by M. D. Massey
“Wait, wait, wait—hang on just a minute! I didn’t get stuck in a minivan for three days just to lose what I risked my skin for.” He snagged a messenger bag and tossed it out the door to me. “Carry that for me. My legs are asleep.”
Gabby and I pulled him out of the van and started helping him limp back to the rear door of the building. But before we could take three strides, Josef had snatched Sam up, cradling him as he sprinted ahead of us. It was frightening how fast, and how quiet that thing was. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to kill it or become a rabbi so I could make one of my own.
Sam slapped and struggled against the thing to little, if any, effect. He finally gave up, apparently resigned to the indignity of being hauled around like a sleepy child. “I’m too old for this nonsense, being carried by Grape Ape here like a sack of damn potatoes,” Sam mumbled under his breath, likely thinking no one could hear him.
I chuckled and looked at Gabby, who looked amused by his antics as well. Giving me a puzzled look, she leaned over as we jogged after the golem. “What’s a Grape Ape?”
“I’ll explain it later. Let’s get back inside before more of the dead show up.”
Safely back inside, introductions were made all around, and we got caught up on what had happened since I’d last seen Sam. I gave him the Reader’s Digest version of our story, and he gave me a shit-eating grin as I finished up.
“Well, Scratch, you always were one to end up knee deep in manure with no boots on.”
“Yeah, I’m a regular Barney Fife. That’s our story. Now, tell me how you ended up locked inside a minivan in Austin with two hundred shamblers for company.”
He rubbed the back of his neck and took a deep breath. “Well, when those wolves showed up I knew it was going to be suicide to fight back. I ain’t no hunter—never have been and never will be. But, I couldn’t just leave all those folks to get caught and be taken away without a trace, either.
“I hid until they were gone, and I followed ‘em. Tracked ‘em all the way out here to where they have all the settlers held captive. Hardest part was staying close enough to them to keep the deaders clear. Damnedest thing, you know. Those deaders would just scramble as soon as the wolves got within a few hundred yards of ‘em.”
The rabbi chimed in. “Did they have the vampire with them?”
Sam nodded. “Yeah, that pretty one? Every step of the way.”
“Hmph. Piotr must be feeding very well, to have such control over the dead.”
That caught my attention. “Second time I’ve heard that name in as many days. You know this creature?”
The old man nodded. “Ja, he is a vampire from the old times, many centuries old. He has been moving behind the scenes in world politics for some time, I believe. And he is very dangerous. I might not even pit Josef against him if he’s as well-fed as I think he must be.”
I filed that info away under “intel that might save your life someday” and nodded at Sam to continue.
He cleared his throat and sipped the tea that the rabbi had made for him. “I followed them to that compound of theirs and hid close by, hoping I might get a chance to communicate with some of the people they took. Then about a week ago, who do I see but your girl Kara, wandering around the place with that creepy vamp.
“I watched them for a while, observing where they went. Wolves couldn’t keep that whole place on lockdown all the time—they don’t have the bodies, you see. I waited until that bloodsucker left her alone in the building they were working at, and I snuck inside.”
I leaned forward and stared at him intensely. “Sam, please tell me you spoke with her—”
He held a hand up and cut me off. “Now, now—I’m getting to that—hang on a minute. So I creep into this place, and it’s a lab or something. I walk down a hall and turn a corner, and through this window I see Kara working on some machinery. Part of it is submerged in water, and there’s this blue glow coming from it. She’s wearing a lab coat of all things and seems to be fiddling with the gear, then checking some computer and doing calculations. Scratch, I think she’s working with Them.”
I shook my head, not willing to believe what the wendigo had told me, even with the corroboration of Sam’s account. “No way, she would never—” I paused mid-sentence, realizing why the Pack took the whole town. “Unless they threatened the other settlers. Especially the kids. It would make sense if that’s why they took them, to use as leverage to get her to cooperate.”
Sam scratched his chin. “If you don’t mind me asking, what’s she to Them?”
I looked around the room at each face in turn and sighed. “Well, I didn’t believe it, mostly because my source was unreliable at best. But, apparently Kara was an expert on nuclear energy, back before the War.”
Rabbi Manny slapped his knee and sat up straighter. “This all makes sense if they have a nuclear reactor where they are working.” He gave me a grave look. “You know something about what this means, I take it?”
“Yes, now that I have some confirmation about what my ‘source’ told me. From what I understand, they’re trying to create a permanent door through the Veil, from our world straight into Hell.”
TWENTY-FOUR
PALE
Jaws dropped all the way around the room. Sam spoke up first. “You’re shitting me, right? A doorway to hell—not downtown Austin during South by Southwest week—but the real thing?” He threw his hands up in the air. “Oh, now I’ve heard it all.”
Rabbi Manny leaned back with his thumbs in his suspenders and clucked his tongue. “Do not be so quick to discount what Aidan,” he inclined his head toward me, “who you call Scratch, has said. You have seen the results of these evil ones crossing over with your own eyes. And this would only be the beginning, should Piotr find a way to open a gateway through the Veil.”
Sam crossed his arms and pursed his lips. “Well, I’m no theologian, nor am I a scientist. I was just a pissant history professor working at a pissant community college teaching pissant kids revisionist history before all this shit started. But, I can tell you this; they’re looking for something, and they haven’t found it yet. And they need it to do whatever they’re trying to do with that machine Kara was working on. Take a look.”
He reached into the duffel he’d asked me to carry earlier and pulled out a satchel, tossing it over to me. It was light, so I assumed it held papers of some sort. I opened it, and sure enough, it was full of maps—maps that someone had scrawled on with notes, written in a flowing, Victorian script. I studied them for a few minutes, then handed them to the rabbi. “Looks like they’re trying to find more fuel for the reactor.”
Sam nodded slowly. “Hmmm. I figured they were just trying to create a source of electricity, but I suppose your explanation makes more sense.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe I just said that, but it does.”
The rabbi’s brow furrowed and his eyes narrowed as he shuffled through the maps. “This, this is bad. If they get what they are looking for, they will possibly be able to create enough energy to make a breach between worlds. And based on these notes, I believe you are correct. Piotr wants to make it permanent.”
I sucked air through my teeth as I considered the implications. “Rabbi, what would that mean if they were able to do what they intend?”
He tapped his chin with a finger. “Well, the creatures that we have dealt with so far, they are powerful and dangerous, certainly. But we have long suspected that they are merely foot soldiers, low-level creatures doing the bidding of some greater entity, or entities. I do not think we wish to see what would step through such a portal, should these wolves and the vampire be able to accomplish their task.”
“And your girlfriend,” Sam added.
I scowled at him. “It’s not her fault.”
“Yeah, Scratch, it kinda is. I did speak with her, right after I snagged those maps. She didn’t seem to be at all nervous about what was going on, and she also refused
to leave with me.”
I had to take a deep breath before I spoke, to keep from losing my cool. “They’re holding the other settlers hostage to make her work for them, Sam. Isn’t that obvious?”
“Maybe.” He rubbed a hand across his bearded face, and I realized how haggard he looked. He’d been through hell, trying to do whatever he could to save Kara and the settlers. He had balls the size of boulders, to sneak into that compound and back out again.
But also, I recognized the indecision in his eyes as he struggled over what he would say next. “I wasn’t going to say anything about this, but you deserve to know. Kara and that vampire—they’ve gotten very cozy. Like knowing each other in the Biblical sense, cozy.”
I stared daggers at him, unwilling to believe it. Even so, the soldier and pessimist in me tended to look at things from all angles. That part of me constantly expected betrayal and subterfuge. I took a few deep breaths and allowed my analytical side to take over.
The room was deathly quiet as I spoke in a low, calm voice that was in direct opposition to my emotions. “You saw this with your own eyes?”
He hesitated. “Er, not exactly, but the way they—” he stopped himself, unsure of whether to go on. “You sure you want to hear this?”
I nodded and maintained eye contact. “I need to know.”
He sighed. “Shit. Alright then.” He scratched his head and looked down at his hands as he fumbled around with a loose thread on his trousers. “They were kissing and holding each other like lovers, Scratch. All intimate-like. And she looked like she was enjoying it.”
I was a bit numb at the news, to be honest, but not shocked. I knew that the women, and even the children, might be abused by the punters who worked with the wolves. I even considered that the ‘thropes might rape the women; although from what Bobby had suggested, it seemed that they preferred the company of their own kind over humans.
But never did I imagine that Kara would take up with a bloodsucker. The thought hadn’t once crossed my mind because I’d never seen a nos’ show any sexual interest in a human at all. We were all just cattle to them, blood sacks, waiting to be drained. Apparently, this Piotr character, he was different. I exhaled forcefully, and it came out as a growl.
Rabbi Manny took a deep breath and sighed. “This means nothing. Piotr and his kind, they are fond of using their powers to control humans, to bend them to their will.” He tried to catch my gaze, but I continued to listen while staring a hole in the wall. “I assure you, she is not doing any of this of her own free will.”
Gabby was seated next to me, and I could feel her staring, although she knew when to leave me alone. She was like that—sharp enough to know when to talk, when to listen, and when to let things lie. But, I could tell this had her on edge. The kid took her lead too much from me these days. I worried that it’d get her killed before this mission was over.
I erased those thoughts from my mind and let the icy calm of professional detachment settle over me, up from that place way down deep that I’d discovered back in the ‘Stan. No one else had anything to say, so I let the quiet wash over me, counting my breaths. And when I’d slowed my heart to below sixty beats a minute, I spoke.
“I’m going to kill that evil bloodsucking sack of shit, and send it straight back to hell. And there ain’t nothing that’s gonna stop me from doing it, not in this world or the next. I swear it.”
TWENTY-FIVE
BREAD
We gathered up what we needed from the store, and Gabby and I headed back to the church within the hour, eager to get back to Bobby and see that he’d made it there safely. Sam stayed with the rabbi and the golem, although he clearly had his reservations about the creature. “That thing ain’t natural—that’s for sure,” he’d mumbled under his breath with a sideways glance.
Me, I wasn’t so sure it was as dumb as it looked, nor as the rabbi let on. I reflected on the fact that humans had been transformed into monsters due to being inhabited by Them, and I wondered what sort of supernatural entity could kick one of Them out to take over one of us. The thought did not fill me with confidence in Josef’s reliability as an ally.
Despite my misgivings, I asked if the rabbi would be up for helping us when the time came. He said he’d help us, quid pro quo, Clarice, but like everything else, I’d believe it when I saw it happening.
We made it back to the church by morning, and Bobby was waiting for us. “Man, that was a blast! I had those deaders behind me for a couple of miles. Left them behind about three miles north of here. Hopefully they’re still heading that way.”
“Did you see any of the wolves?” I asked, with a tinge of frustration in my voice. My impatience wasn’t aimed at Bobby, but at the shitty circumstances that had brought us to this point. I was upset about Kara, and I was letting it affect me. I realized that I needed to tighten my shit up until it was time to let the Kraken loose, or else yours truly might blow this whole freaking thing before I could put my plan into action.
Bobby cocked his head and frowned. “No, I didn’t see any of them. In fact, I haven’t smelled a fresh trail since we got here. I wonder what they’re up to. Are they holed up inside that compound, or out doing long range patrols?”
I just grunted and walked away. I knew it wasn’t fair to Bobby to be short with him, but I wasn’t in the mood to entertain an infectiously chipper werewolf.
As I walked out of the room, I heard Bobby whispering to Gabby. “Geez, what’d I say?”
“I’ll tell you about it later, wolf boy,” Gabby replied. The walls were thin in this place, and I could hear her smoothing things over for me as I walked off. “Go rest up, because I got a sneaking suspicion that we’re going to be busy tonight. Tell you what—I’ll take first watch so you can rest before you have to go out again.”
Bobby agreed, but continued mumbling and bitching to himself as he walked off. “Whatever you say, Gabs. Sheesh. Scratch sure has his panties rolled in a wad today. Does he have the decency to say, ‘Good job, Bobby, on leading off the herd of two hundred zombies?’ Or, ‘You’re a valued member of the team, and we wouldn’t be able to pull off this rescue mission without your exceptional and unique lycan skills?’ No, we couldn’t have that, because a little pat on the back and team member recognition would just be too much to ask, no siree Bob—”
I tuned him out and decided to break out the old deep breathing exercises, the ones I used when I first got back from Afghanistan. I’d been a wreck of a man back then and had hated taking the drugs they gave me. So I’d got into deep breathing, prayer, and I spent a buttload of time by myself in the woods. It’s what saved me when the shit hit the fan, because I happened to be out in the sticks when the bombs dropped. Hopefully, I could use some of that Zen mind juju today to get my head right.
But my thoughts kept returning to Kara. All I could think about was that I’d failed her, because I hadn’t been there to protect her when she needed me. I remembered what she’d said to me during the last conversation we’d had, right before I left to investigate the threat the wolves presented to the settlements.
“You’re always so busy saving other people, Scratch, that you don’t consider the people closest to you.”
Her accusation was a bitter pill, a lump in my throat that kept coming back up to remind me of my failure. I sat down close to the wall, legs crossed, and recited Psalm 23, my prayer of protection. But the passages that kept coming to mind were from Exodus 21, verses 24 and 25:
“Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.”
And I was prepared to burn the whole place down if that’s what it took to get back my Kara. I nodded off and dreamed of killing Them.
When I woke, it was already getting dark, and Gabby was sitting at the window keeping watch.
“I decided to let you sleep. You looked like you needed it.”
I rubbed the back of my head and shook out the cobweb
s. “You didn’t have to do that, kid.”
“Yeah, well—I did. Alright?” She said it like a challenge, rather than a question. I knew better than to make a big deal out of it. That was one thing I’d learned from four years of dating a fiery redhead. Instead, I did the polite and smart thing to do.
“Thanks, kid.” I tightened up the laces on my mocs. “Did you talk to Bobby?”
“You mean, did I explain why you were all grumpy and pissy with him, for no apparent reason?”
“Uh-huh. That’s what I meant.”
She smirked. “Well, I did—but that doesn’t get you off the hook. He’s sensitive for a werewolf, if you hadn’t noticed.”
I grunted. “I’ve noticed. I’ll talk to him.”
She nodded, and that was that. That was another thing I liked about the kid; unlike some people I’d known, she knew how to let things go. You talked about it, you settled it, it was done. That’s how the kid rolled. I admired that quality in her.
I grabbed some food from my pack and went off to find Bobby. Gabby called after me as I walked out of the room. “He’s in the kitchenette. Something about making pudding. I don’t know what pudding is, so I just left him to his—um, I have no idea what to call it.”
I raised a finger over my shoulder in acknowledgment and wandered down the hall to the little kitchenette, where Bobby was elbow deep in a mixing bowl, whisking something that smelled like chocolate, and looked like baby poop.
He looked up at me and grinned. “Big night, so I figured we’d celebrate. Gabby said she’d never had chocolate pudding before, so I decided to see if I could salvage what I found in the cabinets.”
I nodded. “What’d you use for milk?”
“Dry baby formula.” He dipped a finger in the concoction and licked it. “It tastes okay, once you get over the consistency.”
He offered me a spoonful. “Um, I’ll pass.” I ran a hand through my hair. “Look, kid, about earlier—”