They decided to cut their losses.”
“That means they’re not just creatures of impulse and appetite, like we thought.” Panting, I wiped my knives on the rags worn by the dead Freak nearest to me.
“You think they’ll believe us?”
I sighed. “If they don’t, we’re in real trouble.”
“Well, Silk already knew their behavior has changed. We’ve been asked to find out why.”
I raised a brow. “You think that’s an attainable goal?”
“I think it’s meant to break us.”
Standing in this car, filthy and blood spattered, I realized it might. I collected my things. We needed to eat before moving on, but it wouldn’t be here. The smell wouldn’t let me keep anything down.
As if he shared my revulsion, Fade launched himself headfirst out of the window. I started to shout at him for being an idiot, but my breath caught when he flipped midair and landed on his feet. When he faced me, he was smiling.
“Showoff,” I muttered.
My center of gravity wouldn’t let me match the feat. I’d have to jump from higher up to stick the landing, so I kicked at some of the glass shards to level it out and then jumped feet first. I didn’t need him to steady me, but I appreciated it.
His hands were surprisingly gentle. “You saved me.”
“That’s my job.” Discomfort blazed through me.
Even in the shadows, I could see his black gaze as intent. “You’re as good as Silk said you were.”
Hearing that pleased me so much it hurt. No more scornful “new blood” from him. No more cracks about my skill. Maybe we could work together after all.
I ducked my head, unable to say more than a choky “Thanks.”
“I think it’s safe now.”
Safe was such a relative word. The bodies mounded in dismembered chunks all around the car. Blood smeared the outside, trailing downward in a hideous memorial. Some of the limbs had been gnawed until they showed bone. Nothing in my training had prepared me for this. Nothing.
I wanted to sit down and shake in reaction. Fade shoved me around the carnage and got me moving. I wasn’t sure I could’ve done it on my own. Once more, we ran with minimal breaks, but the sleep helped. Today I didn’t feel like I might die from the trip, at least, even if every noise made my heart jump in my chest. So far from the enclave, I didn’t think Freaks were just a minor annoyance, either. They counted as a legitimate danger to the settlement.
We made such good time that we started seeing signs for Nassau earlier than I expected. They were accompanied by the normal warnings about traps. ENTERING NASSAU TERRITORY. WATCH YOUR STEP. I avoided a couple of snares along the way, and as we got closer, I noticed with a sinking heart that they hadn’t been checked in days. Some of them contained rotten meat.
My flesh crawled with the smell as we made the last turn. I’d long since gotten used to the darkness and the chill, but the stink was new. It was like the Freaks that had surrounded us in the car, only a hundred times worse. Fade stilled me with a hand on my arm. I read from his gestures that he wanted us to stay close to the wall and move very slowly on the approach. He got no argument from me.
We came up on the busted barricade first. There was no guard posted. Inside the settlement, Freaks shambled about their business. They were fat in comparison with the ones we’d encountered on the way. Horror surged through me. For a moment I couldn’t take it all in; the silence of corpses drowned every thought.
There was no one here to save, and our elders had killed the sole surviving Nassau citizen. That meant our nearest trade outpost lay four days in the opposite direction. Fade put his hand on my arm and cocked his head the way we’d come. Yes, it was time to go. We could do nothing here but die.
Though I was tired, terror gave my muscles strength. As soon as we gained enough distance through stealth, I broke into a headlong run. My feet pounded over the ground. I’d run until I buried the horror. Nassau hadn’t been prepared; they hadn’t believed the Freaks could be a large-scale threat. I tried not to imagine the fear of their brats or the way their Breeders must have screamed. Their Hunters had failed.
We wouldn’t. We couldn’t. We had to get home and warn the elders.
Fade took us back a different way. These tunnels were narrower, and I saw no signs of Freak presence. I found hidden energy reserves and though our pace dropped down to a walk, I kept moving. By the time we broke for a rest, my arms and legs trembled.
He turned into a doorway and went up some steps. I slowed, gazing into the dark. Over the years it had been ingrained into me; steps were bad. T
hey led Topside.
“Come on,” he said impatiently.
Shaking, I swallowed my misgivings and began to climb. He stopped on a landing and followed a narrow hall around a couple of turns. It ended in a room swimming with dark shapes. To my amazement, Fade did something, and then we had light. We had scavenged lamps before, of course, but we didn’t have the power to make them work. This one contained a flickering flame at its heart.
“How did you do that?”
“It’s an old storm lantern. Runs on oil.”
I wished we had some of those in the enclave. The torches we used smoked a lot. Fade shut the door and turned something while I took stock. Full of relics from the old days, the room looked as though nobody had touched anything in years. A thick film of dust covered all the shelves, the desk, but it didn’t conceal the nature of the artifacts. There were four tall, slim books here, all colorful and full of pictures. I started to reach for one and stopped, casting a guilty look at him.
“It’s okay,” he said. “I won’t tell anyone if you look before taking them to the Wordkeeper.”
It didn’t count as hoarding, I reasoned, as long as I turned the stuff over as soon as we arrived. I picked one up and stared with disbelieving wonder. It showed a brightly lit tunnel and one of those cars, connected to a bunch more, zooming along the metal bars. And people sat inside it: cheerful, reading, talking.
“It used to be like that,” I said, surprised.
“Yeah. People just came down here for transportation. Then they went back up.”
I marveled at the weirdness of it. “You were born Topside?”
“It’s not like you’ll believe me if I say yes,” he muttered.
Well, I had that coming. I ignored the impulse to apologize and instead buried myself in the thin books. They had slick, glossy pages and lots of pictures. The blue skies and greenery enthralled me. I’d never seen anything grow but a mushroom.
Finally, I stowed them in my bag and searched the rest of the room. Anything I carried back would help restore my reputation with Silk and the rest of the Hunters. Nobody had stumbled on a treasure trove like this in a long time. I ransacked all the shelves and furniture; my bag bulged by the time I finished taking everything I thought might interest them back at the enclave. The desk held tons of interesting paper, smooth and fine, even if it had started yellowing with age.
“Are there more places like this? Full of artifacts?”
Fade shrugged. “Probably.”
For a moment I was tempted to look. But then Silk could claim we’d disobeyed our primary command. This room, I could state confidently we had found by chance. Regretfully, I ate a mouthful of dry meat and downed some water.
Now that the wonder had worn off, reaction set in. I remembered — and didn’t want to — the horror of Nassau. To contain the shakes, I pulled my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms about them. I tried to control my breathing. A Huntress didn’t crack under pressure. She might bend, but she could handle anything.
I felt Fade hovering beside me. “Is it your shoulder?”
“No. It’s that everyone at Nassau is dead.” I raised my head and looked at him.
“I don’t want to go to sleep,” he admitted.
He dropped down beside me, wrapped his blanket around my shoulders, and left his arm around my back. Hunched over, I felt the strength of him even more clearly.
I had enough resolve left to object. “That’s against the rules.”
“You’re cold and scared. Relax. It’s not like I’m trying to breed you.” His tone said that was the last thing he’d do.
Good enough. I’d take his hand off at the wrist if he tried anything. Honestly, it felt good to sit next to him. He was the only living soul who could understand how I felt right now, my head crowded with images I didn’t want and couldn’t banish.
“Have you ever seen anything like that before?”
“Never. The balance has shifted.”
“We have to be able to tell Silk why. Otherwise we haven’t completed our mission.”
“I know why,” he said.
“Tell me.”
“If they didn’t take what Nassau had, those Freaks would’ve starved to death.”
I recoiled. “You sound like you sympathize with them.”
“I’m sorry for the people who died. But I understand why it happened.”
“You think that’ll be enough for Silk?”
“It’ll have to be,” Fade said. “It’s the truth.”
Darkness
The next day, I lacked the strength to run. We set our pace accordingly. Fear gnawed at me with relentless teeth, and the darkness made it worse. First my mind conjured monsters and then I imagined I heard them creeping along behind us, worse than the Freaks, smarter and scarier too.
The dark didn’t seem to bother Fade. He led the way without faltering whereas I found myself living for those rare moments when we found a broken tunnel. Light fell in crossed threads, lightening the gloom for precious seconds before we passed through.
Gravel crunched underfoot, and I stumbled. My knees buckled. I almost went down, but Fade was there to steady me.
“Maybe we should take a break.”
“We just started.”
“It’s been two hours.”
That surprised me. In the dark, it became easy to lose track of time, along with sense of direction. With his hand on my arm, Fade guided me to the stone rim to the side of the tunnel. Maybe it was exhaustion, but things seemed darker this time around. I hadn’t noticed it as much going to Nassau. Now it closed in on me, threatening to choke me. My breath came in ragged gasps as I boosted up and rested. I fumbled in my bag for the water bottle; to my dismay, I downed the last few swallows. Dry meat would only increase my thirst, so I opted not to eat.
“That’s enough,” I said. “I can go on.”
Fade leaped down. “Would it make you feel better to lead?”
“Not really.” I hesitated, not wanting to admit weakness, even to my partner. “I might get us lost.”
“I have your back, Deuce.”
“All right.” Maybe I’d feel better in the lead. At least I wouldn’t think monsters lurked inches away, waiting to grab and eat me.
We walked for hours more in silence. Up ahead, we faced the darkest part of the tunnels. There were no broken areas nearby, no ambient light. In this section, we used our ears to compensate. I thought I heard footsteps, but when I stopped to listen, the sounds stopped too. Maybe it was only an echo.
“You heard it too?” Fade whispered.
Then something did grab me. Hands snatched my arms and yanked me sideways. Fade lunged for me, but he missed. I heard him fumbling and felt the breeze from his movement. Kicking as I was dragged, my captors towed me toward the wall — or what should be a wall — instead I slid through a narrow chink in the tunnel. There was no room to fight here. Whatever had me, its hands were strong and it pulled me some distance. I tried to dig in my heels, but they slid in the loose stone covering the ground. They’d dug out secondary tunnels behind the ones leftover from the old days — or maybe these had already existed too. But they were older and more primitive, more natural rock, and less of the artificial stone.
A distant trickle of light illuminated my captor. He looked human, more or less, but his eyes were bigger, and he stood shorter than I did. His skin gleamed white; his people had adapted to the environment. Heart thumping, I wondered what his teeth looked like.
“Dem following you,” he said.
So it hadn’t been my imagination. I had heard something following us in the dark. A chill crawled along my skin, rousing fear bumps.
“Freaks?”
“We call dem Eaters. Come.”
“What about my partner?”
A shrug. “We doan want him.”
“I can’t leave him out there. He’ll die.”
“Doan care. Come.”
I could hear Fade’s steps tracing away into the distance, running.
He wasn’t yet calling my name because that would be dangerous, but he’d start soon. He must be worried; I’d simply vanished on him. While screaming might catch his attention, it would also enrage my captor and might draw the Freaks down on us in numbers.
He led me into a room with low-sloped ceilings. I couldn’t stand upright. Twenty others like him milled around me, fingering my hair and sniffing at me. I realized I didn’t smell great after days in the tunnels, but if they tried anything else, they were meat — or I was. It couldn’t end any other way. I had room enough to fight in here. Maybe not at the top of my game, but these creatures looked quiet and crafty rather than strong. They’d survived by sneaking and hiding, not fighting.
“What do you want?” I demanded.
They exchanged a look, and then the one that had yanked me out of the tunnel said, “New blood.”
I just knew they were hiding mouthfuls of sharp teeth. “Not mine.”
“Not like dat.”
I didn’t care if they wanted me for decoration, company, or to sing them to sleep. I shook my head, taking a step back toward the narrow tunnel. Even the wider room was too small to permit free-swinging my club, but I drew my daggers in a smooth motion.
“I can’t stay. I have a job to do.”
“You doan stay, Eaters gonna chew yer bones.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“You got da smart ones stalking you now.”
Smart, like the ones that slaughtered Nassau?
“There are different kinds of Freaks?” I asked.
“You din figger dat out on yer own?” He shook his head in disgust.
“The ones down near our enclave don’t act like the ones we saw at Nassau.”
“Dat’s the dead place? Nah-saw?”
I nodded. “We were ordered to go check the place out.”
“Your folk doan like you much, den. Why not stay?”