Ravenous

by John Inman

  “We have to at least try,” Jonas said, his voice solemn and determined. “I’m not taking no for an answer on this. We can’t let the frigging government blow up our future. And we can’t let the monsters win either. Sorry, the parasites. We have to stop them both right here.”

  Terry scraped a hand across his face, trying to wipe away his own doubt. Wondering what the hell he was getting himself into. And yet, strangely enough, eager to begin. “And we’ve got three days to do it.”

  Jonas’s gaze softened. “Did you say you don’t need to be tricked?”

  “What? To marry you?”

  “Yeah. To marry me.”

  Terry pretended to think about it. “Well, I haven’t had any better offers lately.”

  “Asshole,” Jonas mumbled.

  Terry glowered theatrically. “See how verbally abusive you’re going to be as a spouse?”

  “Yeah, well, it’s part of my charm.”

  Terry wrapped his fingers around Jonas’s cock, loving the way it twitched in his hand.

  “One of many,” he said with a smile, snuggling close.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  JONAS WOKE with the light of a foggy dawn throwing gray shadows across the room. He extended his arm, groping across the mattress all the way to the farthest edge. Terry and Bruce were both gone. He flung the covers aside and groaned when the cold air hit him. The room was like ice. Shivering, he threw a shirt around his shoulders and tugged on his jeans. With his shoes and socks in hand, he tromped down the stairs.

  He found Terry in his bathrobe, bare knees poking through, sitting on the couch with the USGS map of the mountain spread out on the coffee table in front of him. He was studying it and nursing a cup of coffee at the same time. His red hair screamed Wild Man of Borneo. He had bags under his eyes that Samsonite might actually consider patenting. A well-tended fire burned on the grate, and down here the cabin was starting to warm up. It would take a while for the heat to reach the loft.

  Jonas stopped on the bottom step. “Let me guess. You’ve been up all night.”

  Terry offered him a grimace in return. “Close enough.”

  Jonas eyed the map. “What are you doing?”

  “I think I know where the last cave is. It’s misleading on the map. It’s not really on the mountain at all. It’s down on the flatlands at the edge of town. There’s an arroyo there that floods sometimes when the rains are heavy.”

  “Do you think we’ll be able to find the entrance and get inside?” Jonas stepped into the kitchen to pour himself a cup of coffee. He added brown sugar and cream, then ran a hand through his hair trying to wake himself up. Blowing on his cup, he parked himself on the couch next to Terry. He sipped at his coffee and pulled his socks on. His feet were like blocks of ice.

  “Heard any more helicopters?”

  Terry frowned. “No.”

  They both sat quietly, sipping their coffee, staring down at the map, bumping knees now and then to show camaraderie. Bruce was scratching himself in front of the fire. His scratching caused his back leg to thump against the floor like Poe’s buried heartbeat. It was creepy.

  “Stop it,” Jonas told the dog. Bruce lifted his head for a second, then went back to scratching.

  “Your pet has fleas,” Jonas groused.

  “Oh hush.” Terry grinned.

  They settled back into silence—except for the thumping. After a couple of minutes, the room appeared a bit brighter. The sun was rising outside. A new day was coming.

  “What are we doing, then?” Jonas asked.

  “Waiting for daylight,” Terry said. He tapped the map, and added, “Then we’re going here.”

  “Do you think the creatures are there?”

  “I don’t know. If they’re not, we’ll be back to square one.”

  “What would that mean?”

  Terry turned, studying Jonas’s face. “It means we’ll have to rethink our plan not to leave the mountain. If we can’t find the creatures, we can’t kill them. If we can’t kill them, the authorities will drop bombs on our heads and kill us. I’ve grown fond of seeing your puss in the morning. Consequently, I think it would be in my best interest to keep us both alive. Even if it means losing everything I own in the process.”

  Jonas’s heart squeezed inside his chest. “I’m more important than the stuff you own?”

  “Except for Bruce, yes.”

  Jonas blinked. Then his eyes crinkled into a tiny smile. “Ass.”

  Terry snickered and reached for his coffee.

  Jonas sat contentedly sipping his own. He listened to the fire crackle on the grate. Shot the little dog a wink by way of companionship when he saw him watching. He found his eyes continually drawn to the hard nub of Terry’s knee pressed against his own. He laid his hand there, stroking the knee and enjoying the sensation of bristly ginger leg hair tickling his fingertips. When Terry leaned into him and they casually bumped shoulders, a tiny smile lit Terry’s face.

  “I know you’ll keep us safe today,” Jonas said, his voice still rough from sleep. “I trust you completely.”

  “I’m thinking about locking you in the blood room while I check out the cave.”

  Jonas arched one eyebrow and smirked. “That’s not going to happen, you know.”

  Terry frowned and stared down at the map. “I know. It’s a nice thought, though.”

  “Whatever happens, we’re in this together. Promise. Don’t try to hold me back. And don’t try to keep me safe at the expense of yourself.”

  Terry lifted his head. For the first time that morning, Jonas saw fear in Terry’s eyes. Fear and something else. Something sweeter. Something that came from a deeper, warmer place.

  “I promise,” Terry said, although it seemed to hurt him to utter the words. A moment later, his expression changed. He edged closer on the couch and wrapped Jonas’s fingers—the ones resting on his knee—carefully in his fist. “I’ve been asking myself what I would do if you weren’t here. If you hadn’t stumbled into my life.”

  Jonas watched him, waiting for what was to come. He finally urged Terry on, saying, “And what did you decide?”

  Terry closed his eyes, then rested his forehead on Jonas’s shoulder. His grip on Jonas’s fingers tightened. He sighed, and Jonas smelled coffee on his breath. It was a manly smell, and Jonas liked it. He waited patiently while Terry tried to put his answer together.

  “I think I would have stuck a pin in my foot and called the creatures to dinner by now,” Terry said. “I didn’t have much of a life to look forward to anyway. I honestly didn’t know how lonely I was before you came along. I didn’t realize how empty I had become. And I didn’t care enough to try to figure it out.”

  Jonas nuzzled Terry’s mop of red hair and laid a tender kiss to the top of his head. “And you don’t feel empty anymore? Or should I hide the pins?”

  Terry squirmed closer and, ducking his head, placed a return kiss to Jonas’s throat. “There’s not an empty place in me. Not a square inch. Every day when I wake up, it’s like I’m brimming over with so many different emotions I don’t really know how to cope with them all. I loved Bobby for a long time. I know what old love is like. But it’s been years since I suffered through the beginnings of love. The falling in part. Old love is comfortable and unhurried and safe. New love is something else entirely. It’s worry and want and desperation and danger and second-guessing yourself. It’s wondering if you’re good enough. It’s wondering if the other person is really as good as they seem. It’s daring to trust.” He lifted his head and stared into Jonas’s eyes. “It’s being scared to death every minute of every day. And then you’re faced with lying awake all night worrying about the same stuff all over again.”

  Jonas pushed the hair from Terry’s face so he could see his eyes. “Wow,” he said. “I always thought falling in love was the best thing ever.”

  And at that, Terry frowned. “So did I. Once.”

  “So what changed?” Jonas asked. “Why is falling in love
with me any different?”

  “Because not a minute passes that I don’t worry about losing you. I have nightmares of you being pulled into the sky. Like Bobby. Out of nowhere, little scenarios pop into my head of you standing beside me staring down at a sudden scratch on your hand, seeing a tiny drop of blood appear on your skin, and hearing the horrible thunder of meaty wings crashing through the trees.”

  Jonas glanced at the two helmets sitting side by side on the kitchen table. “We’re well-protected. We’re careful. That’s not going to happen.”

  Birdsong erupted outside the cabin window. They both peered out at the morning growing brighter in front of them. Jonas plucked the map from Terry’s lap and neatly folded it before setting it aside. “You’ve stared at this long enough,” he said.

  “Tell me you love me,” Terry whispered, watching him.

  Jonas gave him a hurt little smile. “You don’t know it already?”

  “I want to hear it from your lips.”

  “I love you,” Jonas said, and the ache in his heart told him he meant it.

  Terry nodded. “Now tell me you’ll be careful today.”

  “You know I will.” He laid a hand to Terry’s cheek and leaned in until their foreheads touched. “Let’s get through today, and then I promise I’ll tell you everything you want to hear for the rest of your miserable life.”

  “Somehow it sounded better when I said it.”

  “I paraphrased. Let’s eat. Then we’ll be on the road.”

  Terry gave his head a shake. “God, you’re bossy.”

  Jonas beamed. “Just a boy in love.”

  Terry rolled his eyes. “Charmer.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  IT WAS another brisk day on the mountain. Terry could see his breath in little puffs behind his drop-down face mask. They were in the Jeep. They had crossed the mountain’s crest and were descending the other side. Both men were decked out in what Terry considered their battle gear. Heavy leather jackets, leather gloves, motorcycle helmets with visors down. On this day, they each wore two pair of denim jeans to better protect their legs. Even in the nippy morning air, Terry was already perspiring. Thank God the creatures weren’t lured to the smell of sweat, or they’d be goners.

  Bruce was back at the cabin, locked in, safe and sound. He had howled in protest when they drove away without him. Terry had to steel his heart not to feel guilty about it.

  Over the rumble of the Jeep engine and the roar of the wind whipping through the torn canvas roof, they had to yell to communicate, their voices further muted by the face masks. After a while, they both flipped the masks up out of the way, too annoyed to scream any longer.

  “Why would a cave be on flat land?” Jonas asked, sucking in his first breath of fresh air in a while.

  Terry shrugged. “Unless your map is wrong, it just is.”

  “I’ve been thinking.”

  Terry groaned. “Uh-oh.”

  Jonas dug a finger in Terry’s side and made him yelp. “Just listen to me. If this cave is where you say it is, right outside of town, smack in the middle of the quarantine zone, then the creatures have to be there.”

  “Explain.”

  To face Terry, Jonas twisted sideways in his seat as far as he could without strangling himself on the seat belt. “The creatures have to be close. I mean, really close. They show up in a matter of seconds when they smell blood, so they couldn’t come from very far away.”

  “Agreed.”

  “They also have to be protected from the elements. A cave would be perfect for them. They’re shielded from the weather. There’s water available in the caves we’ve seen so far, and no mammal can survive without water.”

  Terry grunted. “If they’re mammals.”

  Jonas waved Terry’s statement away. “What else could they be? Fish?”

  Terry tilted his head as if to say Okay, I yield on that point. “Go on, professor.”

  The Jeep’s front wheel hit a particularly deep pothole, and the whole vehicle bucked and shuddered beneath them. Terry cringed, half expecting the engine to fall out. He eased up on the accelerator.

  Jonas seemed not to notice. “The way I see it, the creatures have to be limited in number.”

  Terry turned to look at him. “Why do you think that? I’ve seen them in swarms, you know. When they carried Bobby away, they….” But he couldn’t continue that line of thought. He just couldn’t. “I mean to say, I know there were a score or more of the fuckers that attacked Bobby. They feed like sharks in a feeding frenzy. Moving in packs. Drawn by blood. Tearing their prey to shreds. They don’t circle. They don’t stalk. They don’t piddle around planning their attack. They close right in and start eating.”

  Jonas laid a hand to Terry’s arm as if imploring him to listen. “But a score isn’t that many, you see. Not in the grand scheme of things. And their numbers have to be limited because their food source is limited.”

  “It’s limited because most of the residents either left or they’ve already been eaten.”

  “Exactly! So where does that leave their food source now? Depleted, that’s where.”

  Terry considered what Jonas was saying. “If what you say is true, then they’ll be leaving the quarantine zone soon. They’ll have to if they want to survive.”

  Jonas’s fingers tightened on his arm. Terry liked feeling them there. Jonas’s next words were a little less enjoyable.

  “Yes! And once they leave the mountain, they’ll be unstoppable. They’ll regenerate and spread, and the next thing anyone knows, they’ll be everywhere. In a few years, they’ll cover the planet.”

  That rationale left them both speechless for a minute. The ramifications of the creatures escaping the mountain were truly horrifying. With unlimited feeding came the natural progression of unlimited breeding. And mankind would be in a world of hurt.

  “So they have to be in this last cave, Terry. They have to be. Because we have to stop them now while there aren’t that many of them.”

  It wasn’t hard to get a handle on where Jonas was going with all this and extrapolate it forward to its obvious conclusion. “And if we don’t find them in this cave, and if we don’t destroy them ourselves, we have to leave the mountain and let the authorities follow through with their bombing raids. Because that’s the only way the creatures will be stopped.”

  Jonas nodded somberly. “That’s exactly right. Either we succeed, or we let the authorities drop their fucking bombs and disintegrate everything you own into pixie dust.” Terry heaved a long sigh. Jonas had been right in everything he said. It was only common sense. Still, convincing Terry didn’t seem to have given Jonas much pleasure. For now Jonas had settled back in his seat and closed his eyes as if the whole explanation thing had exhausted him. Terry was pretty sure Jonas was also wondering what would happen when they came to the last cave.

  And wondering what they would do if there was nothing there to find.

  Terry drove carefully. This stretch of mountain road was rough. He didn’t dare go more than fifteen miles an hour. Jonas opened his eyes and leaned forward, peering through the windshield. Up ahead, where the rutted lane followed a curvature of rock, twisting around to the left, they both spotted a splash of color at the same moment. The color was bright and unnatural, and it scared Terry to death the moment he saw it.

  “Oh no,” Jonas whispered, clutching Terry’s arm. “It can’t be. Stop. Stop!”

  Terry slammed on the brakes. A moment later, he refocused on the spot where Jonas was pointing. Fear rose up inside him as soon as he realized what it was.

  The splash of color was actually a scream. A scream of canary yellow. It stood out on the arid landscape like a smear of blood on a clean linen sheet. It was the color of the Camry belonging to the young girl and the mother they had freed from the mountain lion back in the second cave.

  The kid’s name was Jilly, Terry remembered with a sinking heart.

  He and Jonas approached the car on foot. Carefully and quietly,
with guns drawn. It was fairly evident what had happened. The mother had lost control on the turn and driven the Camry into a deep patch of sand at the edge of the lane. The wheels were mired all the way past the hubcaps.

  Or maybe the mother lost control when the attack came. Maybe that’s what drove her off the road.

  Whatever led them here, and whatever drew the creatures to them, the results were the same.

  The windshield was shattered from one side to the other. Smears of blood and ribbons of flesh were stuck to the sharp edges of glass where the creatures had battered themselves inside and claimed their food, dragged it back outside.

  Both mother and daughter were gone. Yanked away into oblivion.

  “Jilly…,” Jonas muttered softly, his eyes misting over with tears.

  Terry knew immediately what Jonas was going to say next. Because Terry felt the same way.

  “We should have forced them back to the cabin with us,” Jonas said. “I knew the mother was too upset to drive. She was barely holding it together when we found them. We never should have trusted her to drive away with the kid.”

  Terry moved closer to Jonas and laid a hand to the small of his back. “She didn’t want our help. She wanted to get down off the mountain as soon as she could. We couldn’t have forced them to return to the cabin with us, Terry. We’re in no position to tell anybody else what to do. We’re barely holding it together ourselves. That woman had to follow the path she thought was right for herself and her child.”

  But Jonas wasn’t listening. Terry knew that by his faraway look. By the way the muscles in his cheeks worked. The way his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as he continually swallowed back his grief and guilt.

  Jonas turned away from Terry then. Tired, maybe, of Terry’s eyes on him. He moved to the edge of the trees. Standing there, he cupped his hand around his mouth and roared “Jilly!” as loud as he could.

  Terry stared down at his feet as Jonas’s plaintive cry echoed off into the woods. He knew as well as Jonas that the young girl wasn’t out there. The creatures had taken her as surely as they had taken her mother. But would the creatures hear Jonas calling for her? Would they come to investigate this human voice bellowing in the woods?